Digital government: what comes after the face-to-face stage?

HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 25 (ACN) One of the priorities of digital transformation in Cuba has been the link between public administration agencies and the citizens, which led to the implementation of digital government, even if improvements are in order in terms of organization and feedback.

Yunier Rodríguez Cruz, director of the Center for Digital Government Studies of the School of Communication of the University of Havana, said that government portals are a reflection of technological development, but they have to transform themselves at organizational level, optimize their virtual services and procedures, and encourage the level of participation that society demands.

Making data about the work of our organizations publicly available is one of the main challenges facing this process today, as it must rely on digital dynamics to make the most of online communication.

“To this end,” he said, “we have identified a set of indicators based on international indexes and national methodologies to evaluate how the virtual ecosystem behaves in portals and social networks. That is one of the missions of our Technological Observatory: to monitor digital government capacities in Cuba and implement the good practices used in the region for the benefit of our ministries and national/regional entities.”

In the expert's opinion, the importance of digital government became obvious during the COVID-19 crisis, since granting access to government services through online tools requires the proper infrastructure and a much-needed digital culture.

“The purpose of digital government has always been the same: help improve public management for the benefit of people’s quality of life and favor the relevant level of social development with a view to that goal,” Rodríguez Cruz pointed out.

According to the Ministry of Communication, the priority for 2022 is to achieve greater interactivity between the government and citizens by improving the management of government portals and increasing the number of procedures and services that the citizens can use on line.