The Azores will soon have a web based platform with geographical information about the archipelago. The site will be called www.inspireaçores. It follows from the stated objective of the Regional Government to promote the emergence of a scientific cluster of space-technology and other technologies that will be used by public and private organisations.

The contract between the Regional Government and the company Cibermap-Internet Information Systems Ltd regarding the introduction of the Inspire programme in the Region was signed on Thursday in the city of Ponta Delgada by the Regional Secretary for Science, Technology and Equipment.

The Regional Secretary, José Contente, said at the ceremony of the signing of the contract that “we are founding an information society in the Azores, one that is based in technology that is useful to life in the 21st Century and that should constitute the new pillar of our economy. This is the posture that informs our daily efforts and the new projects that we are implementing” 

José Contente said that the establishment of the European Space Agency (ESA) station in the island of Santa Maria brought a new scientific and technological dynamism to the region and that this “projected the Azores abroad and engendered new objectives that must be more rapidly implemented than those of the tourism sector, thirty years ago.”

The contract signed today covers the development and implementation, in a period of three years, of a 230 thousand euro investment in a web platform with geographical information that can be applied in the domains land-planning and knowledge formation that are essential to the development of the Region.

José Contente said that this project is yet another step in the programme that the Government has implemented with the “ necessary conviction, commitment and investments so as to develop a new pillar of the Azorean economy “ that creates qualified employment and promotes the use of high-end technology.

He added that this “platform is only a part of a vaster programme, that of GeoAzores, which will serve all of those that use and provide geographical information about the region.

José Contente also talked about Digital Televisio, which will reach the region on the 29th of April as a result of a pledge made by the Regional Government when it signed the contract that extended access to public television chanels to everyone in the Azores.

He said that it is with such political measures and “serious pledges, real and palpable, that we must advance towards the construction of an information and knowledge-based society” that provides its citizens and companies with these new platforms that provide tools for the growth of knowledge in society.”