7.1.1.   There are still certain target groups of the Lithuanian population that do not use or rarely  use the computer in their daily lives. Many Lithuanians use the Internet on a daily basis for tax reporting, banking services, searching information of professional or leisure content. According to the Lithuanian Department of Statistics (hereinafter referred to as the Statistics Lithuania), rare ICT users include:

7.1.2. There has been a growing number of important activities carried out online, which calls for increased alertness on benhalf of the users, paying more attention to the protection of privacy, data and legitimate interests. Furhtermore, the ICT has provided new ways for professional empowerement, but this, naturally, requires minimum computer literacy and broader knowledge of information technologies (hereinafter referred to as the IT).

7.1.3. The lack of skilled ICT professionals able to develop new ICT products and services is an acute problem not only in Lithuania, but also in the EU. According to the Statistics Lithuania, in 2012, 39 % of the employees in Lithuania had ICT user skills, which placed Lithuania 17th in the EU (EU average being 45 per cent), but only 1 per cent of employees were ICT professionals (EU average being 2 %). This indicator placed Lithuania the 25^th in the EU. In 2012, 4 % of Lithuanian companies faced difficulties in finding ICT professionals. A study conducted by the Association Infobalt showed that in 2014-2016, the difference between the demand and supply of ICT professionals in Lithuania might amount to 14 000 professionals; although there has been a growing number of admissions in the ICT studies in Lithuania, it needs to be further promoted among the youth.

7.1.4. The implementation of various projects and initiatives has resulted in a number of digital learning content tools and learning instruments. Yet the lack of a single e-learning system is still an acute problem, as there is no access point providing links to information about e-learning opportunities offered by different establishments in an acceptable format for different age learners.  There is a lack of high quality and accessible curriculum and properly trained teachers. Another problem is the efficient use of existing infrastructure and its regular upgrading for the people to have access to the latest ICT tools. The solution of these problems requires state-level efforts to help ensure the development of proper competences in teachers, development and maintenance of the infrastructure, and the recognition of the non-formal education.

7.1.5. Lithuania has a well-developed electronic communications infrastructure capable of providing digital learning content to the population, however mainstream schools still seem to be falling behind the general trend. According to the Centre of Information Technologies in Education, in 2012, 40 % of the teachers had individual access to their work place. The Statistics Lithuania data show that in 2012, there were 15.3 PCs per 100 students.

7.2.1. to enable the target groups of the Lithuanian population, which until now, for different reasons, have had no access to computers or the Internet, to gain required knowledge and apply it in various fields, and to involve local communities in this activity; 

7.2.2. to encourage the population to become Internet users, capable of safely and effectively using its advantages;

7.2.3. to encourage the youth to opt for ICT-related study programmes;

7.2.4. to establish flexible learning conditions of a new quality in order to enable personalised life-long teaching and learning in the cyberspace.

7.3.1. Part of the Lithuanian population still prefer non-electronic communication with the authorities, they refrain from online actions due to the lack of necessary skills, lack of awareness of the availability of these possibilities, or due to the discontent with the quality of current electronic services, so it is very important to develop and promote advanced e-services reflecting life-events and relevant to the population and businesses. The majority of online public and administrative services are composite services, i.e. the information necessary to provide public and administrative services is held by several public authorities and bodies, which do not always take into consideration the demands and needs of the service user as they launch online public and administrative services.  The number of public and administrative services brought online has been rapidly growing in Lithuania, so has the number of the users. According to the Statistics Lithuania, in 2012, e-services were used by all the Lithuanian companies. The data by the Information Society Development Committee under the Ministry of Transport and Communications show that in 2012, 37 % of Lithuania’s population made use of online public services. On the other hand, the Lithuanian population is already quite active in using electronic communication channels with public authoritiesw: a European Commission’s survey reveals that in 2012, 49 % of Lithuanians that contacted public authorities did it electronically (EU average is 46 %). Furthermore, the Lithuanian population is more positive than other EU Member States as regards electronic communication with public authorities, and consider it effective and useful.

In order to improve the quality of electronic services and make them more appealing for the population and businesses, efforts will be made to prioritize the development and improvement of portals containing composite services, available across the EU, advanced online services, shared IT solutions, platform solutions for electronic services.

