IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

In 2011, Bulgaria will allocate about 35 million leva under the EU's administrative capacity operational programme for the project, Deputy Finance Minister Boryana Pencheva said.

This development has been made possible under the framework of a collaboration agreement concerning the validation of their respective electronic identity certificates, which Portugal and Spain signed in September 2009.

Portugal finished in the top three with a strong performance in three of the four categories subject to analysis.

With regard to “citizen-centred services,” the country turned in a second-placed ranking whilst third for “transparency” and the field of “key information technology facilitators”.

The report, ‘Making Life Easy for Citizens and Businesses in Portugal, Administrative Simplification and E-Government’ analyses Portugal’s simplification programme, known as the ‘Simplex’ initiative, and finds that it has come far in a short time with the transformation of its public sector and its service delivery.

The 2009 report on digital competition that was commissioned by the European Committee showed that the European digital sector had made “strong progress” since 2005, with 56 percent of Europeans regularly using the Internet in 2008.

This step is the first achievement of the Simplex Programme 2010 (Simplex'10). The initiative aims to progressively expand online access to other services.

According to the information available on the Simplex Programme website, the next step will be the implementation of the service 'Authentication in the Finance Portal with the Citizen Card'. It is planned to be launched by September 2010.

The Digital Agenda 2015 seeks to improve the quality of the services provided to Portuguese citizens and businesses, through the use of new generation networks and support to the export of goods and services by the country's businesses.

The efficiency and value of S24 was put to the test during the influenza pandemic of 2009 - and the service rose to the challenge. During the year covering this period, more than 1 600 000 calls were handled by a significant 1 000 health professionals at call centres in Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra who were exclusively dedicated to flu triage and referral. Research was conducted with users of the service to ask about their experience. According to the research, 98 % of users were satisfied with the service, while a further 98 % would recommend it to others. Currently, the S24 services that are provided both in Lisbon and Porto mobilise more than 500 health professionals.

The user need to read the QR Code on the screens with a smartphone to explore all the contents (news, events, points of interest, public services, transport) or even take a photo.

Portugal-based smart city solutions company TOMI has launched a new way to interact with the smart city digital displays. The user need to read the QR Code on the screens with a smartphone and can explore all the contents (news, events, points of interest, public services, transport) or even take a photo.

The government plan makes it mandatory for public administrations to compare open source and proprietary software solutions, before purchasing technology solutions or services. "Government entities should always quantify the total costs of ownership, taking in mind direct and indirect costs", it mentions.

It also wants public administrations to make sure that they retain intellectual property over software applications that are made for the authorities. The government recommends using the European Union's public software licence EUPL.

A new study about the Algarve reveals that the region should take advantage of the “great potential” it has in terms of digital connectivity with tourists to become a ‘smart destination’.

“There is great potential here in terms of connectivity with tourists. To ensure that, as soon as they arrive at the destination, we can accompany them, know where they are, what their preferences are, and to communicate a personalised tourist offer to provide experiences according to their profile”, said Rui Gidro, 'partner' of Deloitte, the company responsible for the study commissioned by the Algarve Tourism Region, within the scope of the project “Algarve Smart Region”.

At this stage, the Citizen's Card appears as an alternative to the citizens' online authentication through their tax number and the password provided by the State Treasury.

Using open source tools, says Gonçalo Caseiro, spokesperson for AMA, is "in line with the European eGovernment Action Plan and the recently approved Portuguese Global Strategic Plan for the Rationalisation and Cost Reduction in ICT in Public Administration."

Caseiro added that Liferay was selected following a benchmark process that compared several alternatives. The open source solution came out as the best one in terms of reliability and flexibility, allowing AMA's engineers to build the portal's functional requirements. "This solution will also generate savings of several hundred thousand euro, compared to proprietary solutions."

Gonçalo Caseiro, Member of the Board of the Agency for the Public Services Reform (Agência para a Modernização Administrativa - AMA, in Portuguese), gave a presentation that addressed the issues of interoperability, open standards and open source in the PA, the AMA's perspective on these issues, and provided examples of actions taken in recent years within the PA.

This initiative aims to render the information for citizens and businesses simpler, clearer and more accessible. This has been the mission of the Agency for Administrative Modernisation (Agência para a Modernização Administrativa - AMA, in Portuguse) in collaboration with various government entities.

BdE serves as a single access point for integrated information presented in a simple and uniform manner on 462 services that are required in carrying out over 450 business activities, of which 130 can be performed completely online. Any citizen or EU Member State national who wishes to start a business in Portugal can obtain information about the necessary procedures, ranging from tax and social security obligations to business setup and operation.

Exceptional situations where manual prescriptions can continue to be used are laid down in Article 9, Paragraph 2 of Ministerial Order no. 198/2011 of 18 May 2011.

According to a communiqué released by the municipality, the portal was created with the aim to encourage civic participation on issues deemed important to the city, thus empowering stakeholders to play a full part in new ideas and projects.

The Portuguese transit agency is moderinising its payment infrastructure and offering customer-centric payment options to increase public transport ridership.

Lisbon Metro (Metro de Lisboa) in Portugal is introducing contactless bank card payments with transit payments specialist Littlepay.

The operator is modernising its transit payment infrastructure with the aim of increasing the use of public transport in the city.

Lisbon’s ‘smart city’ status and European Green Capital Award are drawing in new residents from around the world.

Lisbon has long been a hub for Europe’s tech scene, with its outstanding international connectivity, abundant conference venues and affordability making it the ideal place to host tech sector events. Now, it’s not just for events that the global community of bright young things are flocking to Lisbon – they’re coming to stay.