Today, digitalisation has become an integral part of the development of state administration, and being a small country in terms of territory and population, Latvia is a forerunner in this area. This year, Latvia has been named the official partner country of the German public digitalisation exhibition Smart Country Convention 2024. This achievement is no coincidence, as Latvia has made significant investments in developing digital services to ensure that over 91% of public services are available online.
Latvia’s digitalisation success story is based in a synergy of several factors: thorough strategic planning, a strong information and communication technology (ICT) sector, appropriate infrastructure, close cooperation between the public and private sector.
A prerequisite for an active digital environment both in the public and the private sector is a digital identity. The government of Latvia made a strategic decision quite some time ago to make a digital identity available to the whole population and all businesses free of charge. Today, it can be used in the form of a smartcard or a mobile app and has promoted rapid development of digital services.
A centralised e-governance system in Latvia ensures that the public and businesses can perform almost any administrative action at any given time and place: from verifying and declaring income, to paying taxes or filing for tax returns, applying for social and healthcare services – receiving unemployment benefits, pensions, social benefits, enrolling in education institutions and obtaining business services, as well as many other services.
Simplifying state administration through artificial intelligence
The use of artificial intelligence and language technologies in state administration has, over the past 5 years, also opened the door to introducing an increasingly broad range of digital services in Latvia, translating into significant savings of time, human and also natural resources. “Latvia is the first country in the world to have introduced its very own AI language technology at national level. It provides machine translation, voice recognition and voice synthesising services adapted to state administration content, and these are widely used and integrated into various e-services throughout the state administration of Latvia.
In Latvia, focused development of language technologies and their integration into e-tools along with opportunities provided by generative AI has facilitated the successful development of virtual assistants which are now being used by already more than 100 state administration bodies and agencies. Virtual assistants answer frequently asked questions and help solve basic problems, thus ensuring easy communication with state institutions 24/7 and freeing up civil servants to deal with more complicated issues.
Jelgava Municipality: a leading innovator in digital governance in Latvia
However, Latvia’s digitalisation efforts are driven not only by national-scale initiatives, but also by municipalities throughout Latvia. An excellent example of digitalisation through an innovative approach to integrating technologies in the work of the municipality is the City Council of Jelgava. Its Digital Centre manages the development of new solutions and improvement of existing digital systems, as well as the maintenance of technical infrastructure and support for users. Ilze Āboliņa, Head of the Jelgava Digital Centre explains that the Municipal Operational Information Centre plays an important role in the process, as it ensures the coordination of civil defence processes by managing the flow of information during times of different crises and natural disasters, as well as processing residents’ reports about various issues with urban infrastructure.
Examples of digital innovations implemented in Jelgava
- Resident-friendly digital tools. Jelgava Municipality has developed a mobile app and an interactive digital map where residents can report emerging issues, failures, and other incidents; these reports are registered and forwarded to the relevant agency for resolution. Other residents can also see that a specific issue has already been registered and thus the relevant agencies are not overburdened with multiple reports. Residents also receive feedback about how the municipality is working to rectify the situation.
- Smart video surveillance systems using AI. As a key component of the Jelgava city security framework, alongside video surveillance, these systems have several additional functions: human behaviour analysis (detection of aggressive behaviour to be introduced in future), detection of vehicle registration plates, traffic flow analysis (detection of types of vehicles, record keeping etc.), as well as automatic detection of traffic violations (wrong way driving, illegal parking etc.).
- Drone technologies and artificial intelligence. Jelgava uses drone technologies for situation monitoring during crises, such as flooding, and for providing the relevant agencies with current real-time data. Moving forward, the Jelgava Digital Centre is looking to introduce AI solutions to allow drones to independently identify potentially dangerous situations, thus helping the relevant agencies respond quicker.
- An innovative Jelgava city resident card and Jelgava city student ID. In cooperation with Mastercard, the city has introduced a CityKey card, which serves as an identification document for residents and, in future, will also provide bank card functionality, thus facilitating easy and efficient access to municipal services. For example, children will be able to use the card obtain free lunches in school without having to publicly disclose who is receiving municipal support, which in turn reduces social stigmatisation. This card is a useful tool for the municipality as it allows it to collect precise data about which residents use municipally subsidised services and how often they do so, and it will also streamline processing of payments and benefits.
