A council set up to improve Cyprus’s e-government services has failed to meet its three-year targets, an audit service report said on Tuesday.
The council’s aims, drawn up in October 2015, included providing more public services online through the Ariadne platform, electronic signatures and authentication, exchange of data between different government departments, digitizing government grant schemes and moving towards a ‘paperless’ public service (eOasis).
Cyprus lags well behind the majority of the EU member-states in digital skills and fast internet connections. A workshop dealing with electronic communications, held last week, observed that Cyprus is among the EU’s weakest countries as far as the digital economy was concerned.
According to the Digital Economy Social Index (Desi), cited by electronic communications commissioner Giorgos Michaelides Cyprus ranked 25th in the EU in digital banking, 26th in e-commerce and 25th in the development of businesses through technology.” We were 24th in the number of people with specific knowledge in electronic communications and last in the number of science graduates.
Read more: CY: Our View: All talk, slow action on e-government
Two Paphos projects have been given the green light, which officials say will move the area close to becoming a fully-fledged ‘Smart city’.
A spokesman for Paphos municipality told the Cyprus mail that two European programmes have been approved and are due to get underway in Paphos in July.
Read more: CY: Paphos a step closer to becoming ‘smart city’
Cyprus must work hard to improve its poor digital skills and increase the availability of fast internet connections, a workshop by stakeholders in the electronic communication market concluded on Wednesday.
Cyprus is among the weakest EU countries regarding the digital economy, electronic communications and postal services commissioner Giorgos Michaelides pointed out during the event, basing his remarks on this year’s Digital Economy and Society Index (Desi)
Read more: CY: Poor digital skills and slow internet hampering economic growth
Cabinet has approved two bills and new regulations concerning an individual’s online signature for government transactions, Under Secretary to the President Constantinos Petrides said on Wednesday.
Petrides said that this was an important step in the introduction of e-government.
The idea is that the public “will have to sign, verify and submit through their mobile phones or personal computers, his or her applications or transactions with the government”, he said.