Macedonia is experiencing a poor pace of digital transformation in spite of multiple attempts to update state services. Like other digital projects, the National e-Services Portal has not yet realised its full potential. Significant barriers still include cybersecurity concerns, poor public awareness, inadequate digital skills, and legislative barriers. Long-term quality changes are required if Macedonia is to raise economic growth, enhance public services, and adhere to EU norms.There are major challenges in the process of harmonising the 140 rules and regulations that are necessary for digital procedures. Accurate monitoring of the use of e-services is delayed by the lack of synchronised statistics between the national and institutional portals. After being created in 2015, the Central Interoperability Platform is still not fully utilised, with less than 100 institutions successfully exchanging data. To be fully effective, the National Population Register—which was established in 2019 to serve as the foundation for individuals’ digital identities—needs to be widely implemented and more widely known.
It would be advantageous for the Ministry of Digital Transformation to build a specialised team to direct and supervise digital transformation using adaptive learning and iterative problem solving in order to address these urgent concerns. carrying out an exhaustive analysis of the 140 legislationthus it is essential to harmonise regulations.

To improve digital processes, the government can make substantial progress by prioritising the top 10 legislative obstacles and by designing, testing, and adapting small legal adjustments.

Macedonia is advised to take a cue from Estonia. Launched almost 20 years ago, the e-Estonia effort aimed to enable seamless digital services across government institutions by early law harmonisation. Estonia has effectively demonstrated that “the computer cannot be bribed” by digitising all services and offering quick and simple access. Macedonia may and ought to pursue such fundamental efforts in legislation and digital infrastructure.

Estonia provides assistance in this transformative path in 2021. Estonia’s ambassador, Kristi Karelson, highlighted Estonia’s pledge to assist Macedonia by providing political backing and by exchanging their vast e-government and digitisation experience. In an effort to foster digitisation, Estonia signed an agreement on a trilateral project that included creating a digital society to increase openness and foster greater citizen-government contact. In order to keep an eye on the situation and organise project operations, Estonian professionals travelled to Macedonia for an 18-month stay. During that time, they promoted the institutional and legislative framework for digitisation, trained staff members in pertinent institutions, and provided support for administering digital solutions. We do not yet know how these efforts have turned out.

We do know that e-services user engagement is still worrisomely low. Even with 100,000 registered users, each one only uses an average of 0.5 services. Low public awareness and inadequate promotion are mostly to blame for this. Furthermore, the deficiency of digital abilitiesamong the populace hinders the utilisation of the e-services that are offered.

Iterative improvements can be made by identifying bottlenecks and enabling a pilot project to improve data sharing utilising the interoperability platform. The efficiency of data exchange will rise when more institutions adopt these enhancements. Campaigns to raise awareness in certain towns can be used to assess and promote e-services. Before becoming global, feedback from these campaigns can be used to improve outreach and messaging tactics. Developing digital literacy initiatives for many demographic segments would enhance public involvement with e-services.

Building confidence and dispelling people’s scepticism about online services is a difficult and drawn-out process, but it is essential to the success of digitisation, as Ambassador Christy Carlson said in 2021. Estonia’s experience demonstrates that the most successful digital outcomes areachieved by the public and private sectors working closely together.
Cybersecurity poses yet another significant obstacle. The security framework is weakened by a shortage of qualified personnel and inadequate pay for cybersecurity positions, endangering the integrity of digital transformation. As a result, Macedonia’s cybersecurity efforts have received significant assistance from the US and the UK. A pilot initiative that determined priority areas for cybersecurity engagement to safeguard digital information was funded by USAID in 2021. Key players from Macedonia’s public, corporate, and civil sectors as well as academia made formed the Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity Working Group, which was established in part because to this initiative. The committee evaluates cybersecurity issues at the federal level and advises policy and decision-making.

Furthermore, USAID and Macedonia are collaborating to complete the legal foundation for the NationalThe Cybersecurity Plan. As part of this collaboration, frameworks for laws and policies are being developed, important infrastructural issues are being addressed, and capacity-building programs are being offered. By supporting the development of the nation’s cybersecurity personnel, the British Embassy in Skopje’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is making a contribution as well. The goal of this cooperative initiative is to improve home capacity to promote cyberspace security and stability in the region.

I think the key to enhancing cybersecurity in crucial areas like identity management is to put in place a pilot project. The overall security of digital services will be strengthened by assessing the pilot’s efficacy, fixing flaws, and enhancing the cybersecurity framework in light of the results. Furthermore, the formation of a working group to assess and enhance the application of EU funding for digital projects can guaranteeeconomical use of the available resources. To optimise the effectiveness of these activities, periodic evaluations and essential modifications in compliance with EU rules are important.

The objective should be to minimise the number of conflicting legislation from 140 to 70 within 18 months in order to help streamline digital operations, and to double the number of implemented e-services within two years in order to greatly increase interaction with the national e-services portal. Another important objective should be raising Macedonia’s score in the e-government framework from 36% to above the EU27+ average in less than two years. Critical success indicators will also include rising public awareness and digital literacy, which will boost user engagement and satisfaction.

Macedonia’s digital revolution is a critical step towards achieving EU compliance and promoting economic expansion. Concentrating onModernising public administration can be significantly advanced by concentrating on the harmonisation of laws, enhancing interoperability, promoting e-services, enhancing digital literacy, fortifying cyber security, and making the best use of EU funding. It is time to take action, and in order to fully realise the potential of the digital transformation and get over current roadblocks, concerted, decisive action is required. All we need is the will to follow the obvious path ahead.