The Chairman of the BoD of the Association of Hellenic Information Technology Enterprises (SETPE), Anastasios Manos, referred to the decisive progress made in recent years towards the digital transformation of local government, as well as to the critical gaps that continue to slow the transition to a more efficient model of governance, speaking at the conference “Smart Cities, Smart Regions 2: Digital Local Government and Efficient Governance”, held on Saturday at the Hyatt Regency Thessaloniki as part of the 34th Money Show.

Mr Manos, who participated in a thematic discussion, underlined that over the past five years municipalities and regions have leveraged significant funding opportunities for digital projects and have implemented interventions that strengthen both services provided to citizens and their internal modernisation. However, he made it clear that this progress is not sufficient, as a significant shortage of specialised human capital remains, which is still lacking in the majority of these organisations.

According to the Chairman of the BoD of SETPE, this is precisely where the critical gap lies today: local government has made progress, but it has not yet secured the necessary conditions to transform digital projects into a stable, functional and productive everyday reality. As he noted, the human factor is not a secondary issue, but a fundamental prerequisite for giving substance to digital transformation.

Mr Manos also placed particular emphasis on interoperability, highlighting that so-called “digital bureaucracy” is not the cause of the problems, but rather a symptom of them. From the perspective of local government, as he explained, the main obstacle is the fragmented architecture of information systems, resulting in different systems and digital portals failing to “communicate” with each other. As a result, even when individual processes have been digitised, citizens and businesses continue to operate within a fragmented and inefficient environment.

From the perspective of businesses, he added, the problem becomes even more complex due to the lack of uniformity from one municipality to another and from one region to another. When each organisation operates with different digital or semi-digital standards, process automation becomes extremely challenging and efficiency is undermined in practice. Under these circumstances, he noted, the real opportunity lies in initiatives that promote the unified operation of the state, such as the Digital Interoperability Centres and the Gov.gr Digital Portal.

The Chairman of the BoD of SETPE was joined in the same discussion by the Mayor of Trikala, Nikos Sakkas, and the Mayor of Preveza, Nikos Georgakos, who presented the results of their efforts towards the digital transformation of municipal services. The Deputy Regional Governor for Digital Governance of Central Greece, Konstantinos Vardakostas, also referred to the initiatives undertaken to address digital illiteracy.

The “Smart Cities, Smart Regions 2: Digital Local Government and Efficient Governance” conference highlighted the broad range of issues related to the transition towards a modern model of public administration and local governance, with a focus on digital transformation, the availability and utilisation of open data, the interoperability of information systems, cybersecurity, public sector resilience, and the presentation of best practices by municipalities and regions.

The event was organised by the Region of Central Macedonia, through the Deputy Regional Governorates for Digital Governance and Transport & Communications, in cooperation with the Thessaloniki Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The event was supported by the Association of Hellenic Information Technology Enterprises (SETPE) and the Federation of Hellenic Information Technology & Communications Enterprises (SEPE), contributing to its successful organisation.

The following SETPE member companies had a strong presence at the event: Dotsoft, GNOMON Informatics S.A., infoteam Hellas, OTS S.A., Softweb Adaptive I.T. Solutions and Space Hellas.