Insider / ΚΥΠΕ
The biggest difficulties in the process of digitization of the country are the change of culture and the finding of talents and professionals, said on Tuesday before the Energy Committee of the Parliament, the Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy Kyriakos Kokkinos, typically saying that in our country “we killed vocational education “.
At a meeting on the digitization policy and its implementation in Cyprus, Mr. Kokkinos said that at the moment we have a shortage of 3,500 professionals in the IT sector, emphasizing the need for comprehensive “upskilling” and “reskilling” programs, ie the improvement of skills and retraining. He stressed that our pedagogical system also needs revision, but above all it is necessary to change the culture at home for what the child wants to study.
Mr. Kokkinos made a detailed and detailed presentation of what his State Department has achieved in the 19 months since its establishment, emphasizing that Cyprus must be digitally mature in order to be competitive.
He said that a lot has been done but the road is still long. He briefly spoke about the platform for the benefits of the Ministry of Labor that was set up within a few weeks during the pandemic, at the Vaccination Portal, the GESS Portal, the Cyprus flight pass, school registrations, electronic applications at the town planning department and more.
The Undersecretary also referred to the utilization of European funds not only from the recovery and resilience plan but also from “Horizon Europe” and others.
Mr. Kokkinos said that for the ongoing projects an agreement was reached with the UK for know-how to create a portal that will have all the services gathered and is expected to be ready in 12-14 months.
According to the Deputy Minister, by 2025 the plan is to have 250 services online, 100 by 2022 from the portal “gov.cy”.
Mr. Kokkinos said that in terms of the DESI index in 2019, Cyprus was in 24th place out of 28 countries and expressed the hope that with the correct implementation of digital policy, we can go to the middle of the index, ie to positions 13 -16 in 5-7 years.
He stressed that the journey of digital politics has no turning back and that “we do not harbor illusions”.
Statements of Members of Parliament
The Chairman of the Committee Kyriakos Hatzigiannis stated that the challenges are many and the bet is universal and stressed the need to move quickly. He also said that the SMEs should be helped for the digitization in order to avoid bureaucracy and dysfunctional processes.
Nikos Sykas of DISY referred to the Deputy Minister's remark for lack of scientific staff and stressed the need to change the mentality and identify the “most lazy employees”.
AKEL's Costas Costa said that no doubt steps have been taken and expressed the hope that these steps will proceed at a faster speed but stressed the fact that we have low speeds on the internet, we create portals that do not work, we have lost files and applications are faxed or postal and call centers that do not answer. He also mentioned that the cost of the bureaucracy was around 300 million 3 years ago.
Chrysis Pantelidis of DIKO said that the digitization policy is the main foundation of the future edifice of our country, therefore we will have to make a horizontal, collective and national effort beyond party boundaries.
He expressed satisfaction because the Ministry of Innovation Research and Digital Policy has studied and adopted the overall proposal of DIKO under the title e-Cyprus and which was submitted to the Ministry immediately after its establishment.
Elias Myrianthous of EDEK spoke about the bureaucracy and the unanswered telephone systems, about the understaffing and wondered if a reference number can be included with which the citizens will be able to see where their applications are at any time.
Stavros Papadouris of Ecologists spoke of a commendable effort, but said that from theory to practice there is a huge gap. He also referred to the need to have a system through which to identify which employee is responsible for non-performance of a task.
Michalis Giakoumis of DIPA said that the new generation has high digitization in its priorities and wished what was heard in the committee to be implemented.
Digitization in ministries, services and organizations
Representatives of ministries, services and institutions were present at the meeting in relation to their plans and strategy for digitization. The Ministry of Commerce said that the sponsorship plans and other projects are being implemented, which, however, presuppose that other services will also go to a higher digital level. He also referred to the reduction of administrative costs with simple and targeted procedures.
The Ministry of Tourism said that one of the biggest projects is the system for the needs of the staff, for the tourism companies, the public and the collaborators of the Ministry.
The SEC said that the digitization map was determined in 2017 but stressed that the steps must be made logically and carefully and thoughtfully, with respect for those who have no training.
The Ministry of Education reported that many projects include a platform for electronic registration. It was reported that the Ministry is in the process of bidding for the e-government of school units and digital classrooms at all levels.
The Ministry of Social Welfare stated that the digital modernization of the systems is a priority and stressed that especially for the Social Welfare Services a plan should be implemented for the evaluation and prioritization of cases of immediate priority.
The Ministry of Labor was told that steps have been taken with the services and the electronic applications as well as the payment of contributions and it is expected that in 2022 we will have much more digital services.
It was reported by the National Electricity Authority that the electronic health file with a file accessible with the citizen's permission is being digitized. It was also mentioned that the goal is for the existing systems, for example of OKYPY, to be under a single Gateway.
From the side of PEO it was said that the process of digitization and simplification of procedures is a positive development and that in order to have value it needs training of human resources and ordinary people and that PEO has the educational structures to contribute in this direction.
OEB stated that it is saddened by the fact that in the issue of the DESI index ranking we are in low positions and expressed the hope that there will be an improvement.
From the OAY side it was mentioned that with the introduction of GESS we have an electronic system from providers and beneficiaries, that the Vaccination Portal was built and that plans are made for the interoperability of GESS with other systems. It was also mentioned that OAY has enough health data and can be used if requested.
OKYPY said that there are several challenges for upgrading systems, for the infrastructure upgrade pillars in all hospitals and for connectivity.
It was said by the Ministry of the Interior that the goal is for the citizen to be close to the Ministry and for there to be more information, especially in the services of the cadastre and urban planning.
The representative of YPAM said that the computerization of personnel and material was done from a very early age but concerned closed structures and that from 2020 there was a connection with other Ministries, exchange of information on GESS, cooperation with the sponsorship service, etc. in the avoidance of the fugitive army and in the connection with the KEP and therefore the avoidance of visits to conscription offices for the issuance of certificates.
On the part of consumers, it was said that every government agency should improve the quality of its services and then digitize them.
The Ministry of Shipping said that the implementation of digitization projects will begin soon and the CCCI said that the retraining of staff is important and this digital opportunity should be embraced by companies and the digital vision should be an integral part of any policy.