7.3.2. The current supply of high quality, customer-friendly health-related electronic services and ICT products is insufficient. To provide the population with modern electronic services, to guarantee the development of accurate, comprehensive electronic patient data, it is important that ICT be introduced across the health system. Studies show that health-related electronic services are of greatest relevance for the Lithuanian population (according to the 2012 survey of the Information Society Development Committee under the Ministry of Transport and Communications, in 2012, health-related electronic services were used by 20 % of the population). The high relevance of health-related electronic services is also due to the aging of the population. It applies to the entire EU. People move within the EU, therefore, it is necessary to ensure that accurate and reliable health data are exchanged among health authorities not only nationally, but also internationally. Health institutions have been carrying out significant activities related to the development of electronic health records, electronic prescription, telemedicine and other major electronic health systems in 2007-2013, and intend to continue them in 2014-2020.

7.3.3. For the moment, Lithuania cannot boast of well-developed solutions for open and inclusive dialogue between public authorities and the population, which hinders opportunities for the people to actively and effectively participate in the public decision-making by having online access to detailed information of interest, offering comments and proposals (also as regards the decision-making), and participating in discussions. It is also necessary to encourage citizens to participate in democratic decision-making processes in the digital space. Acording to the data of the Information Society Development Committee under the Ministry of Transport and Communications, in 2012, only 5 % of legislative proposals published on the subsystem of the Seimas information system of draft legal acts were commented on by the people. Innovative ICT solutions are becoming an important tool for involving citizens in political activities and public governance, and promoting openness and responsibility within public authorities. This is one of key conditions helping people to closely participate in the daily life of the community and public governance. EU Member States have developed a number of projects designed to promote democratic processes through ICT. A number of Member States take efforts to centralize the provision of information, making it it more uniform in its form of supply.

7.3.4. A feasibility study on intelligent transport systems in Lithuania carried out in 2011 shows that there is no uniform standard of information dissemination in Lithuania, and that its intelligent transport system-based electronic services and applied solutions for the population and businesses are poorly developed. The introduction of Intelligent Transport Systems (hereinafter referred to as the ITS) aims to harmonize various modes of transport and make communication faster, simpler, safer and more reliable, as well as to reduce the negative environmental impact. Various EU documents emphasize the importance of ITS in promoting growth of innovations and overall economy and enhancing the well-being of citizens and businesses. The ITS can facilitate communication (using different types of vehicles, integrate passenger and freight flows and remove various hindrances in transport infrastructure), reduce the rate of road accidents (through road accidents mapping and road user notification), contribute to environmental protection initiatives (through the development of more energy-efficient ITS). Article 2.7 ‘ICT-Enabled Benefits for EU Society’ of the European Digital Agenda emphasizes the critical role of the deployment of intelligent transport systems.

7.3.5. Currently, a variety of spatial data is collected and stored by different Lithuanian authorities, therefore their accessibility is limited, and the data for the same geographical location often differ in terms of their completeness and the form of presentation. A survey conducted by the Association of Local Authorities in Lithuania in 2011 found that 23.2 % of municipalities collect and process data by classifying items according to the technical regulation of surveying and mapping, 7.1 % of them follow the integrated geographic information system (InGIS) specification, 69.8 % use different coding or none at all.  Enacted on 14 March 2007 and implementable by the year 2019, the European Parliament and Council Directive 2007/2/EC establishing an infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) (OJ 2007 L 108, p. 1) (hereinafter referred to as the INSPIRE Directive) aims to ensure that EU spatial data  (such as air and water pollution and metrological data, digital maps items: roads, rivers, etc.) are interoperable and easily accessible across the EU. Lithuania is an EU Member State, therefore it has to make efforts for a timely and proper implementation of the INSPIRE Directive and to create spatial data infrastructure measures. In 2005-2007, spatial data infrastructure (LISI) was built from the EU and national funds,  and centralized spatial data sets became available at www.geoportal.lt, which is being further developed under the requirements of the INSPIRE Directive. In order to ensure that Lithuania successfully fulfills the obligations under the INSPIRE Directive until the year 2019, it is necessary to continue with the implementation of technical solutions specified in the INSPIRE Directive for spatial data interoperability and accessability.

