Accenture's fifth annual global e-government study
Accenture's fifth annual global e-government study
Accenture's fifth annual global e-government study
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A new eGovernment action plan to support this<br />
vision was approved and published in the summer of<br />
2003. It outlines seven action points and a number<br />
of eGovernment initiatives. Chief among these are<br />
enabling public-sector electronic purchases, creating<br />
a portal for public administration, promoting interoperability,<br />
rationalizing communication costs and<br />
developing a new citizen portal.<br />
Besides several portals of a vertical nature, Portugal<br />
currently has two distinct cross-<strong>government</strong> portals.<br />
Infocid, www.infocid.pt, provides a limited set of<br />
services (being mostly informative). The second portal,<br />
the Government Portal, www.portugal.gov.pt, is<br />
organized around <strong>government</strong> agency structures. It<br />
contains published information about the <strong>government</strong><br />
and is less citizen focused than Infocid.<br />
The Portuguese <strong>government</strong> launched a new<br />
eGovernment citizens’ portal in March 2004. This<br />
new “Portal do Cidadão” (www.portaldocidadao.pt/<br />
umic/pt) has increased interactive and transactional<br />
capabilities. The <strong>government</strong>’s aim was to launch<br />
with approximately 50 to 100 interactive services,<br />
growing to all feasible services online at a transactional<br />
level by 2006. Although the portal is<br />
beginning with “fixed Internet” capabilities only,<br />
it is slated to accommodate multiple access<br />
channels over time. The portal may also adapt a<br />
voluntary identification and authentication model<br />
as an alternative to a single unique identifier (and<br />
the potential associated privacy concerns).<br />
Although Portugal made only modest overall<br />
eGovernment improvement during the past year,<br />
a number of services performed exceptionally well.<br />
Declarações Electrónicas, the revenue declarations<br />
site (www.e-financas.gov.pt) grew at an impressive<br />
rate, more than doubling its number of registered<br />
users and adding a number of additional services,<br />
such as customs declarations.<br />
Looking ahead, a number of programs related<br />
to culture, education, public administration and<br />
other specific sectors are under way. It is also<br />
important to emphasize one of the most significant<br />
initiatives of Unidade de Missão Inovação e<br />
Conhecimento, an ambitious program to foster<br />
broadband dissemination, which may have dramatic<br />
impact on the country’s currently low Internet<br />
penetration rate.<br />
According to the Portuguese eGovernment strategy,<br />
the development of eGovernment services is ultimately<br />
meant to generate positive impact across<br />
the country. The critical foundation of a strategy<br />
and action plan is in place. Portugal’s next hurdle<br />
is to overcome a fragmented eGovernment history<br />
and to allow the planned initiatives to take hold<br />
and build momentum.<br />
To accomplish its new eGovernment objectives,<br />
Portugal will likely rely heavily on partnerships with<br />
the private sector. In its call for interoperability, the<br />
action plan specifies that there should be an interoperable<br />
and integrated platform that permits the<br />
connectivity not only among central, regional and<br />
local public administration portals, but also with<br />
the private sector and other European institutions.<br />
Collaboration will be necessary for technical<br />
expertise and for funding. In fact, the Unidade<br />
de Missão Inovação e Conhecimento has already<br />
established protocols for cooperation with privatesector<br />
companies.<br />
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