"Portugal’s ambition is to be considered a true digital nation"

The Portuguese Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Administrative Modernisation, Mário Campolargo, stated that "Portugal’s ambition is to be considered a true digital nation", while visiting the Hannover Messe 2022, the world’s largest trade fair, of which Portugal is partner country.

He pointed out Portugal’s competences in this field, namely that the country had already charted its course with relevance given to the digital agenda prior the pandemic. Portugal has many "geographical, infrastructural, and societal factors" working in is favour, as well as a "mature startup ecosystem" that leverages this digital mission. He further added that the country has in place "several public policies" that "incentivize innovation" and the adoption of technology at different stages of maturity of businesses. Some of them "are unique", he remarked. 

The ambition to be considered a true digital nation

The Secretary of State said that "our ambition is to be considered a true digital nation, that encompasses digital maturity of key areas like people, businesses and state digital transition". To this end, he pointed out some aspects for which the country stands out, such as being the closest European country to North America, the gateway to Portuguese-speaking markets (+261 million people), being considered one of the safest countries in the world and one with great quality of life. 

Other aspects to make the country proud are, for instance, being the 4th worldwide with more women in the workforce, 7th worldwide in terms of linguistic skills, having the 2nd highest European rate of engineering graduates, as well as being the 3rd best country with fixed broadband access, a factor that 76% of investors consider to be attractive. 

Mário Campolargo highlighted Portugal’s Innovation and research ecosystem, where "we’ve been showing robust development, with 18 industrial clusters, 26 collaborative labs, 30 technology interface centres, and more than 150 incubators/accelerators". 

A startup nation

In terms of startups, Portugal has received good international reviews on its ecosystem’s vibrancy and potential, having already been recognised as a Startup Nation. 

To this end, the Secretary of State highlighted three dimensions: "the number of startups and dynamics of creation of new businesses", with one of the "highest number of startups per capita, including 7 unicorns with Portuguese DNA"; the fact that the network of incubators and accelerators is spread throughout the country, which not only enables but also encourages entrepreneurship; and a growth in national investors, which strengthen the ecosystem as a whole. 

This will "attract more international investors looking to the Portuguese market with growing interest." In fact, last year, Portugal "broke the record of investment for startups, reaching 1.1 billion euros."

Digital Transformation 

One of the key factors noted in the digital transformation of businesses is the ability of companies "to transform their business models and digitalise their products and services". This proved to be of great importance in response to the existing crisis yet also, looking to the future, in strengthening the Portuguese economy.

Mário Campolargo mentioned that "the path for the digital transformation of businesses is based, above all, on measures and actions that support investment". Encouraging this process we find "awareness raising and upskilling of the workforce", particularly when it comes to Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, which account for the vast majority of the economy and employment in the country. Yet, this path is also achieved through dynamizing the entrepreneurship ecosystem and incentives to startups, as well as "the development of initiatives that promote the adoption and consolidation of the scientific and technological knowledge in the business’s activity."

To pursue this goal, the Government will continue to focus on three main areas relating to the economy’s digitalisation: "the entrepreneurial ecosystem and attraction of investment", the effort to digitally transform the business fabric "focusing on SMEs", and the "transfer of scientific knowledge and technology" to the economy.

Innovation friendly policies

The Secretary of State went on to mention specific policies aimed at contributing to the goal of raising the bar on companies’ capacity to innovate to be sustainable, and "to upgrade our business level through their digital transformation process."

One such policy is the National Network of Test Beds to overcome the "valley of death" in the innovation process, "by creating the conditions for businesses to develop and test new products and services and accelerate their digital transformation, either through physical equipment and infrastructures or virtual/digital simulators." Although the model to be implemented in Portugal followed international benchmarks, the idea was to adapt it to the country’s economy and specificities. Instead of traditional research centres of universities leading the way, the intention is to have leading companies in this role.

Another initiative mentioned is the Digital Innovation Hubs. These are part of the country’s macro strategy and have "strong links with the European network" to promote the digital transformation of businesses. Among other services, this network aims to disseminate knowledge to SME´s of three specific technologies: AI, HPC and Cybersecurity. "We designed an approach to include all economy sectors, leaving no one behind", he said. 

The Digital Maturity Seals were also highlighted, a system of digital seals to be awarded to companies, promoting the growing digital maturity of the business sector and contributing to creating trust in the digital environment. He added that "this certification system allows companies to guarantee their customers and partners a security seal and digital trust. We expect to contribute to a structural change in the way digital businesses are developed and create a positive and long-term impact on the way data is treated and shared, a fundamental aspect in strengthening the resilience, trust and security of company systems". As stated, "the generation of trust goes beyond the issue of digital identity" and for this purpose, these seals are to be promoted in an integrated way, in their various dimensions, such as privacy, sustainability, cybersecurity and usability.

As a last but certainly not least point, the Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Administrative Modernisation referred to the Free Zones for Technology, an "innovative regulatory framework" that allows innovation to flourish. Working with regulators to remove rules and laws that prevent the innovative process, temporarily, is worth doing. "This unique regime will act as an enabler of innovation", he added.