The Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy will soon announce a competition for the selection of five project managers, starting the implementation of a strategy aimed at faster and more efficient implementation of projects announced by the public, said the Deputy Minister.
Speaking at an online conference organized by the National Betting Authority and the Youth Organization entitled “E-Governance: Transforming for the new Digital ERA – The Road to Digital Transformation and Building a Modern State”, Mr. Kokkinos also said that The position of Chief Information Officer at the Ministry is also expected to be announced.
According to Mr. Kokkinos, the tenders are a tangible example of public-private partnership.
The five experts will support the work of the Department of Informatics Services (which has been integrated in the Ministry of State) in the more effective management of projects running by various Ministries.
Mr. Kokkinos referred to the three policy axes of the Ministry, which concern the acceleration of the implementation of the electronic services of the Ministry through the division into smaller and faster implementation projects (the 160 public services that will be done electronically) and the larger projects with longer time. implementation, the policy for faster broadband internet and finally the policy for the development of digital skills.
He also stressed that the digital transformation is based on human knowledge, while acknowledging that in Cyprus there is a problem with the availability of specialized IT professionals such as data scientists and project managers.
“We need to encourage young people to aim for these kinds of professions, if they express them, because there is a career prospect and this is also a matter of professional guidance, education and re-training of private sector executives to focus on skills, which support digital transformation “, he concluded.
To the Gov.cy portal
For his part, the General Director of the State Ministry, Stelios Heimonas, presented in more detail the strategy of the State Ministry towards the digital transformation.
“Our mission is to serve the citizen. Focus on the quality of life of the citizen and the services we provide to the citizen. “After all, the pandemic has shown that technology is a necessary tool for us to function under these difficult conditions as a society and as an economy.”
Analyzing the pillars of strategy, Mr. Heimonas referred to the Government As Platform project, or the creation of platforms that can be used by both citizens and the private sector in the context of improving citizen service. To this end, he said, the State Department is working with the British Government Digital Service (DGS) and the German PD and KMPG, under EU-funded technical assistance (SRSS).
He also referred to the goal of creating a government data center from which all government systems will run.
For the development of the 160 digital public services, Mr. Heimonas said that a “digital services factory” will be created and for this purpose there is cooperation with the respective DGS service of the United Kingdom.
He added that state services would be available through a single digital portal, Gov.cy or Mygov.cy, to Gov.uk standards, adding that State Department advisers are the ones who have developed the “admittedly very successful US platform”. “Basil, which is considered one of the best in the world,” he said.
“Little miracle” in Greece
Speaking at the conference, Georgios Giorgantas, Deputy Minister of Digital Governance of Greece, said that in Greece, in the midst of the pandemic, “a small miracle” took place in the last year and a half.
He characteristically stated that in 2020 there were a total of about 95 million digital transactions of citizens with the public, a number three times compared to 2019 and ten times compared to 2018.
As he said, the General Secretariat of Information Systems of Public Administration transferred the total of 501 public services that were offered in parts to the Gov.gr platform, which now has 1,120 services.
Mr. Giorgantas highlighted the importance of digital technology in avoiding millions of physical visits amid the pandemic.
Moreover, Nikolaos Mastrogiannopoulos, Chief Scientist of Cyprus said in his own greeting that the driving force for the transition to the new era is the turn to the digital world and the strengthening of the country's innovation ecosystem.
“We are heading towards a new era where everything around us is changing and the peculiar conditions require immediate adaptation,” he said, stressing that “the next day is undoubtedly not easy to predict, but we hold the keys.”
At the same time, in the discussion that followed, Ioanna Fiakou, President of the National Betting Authority, said that the digital policy of the Authority was set with the aim and goal of contributing to the implementation of the national strategy and that they have already taken the next step.
In particular, it referred to a study assignment for the use of blockchain technology and virtual assets in the Authority's systems. “The aim and purpose is to ensure transparency and simplify procedures so that we can achieve further modernization in the long run,” he said.
For his part, Prodromos Alampritis, President of the Cyprus Youth Organization underlined the role of culture in the transition to the digital age and referred to programs and seminars of the Organization for the empowerment of young people in the new digital age. “But we must take the steps ourselves, which are necessary to be at the point to achieve the digital transformation,” he added.
George Theocharidis, Vice President of the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CCP) referred to the CCP's initiative to establish an innovation hub in 2018, with the aim of providing guidance on financial technology (fintech) and regulatory technology, the well-known regtech.
This center, he said, will allow the ECC to gain a more complete picture of the risks involved in innovative products (such as distributed ledger technology, the blockhain base), which allows for the creation of an up-to-date regulatory environment. “The ultimate goal is to protect investors,” he said.
For his part, George Tziortzis, Executive Director of the IT Department of Bank of Cyprus, said that the digital transformation is now “business as usual”, while what is required is the transition to the digital economy. To achieve this, he added, there are two conditions, the cooperation of all, public and private sector, but also the will to change methods and procedures that are particularly time consuming in the public sector.
Finally, George Giaglis, Executive Director of the Institute for the Future, University of Nicosia, referred to processes that can prove to be a brake on digital transformation. “We are asking for a digital transformation, but the lies in Cyprus are bad, as far as I know, if a company goes to a Cypriot bank to open an account in crypto assets it will face huge problems. “So we have to align the vision for the future with the policies and procedures that will allow this transition.”
Philenews / ΚΥΠΕ