7.4.1. to bring online as many as possible public and administrative services, and develop their functionality;

7.4.2. to create and develop health-related e-services and ICT products;

7.4.3. to introduce ICT solutions increasing openness of public governance processes and encouraging closer public involvement;

7.4.4. to develop e-services and ICT products for transport and spatial data management.

7.5.1. Lithuania still fails to attach appropriate attention to the use of digitized cultural content. The digitization of cultural material with internet access and long-term digital storage are among the key objectives of the Digital Agenda for Europe and the major factor enabling access for all to digitised culture and knowledge and promoting the richness of the diversity of national cultural heritage. To achieve a wider public application of the digitised national cultural heritage, it is necessary to promote the development of new electronic services based on this content and to take efforts making the digitised cultural content an important part of culture and creative industries, and thus achieving a long-term benefit of investments in digitisation activities. The ICT opens up new possibilities for memory institutions: libraries, archives, museums and other institutions protecting the cultural heritage of Lithuania, by ensuring the preservation of valuable scientific, educational and artistic resources that tend to disappear over time, and including them into the global network of electronic cultural heritage for world-wide dissemination. Although there has been a recent increase in the digitisation of  cultural heritage content (in 2007-2013, digitisation of and access to more than 650 thousand cultural heritage items was made with the EU structural assistance, which has served the basis for the development of popular services such as e-cinema, LRT radio mediateque, the electronic library of Lithuanian literary classical authors and other services), but the number of visits to the websites for the promotion of digitised cultural heritage content reveal still considerably low attention: according to the Information Society Development Committee under the Ministry of Transport and Communications, in 2012, Lithuanian cultural heritage-related electronic services were used only by 7 % of the Lithuanian population. Only a part of the digised content is available to consumers in the common information system for Lithuanian cultural heritage E-Heritage and European digital library Europeana. The storing of digital content still remains a challenge in Lithuania: mainly due to the rapid pace in technological developments that result in fast aging of the digital content, which may become illegible due to the outdated or damaged media, therefore, with a view to ensuring long term benefit of digitisation investments, it is necessary to build repositories for long-term preservation of the digital content.

One of the areas witnessing particularly slow Lithuania’s progress vis-à-vis other EU Member States is access to and effective dissemination of film production. 2010/C/324/01 Council conclusions on European film heritage, including the challenges of the digital era were adopted early back in 2010. New audio and video products come out globally in digital format, but the Lithuanian regional cinema theatres still operate the outdated equipment which is unable to display digital movies. Movies represent an important part of the culture, they promote the diversity of opinions, help to shape moral values, and therefore it is necessary to facilitate the introduction of digital equipment in the regions operating non-commercial cinema theaters and cinema halls.

7.5.2. The digital world still lacks publicly available information technologies with Lithuanian written and spoken language interfaces. Irrespective of the scholarly research of the Lithuanian language allowing for successful development of basic text analysis software of adequate quality, and a good collection of specialized corpus, they have not by now been completed, some of them being accessible only through specialized individual access means. According to the Information Society Development Committee under the Ministry of Transport and Communications, in 2012, only 17 % of the Lithuanian population used the Lithuanian language-related electronic services.The Lithuanian language falls far behind the leaders in language technologies (the English language, for instance) and finds itself in the group of less commercially attractive EU languages, like Latvian, Slovak, Slovenian. The latest resources, the so-called general applications, are only starting. Furthermore, there is no balanced development in Lithuanian language resources and technologies.  There are quite numerous and detailed term databases, but there are no lexical databases as WordNet, Thesaurus, and the like. Nor is there Lithuanian grammar adjusted for language technologies, or larger scope of syntactically annotated corpus. This hinders the successful development of language models. Poorly developed semantic research has led to lower progress in language generation, text interpretation and text analysis. The development of smarter and more sophisticated tools, such as machine translation, requires resources and technologies covering more linguistic aspects and enabling deeper semantic analysis of the text. Upgrading the quality and scope of basic resources would bring closer to high-quality machine translation. Important Lithuanian language information technologies were developed through the projects funded by 2007-2013 EU structural assitance, but this work must continue to ensure a furhter application of Lithuanian language technologies, for example, by creating modern, user-friendly electronic services.

