We must seize the digital opportunities Denmark is in a good position to embrace the digital future. We are a small country with a population that has great trust and confidence in each other and in the public sector. People generally have a high level of education. People and businesses have good digital competences and have generally embraced digital technologies. There is a strong tradition of collaboration and finding new and practical solutions between public authorities, and across the public and private sectors. Furthermore, the public sector began introducing IT solutions early on, and for this reason in particular it has high-quality data sets and registries which are quite unique in an international perspective. Denmark has built a secure and robust digital infrastructure, which allows individuals and businesses to complete efficiently their business with the public sector over the internet. All of this has enabled a huge digital transition in recent years. Significant digital developments in the public sector The internet is today the primary gateway to public administration for the majority of Danes. Individuals and businesses have their own digital mailbox. Online selfservice has been made mandatory for more than 100 administrative procedures. When the Central Customs and Tax Administra- 6 A STRONGER AND MORE SECURE DIGITAL DENMARK tion (SKAT) opens up for online access to tax assessments, digital Danes flood onto the website. Furthermore, digital solutions are an integral part of many public services. Care workers use tablet computers to monitor and register any changes in the health status of their elderly clients. Teachers use digital learning tools and materials to differentiate their teaching to the individual student, and health technologies make it possible for patients to monitor their condition in their own homes. Some individuals and businesses have welcomed the developments and can easily cope, while others have taken some time to adjust to new ways of dealing with things. Local and regional governments have played and are still playing an active role in ensuring that citizens and businesses are guided through the many changes and that there is help available to those who stumble on the way. Focus on user centricity, sense of security and public trust The Danish welfare system builds on the public's widespread confidence and trust in the public sector. It is important that we safeguard this public trust now that digital communication and digital services from the authorities are becoming an everyday fact. It is absolutely vital that we establish safe and secure frameworks for citizens and businesses to interact digitally with the public sector. Digital safety and security of individuals and businesses are essential to being able to exploit the opportunities offered by digitisation to develop and improve the Danish welfare system; and digitisation does offer huge opportunities for individuals as well as for society in general. The Danish public sector is designed to ensure that services for citizens and businesses are as far as possible organised at local or regional levels within the framework of the law. This approach helps ensure a greater sense of security and public trust, as well as a greater degree of user centricity in services. Therefore, digitisation must underpin local decision power and responsibility. When public services become digital, people should not feel that the public sector is becoming distant, with no anchoring in the local community. Instead, digitisation should promote a continued feeling of local anchorage. For example, digitisation can enhance the degree of user centricity and the empowerment of individuals because digital solutions allow them easy access from home, or in their local area, to services and information of high quality, regardless of where in Denmark they live. Digital services are becoming increasingly more adaptable to the needs of the individual, i.e. they are becoming ever more user-centric. Furthermore, with digital welfare solutions, citizens can become 'co-players' in delivery of their welfare services. With more efficient, digital solutions it is possible to improve the quality of services and enable local development. Denmark has a well-developed infrastructure for mobile and broadband coverage However, if we are to continue to have a society that works efficiently and with local anchoring, we need to ensure that this good mobile and broadband coverage is improved even more. Public-sector data must be shared and reused We can establish a simpler and more cohesive public sector in which the author- A STRONGER AND MORE SECURE DIGITAL DENMARK 7