- Early warning system. This ensures that residents receive timely information about crisis situations, such as natural disasters or flood risks, throughout the territory of the municipality. The system sends out warnings to the phone numbers of registered property owners, providing information not only to those on site, but also to those who may be away from their property at the time.
- A smart traffic management system optimises the traffic flow throughout the city. One of the system’s core functions is traffic light management using state-of-the-art sensors and AI data analysis to regulate traffic in real-time based on the actual traffic flow. For example, a traffic light turn signal is activated only when a vehicle has entered the relevant lane, thus improving the traffic flow and reducing waiting times.
National scale digitalisation projects
Jelgava Municipality is also involved in the development of national scale digital solutions. In collaboration with the Ministry of Welfare, the Jelgava Digital Centre is currently taking part in the development of a platform for digitalisation of social services. This project is an important step in improving the provision of social services, as it will create a single centralised system allowing all municipalities in Latvia to efficiently manage social data and take decision based on this data. The platform will integrate AI solutions, such as voice recognition functionality allowing social workers to automatically record important information and documentation already during a conversation with a client. Moreover, AI will also be used to automate report building and data analysis which will not only streamline routine tasks, but also increase precision and efficiency in the provision of social services and serve as a useful tool in planning the social budget and identifying the needs of the population.
Another important project implemented by Jelgava Municipality is related to improving the operation of the national rescue service call centre 112. This project integrates innovative technologies which will facilitate quicker forwarding of calls to the relevant municipal police departments, thus reducing response times in emergencies. Moreover, the implementation of the project will also streamline the exchange of data between state and municipal police by creating a single data system.
Collaboration with Latvian technology companies
Latvian technology companies play an important role in digitalisation at national and municipal level, as they collaborate with state institutions to create innovative solutions that improve the efficiency of state administration. One such company is dots., whose traffic monitoring platform FitsTraffic is being used in cities throughout Latvia and Europe. The platform facilitates efficient management of traffic and infrastructure in a single system, promoting data analysis and monitoring. With the help of modern technologies, such as machine vision and machine learning, FitsTraffic ensures precise recording of traffic flows, monitoring of vehicles, speed control, vehicle weight control and even road surface quality monitoring. The platform can furthermore be used in traffic planning, traffic analysis and traffic management at national, regional or city level. It can be adapted for various objectives, including identifying wanted vehicles, and the platform can also be integrated with existing camera and sensor systems in towns and cities or even at national level. One of the main advantages of the platform is its scalability: there is a city in Latvia, which uses the platform with a single sensor for a specific road safety task, while on national roads several hundreds of sensors are connected to the unified platform.
According to Edgars Starķis, a spokesperson for dots., the openness of Latvia and the Baltic States to testing technologies and innovations further drives the development and introduction of ever new solutions. He believes that, in future in the digitalisation of state administration, it will become increasingly important to not only develop new solutions, but also ensure mutual compatibility to facilitate cooperation between countries on cross-border projects, thus providing the population with better mobility options in the TEN-T framework. Exchange of available data and the ability to quickly analyse that data through use of AI and other technological tools will be essential for improving not only transport management, but also other key sectors of state administration, such as healthcare and public safety.
“Latvia and the other Baltic States have a unique opportunity to become leaders in digital innovations thanks to their flexible approach and active participation in international projects. For example, Riga and other cities in Latvia have established tech sandboxes where companies can experiment with solutions that can be useful for state administration and traffic management. This speeds up the testing process of these technologies and their introduction in other cities in Europe,” Mr Starķis explains.
In order to promote broader application of digital tools, dots. is actively involved in a regional level initiative – Baltic Mobility Collaborative, which aims to integrate the transport systems of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. This summer, the sectoral associations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania signed a memorandum of understanding, in the framework of which joint efforts are currently under-way to draft applications for cross-border collaboration projects. In the framework of this initiative, common solutions are being developed aiming to simplify cross-border movement of citizens, e.g., by allowing them to plan journeys between countries without lengthy layovers. Moving forward, these and other traffic management and safety solutions could be used in a wider region and other sectors.