Austria supports e-government with 40 mln euros

TIRANA, Dec. 7 – Austria will support Albania’s e-government infrastructure with 40 million euros to further modernize the country’s tax administration, health system and real estate register. The soft loan agreement was signed on Tuesday by Albanian Finance Minister Ridvan Bode and Austrian Ambassador in Tirana Florian Raunig, the ministry said in a statement.
“Under this loan we address three of the most problematic field in the functioning of government,” said Bode, adding that the loan came after Austria’s support to the successful implementation of the computerization of the civil status data, which served as a basis for the registration of population and the issue of the biometric passports.
Under the loan agreement, the full modernization of the country’s tax administration will follow Austria’s best standards. The project will also make possible the full computerization of the health system, establishing a register of health contributions, support the provision of health cards and online connection between the Health Insurance Institute and the Social Insurance Institute.
The real estate register, one of the most problematic and sensitive issues, will also be modernized under the 40 million euro soft loan.
“The Austrian government is in this way continuing its support to Albania to improve the everyday lives of Albanian citizens,” said ambassador Raunig.
Currently, the Austrian government is financially supporting a number of projects, worth more than 20 million euros, in the health sector, improving medical equipment in several Tirana and regional hospitals, according to the Finance Ministry.
Last year, Albania benefited 4 million euros from the European Commission under the project “Building an e-Government Infrastructure that is in line with EU Personal Data Protection standards.” The overall objective of this project is to build the e-Government Infrastructure that improves the efficiency and the transparency of public administration whilst ensuring personal data protection in line with EU standards.