“All our actions for the digital transformation of the state are focused on the citizen. In the Information Society, we continue at the same pace the effort for even better and more results in the future.” the Managing Director of the Information Society, Mr. Stavros Asthenidis stressed during his participation in the panel of the 8th Delphi Economic Forum 2023 on “Innovation in Government”.

In addition to Mr. Asthenidis, the following persons participated in the panel: Thanasis Kontogeorgis (Secretary General for Coordination of Internal Policies), Dimosthenis Anagnostopoulos (Secretary General for Information Systems of Public Administration), Athanasios Balermpas (Secretary General for Citizenship of the Ministry of Interior), Nikos Maniatis (CEO of IBM in Greece and Cyprus) and Mrs. Evi Dramalioti (Chairwoman of the National Centre for Public Administration and Local Government). The discussion was moderated by the journalist Konstantinos Ketsietzis.

In the context of this interesting discussion, Stavros Asthenidis referred primarily to the further digitisation of the state which constitutes a challenge for the days to come and highlighted the great contribution of Gov.gr to citizens and businesses: “It all started with a solemn statement and now Gov.gr offers more than 1,500 electronic services. This digital innovation taken place has drastically changed the way the citizens perceive the public administration and its services. Think about how much time we have all gained from the digital integration of all these different services and processes. We want to continue in this context and at this speed.”, he said.

In order to emphasise the pace based on which the company is called upon to implement demanding digital actions, the Managing Director of the Information Society referred indicatively to the market pass “which was implemented in two months and constitutes a record for public administration”, while regarding the subject title of the panel in a related question about whether there has been innovation in the public sector, after praising the vaccination system during the recent coronavirus pandemic, he emphasised: “It is an innovation for the public sector that brought greater focus to the citizens.”

Mr Asthenidis concluded his remarks by pointing out the great impact of “public interest technologies” on citizens, and stating, among other things: “We need to use the whole network of technologies to serve the citizen. If we follow this approach and change the context, we can achieve important things at this level. ”