Internet, Latvia, Legislation, Technology, Telecomunications

The new platform developed by the State Chancellery offers reusable components for the creation of new public administration institutions' websites, based on common principles.

The State Chancellery, the Interior Ministry's Information Center, State Regional Development Agency and the Culture Ministry's Information Center have been working on the new platform for two years.

A chatbot will be available in the coming months that will answer users' frequently asked questions.

The new websites have improved system of security and updates, and a number of tools that facilitate creation and publication of content, such as Hugo.lv machine translator.

Public institutions will now find it easier to manage their websites, as the content management system will be the same for all. Various integration options have also been introduced to reduce the workload without creating new modules, by taking data on vacancies, procurement, services, and other data from the existing systems.

The first institutions participating in the project are the Interior Ministry, Procurement Monitoring Bureau, Cultural Information Systems Center, Investment and Development Agency of Latvia, Transport Ministry, Justice Ministry, State Employment Agency, Riga City Council, State Regional Development Agency, Health Inspectorate, Environmental Protection and Regional Development Ministry and the Interior Ministry's Information Center.

"In response to the state of emergency caused by Covid-19, the project developers also included in the project the Center for Disease Prevention and Control, whose catastrophically outdated website is the main source of information about the virus for all residents of Latvia," said the State Chancellery.

The State Chancellery's representative Vita Vodinska said that the single website platform would ensure residents' convenient digital communication with the state, and that all new websites would be accessible to people with visual, hearing and mobility impairments, safe and easy to use and adapted for mobile devices.

"In addition, the sites have unified design and are maintained centrally. For instance, if a person has recently visited the State Employment Agency's website and is now visiting the Justice Ministry or the Transport Ministry's website, he or she will already be familiar with the options, because all the pages are designed based on the same principles, they are user friendly," said Vodinska.

In turn, the State Chancellery's Director Janis Citskovskis said that the new platform was an important step in implementation of the Public Administration Reform Plan, completely changing and modernizing residents' communication with public administration.

"The new websites meet the functionality requirements of the 21st century and the security and accessibility standards. We have faced major challenges during this project, for which we have found effective and modern solutions," Citskovskis said.