​Speech by President of the Government at event on information technologies in public administration

Madrid

Good morning to you all.

Madam Vice-President of the Government, ministers, State Secretaries, Mr Under-Secretary for the Presidency, dear friends,

I would most especially like to thank the representatives of the companies that are here with us this morning; this has all been most useful and instructive for me. One of the things that has been said - it caught my attention, because it is absolutely true - is that this reform of the public administration is something that has been spoken about in Spain for many years now.

I was Minister for the Public Administration Services 19 years ago, and I should say that I was unable to reform them. Decisions have since been taken within the public administration that have undoubtedly made it increasingly more effective and efficient. But I believe that this has been the legislature in which a decision has actively been taken to truly reform our public administration services. A commission has been set up, which has worked very hard; there are people that are exclusively involved in this work and I believe that it is one of the most important reforms to have been proposed in our country for many years now.

Everyone says, particularly those of us who are in government, that this government has undertaken many economic reforms, and it is true, because the labour reform is an important reform, the Constitutional Law on Budgetary Stability and Financial Sustainability also is; the energy reform has also been important, as is the reform of the Education Act and the reform of our financial system. These have been drafted and proposed and many reforms have been approved. There are many other reforms, which are also very important but which have been spoken about less; for example, the reform of the Market Unity Act, or the reform of the public administration services.

And I would invite you all to tell me if you have ever seen the reform of the public administration on the front cover of any national or international press, and yet, the reform of the public administration is one of the most important things that has been undertaken in our country over the course of these last few years. As indeed is this meeting, which is why I thank you for your presence here. I know that this is not bad for you and for me it is very good, and hence we can all pull in the same direction.

Having said that, ladies and gentlemen, when we look at this raft of reforms pushed through by this government, some of which I have mentioned in this first part of my speech, it is easy to detect a common reasoning and a shared goal behind all of them - namely to modernise Spain and help our country to move with the times.

When you think, for example, about the Entrepreneur Act - which has just been mentioned here - the Transparency Act or the Market Unity Act, which I have just referred to a moment ago, this desire to modernise or to implement cutting-edge policies becomes particularly clear.

As you are all aware, every reform project, without exception, seeks to impact reality to change it positively. In this regard, it should be said that the government's reforms are based on one maxim, which I am sure you all share: in order to be a successful country and to be more competitive in today's world we cannot allow ourselves to be left behind. And, if we want to welcome in a new cycle of economic prosperity and job creation, laid on sound foundations, we cannot use yesterday's solutions, but rather - looking to the future - we must employ the best tools available to us today.

Let me give you a most enlightening figure, which the Under-secretary for the Ministry of the Presidency mentioned in passing in his speech: according to the latest Labour Force Survey, last year - and this is a very positive figure - 415,000 jobs were created in the private sector in Spain and 18,000 in the public sector. These figures are clear testimony to the growth model on which the Spanish economy is based: intense job creation in the private sector and the minimum necessary in the public sector to guarantee the provision of quality public services, but without increasing the size of the bureaucratic machine. A model, by the way, in total contrast to what we saw in the four previous years in our country, between 2008 and 2011, a period in which 386,000 jobs were created in the public sector while more than two and a half million jobs were shed in the private sector.

Well, this undeniable change is the result of many things, among others, the implementation of many structural changes, including, as I said at the beginning and I reiterate now, the reform of the public administration.

Ladies and gentlemen,

No-one is blind to the fact that the words 'modernisation' and 'digitalisation' are synonymous in these times and, in such an ambitious and far-reaching reform as that of the public administration services, the modernisation of our public sector undeniably involves driving e-government.

I know that talking about new technologies, after what we have just heard, is impossible, and may seem somewhat bold on my part, and I am sure that it is, but, as I am the President of the Government, I should have something to say on this matter, such as how the government is facing up to this challenge.

This is a commitment which, in line with the sign of the times, is irreversible and that is an advantage. This is so for two reasons: firstly, to guarantee excellence in providing services to our citizens, which is none other than the raison d'être of our public administration services; and, secondly, because the full digitalisation of our public administration is an asset of the first order for taking great strides in terms of economic competitiveness, and hence, in terms of economic growth and job creation, as we have constantly reiterated here.

Great efforts have been made in Spain to provide our citizens with a wide range of public services over the Internet and a great deal of money has been spent on applications, developments and resources. However, the internal processing of the public administration has not taken place in the same manner; on many occasions, it continues to take place on paper. And, on other occasions, many obstacles have been placed in the way of our citizens which have made the rapid expansion of e-government more difficult.

