Accenture's fifth annual global e-government study

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