Filenews 2 November 2021
The biggest difficulties in the course of the country's digitization are the change of culture and the search for talents and professionals, the Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy Kyriakos Kokkinos said on Tuesday before the Energy Committee of the Parliament, saying characteristically that in our country "we killed professional education".
At a meeting on the digitization policy and its implementation in Cyprus, Mr. Kokkinos said that at the moment in the it sector we have a shortage of 3,500 professionals, stressing that integrated "upskilling" and "reskilling" programs are needed, i.e. the improvement of skills and retraining. He stressed that our pedagogical system also wants to be revised, but above all there is also a need to change the culture at home about what the child wants to study.
Mr. Kokkinos made a detailed and detailed presentation on what his Deputy Ministry has achieved in the 19 months since its establishment, stressing that it is imperative that Cyprus is digitally mature, so that we can be competitive.
He said a lot has been done but there is still a long way to go. In summary, he talked about the platform for the allowances of the Ministry of Labour that was set up within a few weeks during the pandemic, at the Vaccination Portal, the GHS Portal, the Cyprus flight pass, the school enrolments, the electronic applications to the urban planning department and more.
The Deputy Minister also referred to the use 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 has been made with the UK for know-how to create a portal that will have all the services gathered together 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 ''gov.cy'' portal.
Mr. Kokkinos said that as far as the DESI index in 2019 is concerned, Cyprus was in the 24th place out of 28 countries and expressed the hope that with the proper implementation of digital policy, we can go to the middle of the index, i.e. the positions 13-16 in 5-7 years.
He stressed that the journey of digital politics has no setback and that "we have no illusions".
Statements by Members of Parliament
Commission President Kyriakos Hatzigiannis said that the challenges are many and the bet universal and stressed the need to move quickly. He also said that SMEs should also be helped with digitalisation to avoid bureaucratic and malfunctioning processes.
Nikos Sykas of DISY referred to the Deputy Minister's remark about the lack of scientific staff and stressed the need to change the mentality and identify the "most lazy employees".
Kostas Kostas of AKEL said that undoubtedly steps have been taken and expressed the hope that these steps will proceed with greater speed, but he was sputtering at the fact that we have low internet speeds, we create Portals that do not work, we have folders that are lost and applications sent by fax or post, but also call centres that do not answer. He also mentioned that the cost of bureaucracy was around 3 years ago around €300 million.
Chryssis Pantelidis of DIKO said that the digitization policy is the main foundation of the future edifice of our country therefore we should make a horizontal, collective and national effort over and above party boundaries.
He expressed satisfaction that the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy has studied and adopted the overall proposal of the DIKO under the title e-Cyprus and which was submitted to the Deputy Ministry immediately after its establishment.
Elias Myrianthous of EDEK talked about bureaucracy and telephone systems that do not answer, about understaffing and wondered if a reference number can be included with which citizens can see at any time where their applications are.
Stavros Papadouris of Ecologists spoke of a commendable effort, saying however 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 not carrying out a task.
Michalis Giakoumis of DIPA said that the new generation has digitalization high on its priorities and wished that what was heard in the committee would be put into practice.
Digitalisation in ministries, services and organizations
Representatives of ministries, agencies and institutions were placed at the meeting in relation to their plans and strategy for digitisation. On the part of the Ministry of Commerce, it was said that sponsorship plans and other projects are being implemented, which, however, require that other services will go to a higher digital level. He also referred to the reduction of administrative costs through simple and targeted procedures.
From the point of view of the Deputy Ministry of Tourism, it was said that one of the largest projects is the system for the needs of the staff, for the tourist enterprises, the public and the associates of the Deputy Ministry.
The SEK said that the digitisation map has been defined since 2017 but stressed that steps must be taken sensitively, carefully and thought out, with respect to people who do not have training.
The Ministry of Education reported that the many projects include the platform for electronic registrations. It was reported that the Ministry is in the process of tendering for the e-governance of schools and digital classrooms at all levels.
The Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare mentioned that the digital modernization of the systems is a priority and it was 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 Labour has been told that steps have been taken with services and online applications as well as the payment of contributions and it is expected that in 2022 we will have many more digital services.
The National Electricity Authority reported that the electronic health file is being digitized with a file accessible with the permission of the citizen. It was also mentioned that the aim is for the existing systems of e.g. the CySEC to be under a single gate.
From the POINT of view 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 also needs training of human resources and ordinary people and that PEO has the educational structures to contribute to this direction.
OEB said it regretted that on the issue of the DESI index ranking we are in low positions and expressed the hope of an improvement.
On behalf of the OSO, it was mentioned that with the introduction of the GHS, we have an electronic system from providers and beneficiaries, that the Vaccination Portal was built and that plans are being made for the interoperability of the GHS with other systems. It was also mentioned that the OSO has enough health data and can be used if requested.
The CySEC said that there are several challenges for upgrading systems, for the infrastructure upgrade pillars in all hospitals and for connectivity.
The Ministry of Interior said that the goal is for the citizen to be close to the Ministry and to have more information especially in the services of the cadastre and the town planning.
The representative of the Ministry of Defence said that the computerization of personnel and material was done very early on but concerned closed structures and that since 2020 there has been an interconnection with other Ministries, exchange of information on GHS, cooperation with the sponsorship service, etc. Reference was made to the simplified procedures for the classification of recruits and to the avoidance of fugitives and the connection with the JeP and thus the avoidance of visits to conscription offices for the issuance of certificates.
From the point of view of consumers, it has been said that every government agency must improve the quality of its services and then digitise them.
The Deputy Ministry of Shipping said that the implementation of digitization projects will soon begin and the CCCI said that it is important to retrain staff and this digital opportunity must be embraced by businesses and the digital vision must be an integral part of any policy.
