International Cooperation
The Population Register Centre of Finland coordinates two international cooperation networks: the Porvoo Group and the Regno Conferences.
The Porvoo Group is an international cooperative network whose primary goal is to promote a trans-national, interoperable electronic identity based on PKI technology (Public Key Infrastructure) and smart cards and chip ID cards, in order to help ensure secure public and private sector e-transactions in Europe.
As its name suggests, the Porvoo Group was established in the Finnish city of Porvoo in April 2002. The founding meeting took place at Hotel Haikko Manor during the international conference held in conjunction with the Public Identity Project of the Smart Card Charter operating under the eEurope 2002 programme.
The Group has seen constant expansion. The majority of its members represent their respective national authorities but representatives of the business community as well as the European Commission and the UN have also contributed to its work. At present, some 30 countries from Europe, the United States, Canada and Asia have representatives in the Group. Porvoo Group conferences have been attended by as many as approximately one hundred delegates. The two-day conferences are held every six months.
The purpose of Regno Conferences is to provide the participants an opportunity to exchange information about the situation of base registers development in different countries and to discuss about future strategies in that area as a part of eGovernment. The Conferences have focused on the issues related to the development of land registration, population registration, registration of legal entities and businesses, address registers, as well as the development of new technologies for data dissemination, efficient customer service, data protection and system security, and the impact of information technologies on society.
The Regno Conferences have been organised every eighteen months in one of the three Baltic countries. The first Regno Conference was held in Tallinn, Estonia, in 2000. Besides Tallinn, the Conferences have been held in Riga and Vilnius. The Conferences have been organised in cooperation between the national organisation and the Finnish Population Register Centre. All in all there have been more than 800 participants from 25 different countries. In the beginning the member countries were Finland and the Baltic countries, but later on the Nordic countries and other European countries have also participated in the Conferences. The first Regno Conference was organised by the Finnish Population Register Centre and Estonian state register organisations.