On April 28, a webinar was held entitled “Provision of online services for the community residents” initiated by Union of Communities of Armenia.

During the webinar the discussions were held about the issue of providing online services to the population by the communities.

The world has made a great progress in this field and a large amount of work has been done in Armenia for many years. It is impossible to imagine life without information systems, especially without the provision of online, remote services. The aim of the webinar was to find out with the representatives of state, local self-government bodies of Armenia and with the specialists how effectively the communities organize the remote service of the citizens.

The participants of the discussion stated that the community websites need modernization. The present and future of local government lies in technological development. Local self-government can no longer be effective if they is not technological, if is not able to provide online services. The provision of online services has become one of the criterias for the quality of services provided.

It is also a powerful tool for large, unified communities. Provision of online services is one of the most effective ways to reduce corruption risks at the community level. All these issues became vital and urgent with the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic. For example, during the state of emergency, the online application system of several hundred communities was regularly tested. The results were unsatisfactory.The participants of the webinar decided to propose to the RA Government to adopt a national program in this sphere as a result of these discussions.