News

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is on an Innovation Hunt
2020
Jun 12

As of right now, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania uses EKODB system in its activities. This system is used to manage and exchange information between institutions participating in economic diplomacy – Lithuanian diplomatic agencies, ministries, and other state institutions. The need to create such a system arose to solve the following problems: 

  • Lack of inter-institutional coordination, 
  • Efficient use of information collected by diplomatic missions is not ensured, 
  • With the constant change of the staff, accumulated information and contacts are lost / not fully transmitted, each new representative starts work from a “blank sheet”, 
  • It is difficult to assess the work of the diplomatic missions in the field of economic activity due to the lack of uniform performance criteria. 

The main goal of the EKODB system is to unite and coordinate the activities of the diplomatic institutions involved in diplomacy, as well as to collect, analyze and exchange the collected information and contacts. Currently used EKODB system operates in the “Sharepoint 2016” (on-premises) and has disadvantages – it is not user-friendly, slow, lacks analytical tools, task entry is done manually, etc. 

The goal is to, using the data of the existing EKODB system, create a new, improved EKODB system that would have the following features and functionalities:

  • Impeccable speed and user-friendly interface; 
  • Requires low maintenance, is cost-effective; 
  • Has a data analysis tool capable of automatically generating trade, investment and tourism information dashboards of each foreign country (data from “Statistics Lithuania” and “The Bank of Lithuania” are used); 
  • Has a connection with the “Center of Registers”, through which users can check company information; 
  • Automatically transfer tasks from / to Excel and Word; 
  • To monitor the implementation of diplomatic missions business plans, have a competitiveness / comparability dashboard of all diplomatic missions; 
  • Has a tool for preparing / coordinating official country statements (diplomatic missions to international organizations coordinate Lithuania’s positions on various foreign policy issues with interested ministries and institutions in Lithuania – this requires a possibility to jointly edit documents, save last versions, track deadlines automatically, etc.); 
  • Has an automatically generated flow of economic news, the calendar would be automatically synchronized with the calendars of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and diplomatic missions. The calendar would also include the most important international exhibitions and other events in Lithuania and abroad; 
  • Artificial intelligence tool which would analyze the accumulated EKODB and other useful data to find partner companies for business missions, etc.; 
  • An optional EKODB mobile app that would allow you to get statistical information, enter records and contacts directly from your mobile device. All updates would be synchronized with the host system. 

If you have any questions, about the process, participation, deadlines, or anything related to GovTech  “Innovation Hunt”, please contact us by email augmantas.pincius@mita.lt.

If you would like to submit your idea (deadline June 21st), click on this link.