“Innovation and Modernization in Public Administration”. This was the theme, last Tuesday, 18th of May, of the first session of a cycle of initiatives of the “InvestAlgarve” network planned for this year.
The meeting, which was attended by the Secretary of State for Innovation and Administrative Modernization and the Secretary of State for Decentralization and Local Administration, had 70 participants, via online.
Under the motto of innovation and modernization in Public Administration, «the session showed the contributions to the efficiency and effectiveness of the response, by those cadres, to the questions that are put to them daily by the business fabric of the region», says the InvestAlgarve Network.
Within the scope of this network, AMAL – Algarve Intermunicipal Community regularly organizes training sessions aimed at staff from municipalities and other local and regional entities with a view to putting an integrated system in place to respond to promoters of investment projects and job creation .
«These are meetings for sharing experiences and transmitting knowledge, very attended, which always have an anchor theme for training and debate. In this session, and in addition to the anchor theme, the importance of areas such as the digital transition, competitiveness or the decentralization of powers and political decision was focused», he explains.
For António Pina, AMAL's president, «the Recovery and Resilience Plan foresees 98 million euros for the capacity of the Public Administration, so we must make good use of community funds for this area, with innovation and modernization being decisive».
“Tourism will always be our dominant sector, but we can, and must, solidify others, promoting the diversification of the Algarve's economic base, which is why it is also essential to train public cadres”, he adds.
This was an idea shared by the Secretary of State for Innovation and Administrative Modernization,
«Training is essential nowadays. And our agenda also calls for innovation, and that means looking at public policies in a different way», he said.
For Maria de Fátima Fonseca, «resilience, transformation and partnerships are words that make more and more sense in our society, and much more at the level of municipalities. Public responses have to adapt to these new times», giving as an example the implementation of the Citizen's Space Network that has been carried out in municipalities and which currently has 700 in operation.
“Innovating is modernizing and it is a responsibility of all of us. It implies a change in mentalities, but this path will certainly lead us to stronger partnerships and the possibility of better responding to the population's needs», defended the governor.
In this context, Maria de Fátima Fonseca highlighted an example of good practice: «the recent initiative of the Intermunicipal Community of the Algarve – AMAL, the General Directorate of Books, Archives and Libraries and the Agency for Administrative Modernization – the Digital Mobile Key – which will make it possible to mediate citizens' access to online services, avoiding unnecessary travel to other Public Administration services».
Jorge Botelho, Secretary of State for Decentralization and Local Administration, also reinforced that “the local government has some autonomy and is a public power that must be taken into account”.
“We have a huge challenge for the modernization of Public Administration and it is important that we invest in this area, because doing more and better is fundamental”, adding that “the speed of decision processes is very important and also fundamental for the attractiveness of investments. We have to innovate, streamline procedures in Public Administration».
For Jorge Botelho it is certain that “decentralization is investment-friendly”. The CCDRs «have a fundamental role in their territories and, in the Algarve, communication between the municipalities exists and is very present in the decisions that are necessary on behalf of the region», he stressed.
The session also had two large panels: Panel 1 – Innovation at the service of Public Administration, which featured the following themes and speakers: “Application of innovation in processes and systems” (Henrique Ahnfelt, Ahnfelt Consultores) and “What tools the can public administration technicians use it to encourage the population's participation in co-creation projects?” (Guilherme Victorino, NOVA – Information Management School).
In Panel 2 – Administrative Modernization in the Algarve, the topics focused and speakers were: “Administrative modernization projects financed under the CRESC Algarve 2020” (José Apolinário, president of CCDR Algarve) and “Modernization in Public Administration within the framework of the Plan of Recovery of the Algarve” (Brandão Pires, first secretary of AMAL).
The “Invest Algarve” Network, a partnership on a scale across the Algarve region, was formalized in 2015 and is led by AMAL. It is made up of around 40 public and private entities to facilitate and encourage entrepreneurial initiative.
The network's dynamization and training sessions are part of the INOVA 2.0 project, which has the support of the FEDER, through the Regional Operational Program CRESC Algarve2020.
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