7.6.1. to digitise the Lithuanian cultural heritage and use it as a basis to create publicly accessible digital products and electronic services, with a view to achieving long-time preservation  of digitised Lithuanian cultural heritage and their uniform dissemination both in Lithuania and the EU;

7.6.2. to create and develop publicly accessible written and spoken language resources and services, and introduce Lithuanian language technologies and digital products in the ICT.

7.7.2. According to the Association Infobalt, as regards the online activities, the Lithuanian population and businesses have uncertainties about their rights and legal protection in the digital space. Thus, it is necessary to ensure that cross-border transactions of this type become simpler and more transparent, as well as increase security guarantees and digital confidence for households and businesses, thus contributing to the development of electronic commerce.

The Digital Agenda for Europe underscores the importance of the development of ever changing digital single market aiming, among other things, at online purchases by 50 % of the population by 2015, crossborder online purchases by20 % of the population, online purchases and sales by 33 % of small and medium-sized enterprises. In the field of digital content, it is important for Lithuania, as part of the EU, to develop a digital single market. Lithuanians are rather active consumers of digital content, including reading online media, listening to music and watching movies, publishing self-developed content on the Net, distance learning and others, but they still refrain from using paid electronic services or from buying online. According to the 2012 report on the implementation of the Digital Agenda for Europe, online purchases were effected by only 20 % of the Lithuanian population in 2012 (EU average being 45 %), and only a small part of Lithuanians sell goods or services online (for example, through virtual auctions) or buy digital content (that is, the content or software delivered or updated via the Internet), which makes only about 7 % of the population.

7.7.3. It is impossible now in Lithuania to make full use of the information held by public authorities. Although the state has accumulated a huge amount of information resources which, when appropriately used, may enable smooth institutional operation and communication with citizens and businesses, however, there are no necessary conditions to make these data publicly accessible.

The growing number of information resources and infrastructure call for ever more effective management. It is important to introduce ICT tools enabling the most efficient use of the ICT infrastructure currently held by public authorities, IT tools, and the available information resources. Incidentally, the Digital Agenda for Europe states that the re-use of public sector information is among the most important national activities greatly contributing to the development of a single digital market.

7.8.1. to encourage small and medium-sized businesses to introduce and apply ICT for higher efficiency and competitiveness in their operations;

7.8.2. to improve legal regulation of information society services by providing for new business opportunities and better protection of the rights of citizens and businesses in the digital space, thus contributing to the successful  development of the single EU digital market;

7.8.3. to provide for economic operators’ use of the information held by public authorities, and encourage them to develop new electronic products and services.

7.9.1. The Lithuanian population does not enjoy equal access to the next generation of broadband services, as broadband infrastructure is by far better developed in cities than in rural areas. This creates a problem of the digital divide. People have no possibilities to use faster than 30 Mbps Internet connection. So it is important to develop broadband infrastructure in areas where it is currently unavailable or underdeveloped, so that people, irrespective of their place of residence, would be able to use modern technologies, thus creating favorable conditions for the development of economic, social, cultural and other activities and partnerships, as well as education, and increasing access to training, retraining, delivery and receipt of services, and communication with local and state authorities. The broadband infrastructure will allow, for much lower costs, to introduce solutions providing for the possibility to offer broadband services to end-users. Consistently developed infrastructure of next generation electronic communications is a prerequisite for the Lithuanian citizens to access resources of ICT and rich digital content, as well as successfully develop business operations and enhance competitiveness.

According to the Lithuanian Communications Regulatory Authority, at the beginning of 2013, broadband optical fiber penetration (connections per 100 households) accounted for 32.4 %. This brought Lithuania to the top of the list among the EU Member States, however, fixed broadband penetration, meaning the use of the opportunities provided by the infrastructure is still behind the EU average (according to Eurostat, in January 2012, fixed broadband access penetration rate in Lithuania was 22.6 %, while the EU average – 27.7 %). The end of 2012 data revealed that 61 % of households had practical access to broadband in Lithuania (EU average being 73 %). The highest broadband penetration divide is between urban and rural areas.

