Ljubljana - Slovenia should reinforce leadership and coordination of digital governance in the public sector and enhance cooperation of various stakeholders, the OECD says it its latest digital government review for the country.

Slovenia should also engage in coordinated drafting of new strategic documents and encourage digital skills of employees and citizens in general public.

Service users and their needs should be placed at the heart of digital governance so efforts should be made to develop services in close cooperation with end users.

The report also stresses the need for a consistent data policy, urging strengthening efforts to recognise the role of data as a critical element for the trust citizens and business place in government.

The report acknowledges the effort and change Slovenia has already made, but says "more is needed to govern the digital transformation across the public sector".

Public Administration Minister Boštjan Koritnik, Elsa Plichowski, the OECD director for public governance, and Barbara Ubaldi, head of the OECD unit for digital governance, discussed the report via video call on Monday.

The report was also presented at a webinar to Slovenian stakeholders who have taken part in the review over the past two years, the Public Administration Ministry said.

Peter Grum, head of the ministry's informatics directorate, pointed to the importance of the report and recommendations, saying an effort will be made to implement them to the utmost in the new strategic documents and in planning projects and measures.

The review was launched in October 2019, when OECD representatives visited Slovenia to have more than 40 meetings with various stakeholders from the public and sector sectors, educational institutions and NOGs.

First findings were presented in July 2020 at a webinar, after which the review was further intensified, but due to the pandemic, most of the activities were held online.