Swiss Review 6/2020

Swiss Review / November 2020 / No.6 36 news.admin.ch Work is currently ongoing to estab- lish a new joint project called Digital Administration Switzerland. Project head Kurt Nuspliger tells us more about it below. What does Swiss federalism look like from your point of view? A multilingual country such as Swit- zerland can only function as a federal- ist construct. Federalism also means competition. It enables our cantons to develop innovativemade-to-measure solutions. Take moving house, for ex- ample: many cantons allow people to register or deregister online. But not all cantons do. This is also a conse- quence of the federal system. What about the process of digitalising public administration? What opportunities or limitations do you think have arisen under the current form of administrative collaboration? Authorities, businesses, the scientific community, civil society, and politi- cians must work together if digitalisa- tion is to be a success. The Confedera- tion cannot do everything on its own when it comes to digital transforma- tion and e-government. Cantons and Easy access to administrative services – with e-government eGovernment provides people and businesses with online access to government services. Since 2008, the Confederation, cantons and municipalities have been working together to expand their online services. They have been collaborating on shared objectives and pro- jects as part of a new strategy that began in 2020. The aim is to make digital the medium of choice for people and businesses who wish to contact Switzerland’s public authorities. municipalities must be involved in this process as equal partners. The present formof cooperation has room for improvement. The Digital Administration Switzerland project was launched to strengthen cooperation between the Confederation, cantons and municipalities. What are its objectives? We currently have a public-sector framework agreement in place for e-government collaboration in Swit- zerland at federal, cantonal and mu- nicipal level. We also have the Swiss Information Technology Conference – an organisation that promotes coop- eration among public stakeholders in the area of administrative digitalisa- tion. Furthermore, the eCH group is drawing up and developing standards for e-government in Switzerland. The Digital Administration Switzerland project will lend these ventures a more binding character. We want to make more of an impact by concen- trating resources. What can the new project achieve? We are focusing on joint tasks. These include developing and implementing a digital transformation strategy, de- fining standards for data manage- ment and the exchange of data be- tween authorities, developing basic nationwide services (e.g. electronic IDs) and promoting innovation. We also want the various stakeholders to engage with each other and share knowledge. As we know, knowledge Professor Kurt Nuspliger is an expert in constitu- tional law and an honorary professor at the Universi- ty of Berne. He was state chancellor of the canton of Berne from 1985 to 2013 and has been advising public institutions on legal and organisational mat- ters since June 2013. Photo provided