The Nordic Smart Government project will simplify the lives of SMEs and to create new business opportunities and growth based on economic data.
The Nordic prime ministers have a stated ambition to make the Nordic region the most integrated region in the world. One of the goals is to simplify the lives of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and to create new business opportunities and growth based on economic data, and thereby support a more competitive region.
The Nordic countries are highly digitized. Despite this, there is limited automation and re-use of data across the systems. This means that companies, when they report to the public or when invoicing, often spend time on manual processes, where data in a system is re-entered in another system. A business case made by Ernst & Young in 2018 estimates the effects of sharing financial information in real time in B2B in the range of 250 to NOK 270 billion.
Together, the five business registries authorities and several tax and statisical authorities in the Nordic countries have etsablished the Nordic Smart Government program. The outcome will be a roadmap for creating an interoperable ecosystem of digital solutions that will provide real-time business data for business-to-business and business-to-government.
We have examined how Nordic SMEs processes their data and we want to secure an infrastructure that makes the data available in real time. The data can provide better decision-making both for investors and creditors, but also for government authorities.
Danish Business Authority
The roadmap was be presented to the Nordic ministers of business by May 2020. The roadmap will contain proposals for regulatory changes and requirements for digital systems, data quality and security. The proposal will also contain a democratic data policy which secures a fair and consent-based data sharing.
This will save time and resources for SMEs and increase the quality of data. The ecosystem will also simplify trade in the Nordic region by making it easier to handle e.g. invoices across borders within the Nordics. It is vital that the governments ensure a democratic data policy with respect for data owners and fair access to data, as opposed to a private monopoly.
The ecosystem will provide real time, detailed and structured data on demand, and thus serves the different needs for data in both business and government decisions. The availability of real time data in the ecosystem opens up for new opportunities such as the development of new data-based products and services that can create value for both public and private actors.
You can read more about the program at www.nordicsmartgovernment.org.
Program partners
Norway
- Brønnøysund Register Centre
- The Norwegian Tax Administration
- Statistics Norway
Sweden
- Swedish Companies Registration Office
- The Swedish Tax Agency
- Statistics Sweden
Finland
- Patent and Registration Office (PRH)
- Tax Administration
- State Treasury
Iceland
- Directorate of Internal Revenue
- Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs
- Ministry of Industries and Innovation
- Statistics Iceland
Denmark
- Danish Business Authority
- Statistics Denmark
- Danish Tax Agency (Informally)
