Why the country is becoming Europe’s digital champion.

Portugal is surprisingly highly placed in the OECD’s Digital Government Index, and is pulling ahead of many countries in Europe and worldwide. Reason enough to take a closer look at the westernmost country on the continent.

Here’s how digital Portugal is:

Portugal steers digitisation centrally through the Agência para a Modernização Administrativa, and enforces standards consistently. That ensures clear goals and prevents digital sprawl and duplicate digitisation projects.

Portugal builds platforms instead of individual solutions. With gov.pt and the digital identity Chave Móvel Digital, services emerge that build on shared components. Importantly, Portugal deliberately doesn’t go for the one big leap, but for a path that gradually covers more and more areas.

Portugal digitises complete processes, not just the application at the start. Citizens have to submit fewer follow-up documents and experience real relief.

Portugal consistently thinks about administration from the perspective of life situations. Birth, moving house, or starting a business are treated as connected events.

Portugal is also a frontrunner on data. Authorities actively exchange information with each other and thereby take a load off citizens.

With all this, Portugal is doing a lot right and is a well-deserved role model. Have you ever had digital contact with the Portuguese administration?

Sources:

• OECD – Digital Government Review Portugal
• European Commission – eGovernment Benchmark

Image: Vita Marija Murenaite for Unsplash

You can find this post on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Ashare%3A7457360387328409600