Digitalization does not stop at rural areas. The question is no longer whether rural districts and municipalities should embrace digitalization, but how to maximize the concrete benefits for people. This is best achieved when digitalization starts where people live and work. Digitalization can increase the quality of life in cities and municipalities and therefore represents a decisive location factor.
The basic prerequisite for digitization is a well-developed network infrastructure. In order to be connected to the high-speed Internet quickly, the 92 municipalities in the district of Cochem-Zell have therefore placed the task of broadband provision in the hands of Breitband-Infrastrukturgesellschaft Cochem-Zell mbH (BIG). In the BIG, the five municipalities and the district of Cochem-Zell have joined forces with the telecommunications company inexio KGaA, RWE Deutschland AG, Energieversorgung Mittelrhein GmbH and mps public solutions gmbh.
BIG had set itself the goal of providing all towns and local communities in the district with access to the high-speed data highway within two years. Thanks to the coordinated approach, it was possible to ensure broadband coverage throughout the rural district and to provide both the larger municipalities and smaller communities with a fast Internet connection. Cochem-Zell is the first district in Germany to implement such a district-wide project as a public-private partnership.
Quality of life increases
For District Administrator Manfred Schnur, the expansion progress means tangible improvements for the economy and the population. He commented on this in a press conference: “We are now reaching more and more companies and thus jobs for which fast Internet is crucial to the market. At the same time, we are advancing into ever larger residential areas, where the quality of life is now improving thanks to access to modern communications.”
The district of Cochem-Zell is receiving federal funding of 9,771,706 euros and 4.9 million euros in state funding for broadband expansion as part of a profitability gap model. In addition, there are 1.6 million euros in own funds.
The infrastructure project in the Rhineland-Palatinate district will provide 1,567 households, 98 companies and 45 institutions, including 35 schools and a hospital, with connections with data transfer rates of at least 50 Mbit/s.
For the fiber optic expansion, 333 kilometers of empty conduits and 689 kilometers of fiber optic cable are being laid.
The expansion of the broadband infrastructure created the technical prerequisites for an ambitious project. The basis for this was the Federal E-Government Act (EGovG), which came into force on August 1, 2013. This created the legal prerequisites for a broad range of electronic administrative services. The aim of the law is to provide user-friendly and efficient administrative procedures at all levels of government. One year later, the pilot project “Model Municipality E-Government” was launched, an initiative of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community and the three municipal umbrella organizations, the German Association of Cities, the German Association of Districts and the German Association of Towns and Municipalities.
Heike Raab, State Secretary in the State Chancellery of Rhineland-Palatinate, presents the e-government strategy of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate to the press: “What is already a matter of course for many in the private sector today, we still have to develop for public administration and make it usable online for citizens. In Rhineland-Palatinate, we are already making very good progress here.”
Cochem-Zell – the e-government municipality
A total of eight model municipalities and three district administrations, with an upper limit of 300,000 inhabitants, were ultimately selected by the project partners. As part of this nationwide project, Cochem-Zell was the only district to be selected as an “e-government municipality”. Together with the municipality of Kaisersesch and the local community of Gamlen, the district developed the Cochem-Zell citizen portal (www.cochem-zell-online.de), where citizens can use selected administrative services online. By November 2015, a total of 100,000 euros in federal funding had been invested in the project, and the portal went live in November 2016. The citizen portal offers a well-organized database of various administrative services.
Citizens can now register or deregister a dog, apply for public billposting, report changes of ownership of land and buildings, make an appointment at the vehicle registration office and much more online around the clock. Users can quickly find the information they need using various search functions. The special feature is that users no longer need to know whether the district administration or the administration of the respective municipality is responsible for processing their application. The usual marathon run from authority to authority is therefore a thing of the past.
At the launch event “E-Government in the district of Cochem-Zell” in the Capuchin monastery in Cochem, District Administrator Manfred Schnur explained that e-government not only makes administrative work processes more effective and efficient. There are also many other advantages for citizens: Digitization can improve the accessibility and services of the administration, shorten processing times and reduce travel costs. In addition, the use of e-government makes an important contribution on the way to becoming a zero-emission district.
The technology concept was developed in cooperation with KommWIS GmbH, a company of the municipal umbrella organizations in Rhineland-Palatinate, and of course with special consideration of data protection.
Despite the digital focus, personal contact with administrative staff will be maintained. There will always be customers who prefer a face-to-face meeting. There are also issues that require a personal visit, for example at the social welfare, youth or health department.
District Administrator Schnur: “Instead of aiming for complete digitalization, the Cochem-Zell district administration is therefore pursuing a multi-channel strategy in line with the maxim: as much digitalization and efficiency as possible – as much personal contact as necessary”.
The model municipalities have documented their experiences in a project report. In addition, a “cookbook” has been created that explains step by step how to digitize administrative services. The “cookbook” aims to encourage those who are hesitant and invite those who are more advanced to join the discussion.