7.9.2. Currently, the broadband electronic communications market is short of adequate competition, there are no necessary conditions for public sharing of the existing ICT infrastructure, thus failing its effectivenss, and finally, we need to overcome challenges of integration and interoperability of ICT solutions, and the development of electronic interconnections. Broadband infrastructure represents the fundamental grounds for a single digital market and serves as a prerequisite for global competitiveness in the field of electronic commerce. At the end of 2012, in Lithuania, electronic communications services were provided by approximately 150 electronic communications network operators and service providers. Operators focused their investments mainly on next-generation access networks, mobile 3G, 3.5G and 4G networks, broadband WiMAX networks and public mobile networks infrastructure improvements. The speed rate of the direct international Internet communication channels (hereinafter referred to as the IP flow) has been growing year-on-year in Lithuania (according to the Lithuanian Communications Regulatory Authority, the overall rate of IP traffic in 2012 was 156 864 Mbps, with a 26.3 % increase over the past 12 months). The development of broadband infrastructure enables the provision of information to news centers through the broadband Internet, and the electronic communications sector gains more opportunities to develop distance (apparent) mobility, also new opportunities arise for the development and improvement of electronic services, thus contributing to the growth of Lithuanian economic industries.

7.9.3. The current public Internet access infrastructure is aging, it is therefore important to upgrade it or introduce new infrastructure where it was previously unavailable. The public Internet access enables free access to the Internet in public places, providing people with a great opportunity to try it out and see its benefits, also attracting new Internet users, and directly contributing to the increasing demand for ICT products and services in Lithuania. In the periods between 2004-2006 and 2008-2013, projects Establishment of Rural Public Internet Access Points, and the Development of Rural Public Internet Access Points resulted in 700 new public Internet access points and 83 upgraded ones. The project Libraries for Innovation carried out in the period 2008-2013 has resulted in the following: 1276 newly opened or upgraded public Internet access points in public libraries in Lithuania, and  broadband Internet access newly installed or upgraded in nearly 1000 libraries. To promote the use of information technologies among the Lithuanian population, particularly rural residents attributed to social groups at risk, as regards the access to necessary information and communication, it is necessary to continue to maintain the existing public Internet access infrastructure, at the same time increasing the capacities of public libraries.

7.10.1. to ensure the development of the broadband electronic communication networks in the areas where the market has failed to ensure this infrastructure development and service provision;

7.10.2. to encourage competition in broadband communications market and the use of broadband services;

7.10.3. to upgrade and develop the public internet access infrastructure in libraries.

7.11.1. Successful development of the information society requires a technologically secure cyberspace. If the ICTs are not trustworthy, certain online services, such as e-banking or e-health, will be simply impossible to introduce and put to practical use. The Programme for the Development of Electronic Information Security (Cyber-Security) for 2011-2019 was approved by Resolution No 796 of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania of 29 June 2011 “On the Approval of the Programme for the Development of Electronic Information Security (Cyber-Security) for 2011–2019. Important prerequisites cyberspace security are the development and application of an infrastructure for personal identification tools, as well as adequate protection of personal data. Secure ICT infrastructure is a prerequisite for the successful application of ICT resources by public bodies and the population. As EU member, Lithuania must contribute to the EU-wide cyber-security objectives at the national level in order to ensure the necessary conditions for the successful development of the national and the common digital single market. The state must ensure the security of ICT infrastructure, with particular focus on violations likely to cause serious harm to national security, national economy and public welfare.

7.11.2. The state is a developer and manager of large-scale information resources. Public authorities hold large amounts of data and use IT for higher efficiency in their performance. However, for the moment, interoperability between automated registers and public information systems is insufficient, just as electronic means ensuring the reliability and availability of the latest information. Today, economic, social and other activities are unthinkable without the Internet, and this trend is not going to cease in the foreseable future. Therefore, efforts should be made to ensure the collection of comprehensive information by public authorities about the resources and their existing status, making it publicly available, and to ensure the integrity of the automated state information systems and registers.

7.12.1. to encourage population to use personal identification tools in the cyberspace, to develop solutions for the protection of personal data in cyberspace;

7.12.2. to ensure the streamlining of ICT infrastructure shared among public authorities, and interoperability among public information systems and automated registers;

7.12.3. to ensure the security of critical information infrastructure and the state information resources.