We have learnt many lessons from these practices in the past and we now know that the issue is to use e-government to offer our citizens a quick, secure and comprehensive service, which allows them to carry out their administrative tasks in a single procedure with the various public administration services. The question is to explain, in simple and clear language, all the steps necessary to perform their administrative needs and, in short, to create a truly electronic administrative service that is user-friendly and at the service of the Spanish people.

In this regard, CORA decisively seeks to speed up the process of digitalising Spanish society as a whole and I can say that few countries have laid out such ambitious plans - as I pointed out at the beginning and I now reiterate - to reform their public administration.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Our goals seek to respond to reality: Spanish society has changed and we are now finally talking about a digital society. 95.7% of administrative tasks carried out by companies in 2014 and 65% by private citizens were done over the Internet.

The benefits offered by e-government are many, as you know: an open public administration offering services 24 hours a day, 365 days a year; a public administration that is fully accessible from anywhere with Internet access; an effective public administration that reaches 8,117 Spanish municipalities, thus doing away with the digital divide that existed, and fast administration services, so administrative tasks can be carried out in just a short time - a file that could previously have taken up to a fortnight to reach its destination can now arrive in seconds. We are also talking about a more ecological administration, since no paper is used and no storage facilities are necessary, and a secure administration, thanks to the application of the National Security Plan and the services provided by the National Cryptological Centre.

The measures we have implemented are now starting to bear fruit: electronic invoicing is now a reality, as are electronic certificates and notices via cybernetic means, and the Cl@ve system as the sole means of identification to gain access to public services over the Internet. At present, 99% of bureaucracy with Central Government can be done electronically, and, as mentioned here earlier, the regional governments and many local councils are now joining up to this global strategy.

These and many other positive results can be summarised in one, in just one - in 2014, the savings generated for society as a result of the generalised use of e-government amount to some 20 billion euros. In other words, if the administrative tasks carried out electronically today had to be done over the counter, the cost for citizens would be 20 billion euros higher.

With these results, it is no wonder that the progress made in our country has not gone unnoticed. Various studies and acknowledgements show a positive assessment of Spanish e-government at an international level. In 2014 Spain has climbed from 15th place to 5th place in the European ranking, according to a survey carried out on e-government by the United Nations.

This is important and it is good to remember this, but, having said that, it is necessary to continue taking steps to beat our own records, to improve these indicators and, above all, with the aim of digitally transforming the public administration. To achieve that, we will make every effort to approve the Strategic Plan for the digital transformation of the State e-government service, and we will approve, as a top priority, as was mentioned earlier, the Draft Bill on Administrative Procedures. The aim is clear - for Spain to have a single and systematic law that regulates relations between the public administration and our citizens and companies for the very first time, and that a decisive commitment is made to interconnected paperless e-government.

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is clear then that the penetration of new technologies in the Spanish public administration is being implemented successfully, accompanying this with the necessary measures to make investments as profitable as possible and provide our citizens with top quality services.

ICTs have constituted one of the pillars of the majority of the measures proposed by the Commission for the Reform of the Public Administration. In 2014, major achievements have been made in the digital transformation of the public administration, although there is still a lot more to do in the coming years.

As I believe the people of Spain are aware and view positively, we have an excellent public administration, which is matched by the quality of our public servants. This is a source of pride for us all. But if our public administration has managed to achieve this acknowledgement of its excellence, it is precisely because it has found a way to commit to its renewal and constant modernisation.

Our commitment to digital administration is a new step forward in this modernisation process, in the knowledge that the future administration can only be digital. This is the only way today that our public administration can be the best driver for our competitiveness and help foster growth and job creation, and it is also the best service we can offer to meet our ultimate goal of providing the Spanish people with greater well-being.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I want to once again reiterate, as I did at the beginning, my thanks to you all for your presence here, particularly to the representatives of companies. I believe that we are facing one of the truly important challenges, as I also said earlier. I also know that the effects of the decision taken today, on this matter and on others, cannot be seen or take effect immediately, and that we need to wait for the medium or long term to see them; but, when one takes on governmental responsibilities, and above all, when you are in power, you must deal with issues each day, and on occasions, each minute or second, but you also need to try to have a vision whereby you think about those who will be here in the future: many millions of Spaniards.

This is a short-, medium- and long-term issue, in which the key is not to let go or give up ever, as in so many other facets of life.

Thank you very much.