Honorable

Ministers,

Deputy Ministers

Secretaries-General,

Ladies and gentlemen,

I welcome you to our event, thank you for being here with us today.

It is a special honour for me to be here, among all of you, in the capacity of the Chairman of the “Information Society”, the company that has been behind the implementation of flagship IT, communications and digital transformation projects for the Public Administration, for 21 years now.

When the Minister, Kyriakos Pierrakakis entrusted us with the management of the company about 3 years ago, we knew that the responsibility we assumed was important and binding: To implement in a timely manner, with responsibility and public accountabilityan important part of the plan of the Ministry of Digital Governance for the digital transformation of the State.

In July 2019, the company had about 60 executives, was housed in 2 separate installations, was left behind in logistics due to the economic crisis of the country for almost 10 years, had few active programme agreements, about 15 agreements – if I remember correctly – few signed contracts and frozen projects of great importance for the proper functioning of the public sector, such as Syzefxis II.

So the challenge for all of us in the administration was great, difficult and multifaceted. This challenge was how we will strengthen and activate our company, how we will establish trust with the institutions, and how we will cope with the project we had been committed to: The digital transformation of the Public Administration of the country.

We have translated our role into a strategic phrase that encompasses everything we seek to achieve from our position.#TransformingGreece Greece is moving forward to the new era.

This phrase was and is the “promise” we made.

Three years later, I think we should all be proud to see our commitment come true. First of all, we experience digital services ourselves, as citizens, we see how citizens and businesses enjoy services that a few years ago many considered impossible. Services that we contracted with our expertise so that we can all enjoy them today.

And we are all determined to go further.

Today, the company is at another level. Along with the digital transformation, the company was also transformed. New state-of-the-art facilities, a staff capacity of more than 200 executives, who is specialised and dedicated to the common objective, a number of active programme agreements – over 300 – and a large number of ongoing tenders and other tenders to be carried out, including flagship projects, such as GOV ERP, the Human Resources Management System of the Public Administration and many more that you will hear about shortly.

We have shown that when there is a strategic plan, will and belief in a common goal can help us achieve.

We are moving forward by implementing even more projects that make the lives of the citizens and the operation of businesses easier than ever. We support the Ministry to achieve the digital transformation of the country. We support the Ministry to change the country for the benefit of the citizens.

We have achieved a lot and we aim to achieve even more.

Dimitris Askounis