The Regional Secretary for Tourism and Transport stated today in Lagoa that the Government of the Azores is developing a cloud platform to ensure the increase of productivity among the public administration and improve the access of citizens to these services.
 
Vítor Fraga spoke at NONAGON - S. Miguel Science and Technology Park during the presentation of the Google Cloud Platform, which he presided over on behalf of the President of the Government.
 
"On the one hand, we are consolidating the creation of a private cloud for the Government, allowing the better management of resources and the creation responses that can be replicable and, on the other hand, we have started to use public cloud resources, including Google and other platforms in order to have response capacity and decrease costs with the purchase of equipment," said the Regional Secretary. For the Government of the Azores," the future involves this strategy, i.e., solutions that will be increasingly hybrid."
 
"Adhering to cloud platforms is to ensure that we are moving in a digital world that offers us the dematerialisation of processes through sustained workflows, authentic and secure administrative processes and robust document management," said the government official. 
 
However, Vítor Fraga stressed that the Government of the Azores is "well aware" that it is still "at the beginning of a digital revolution process in which the use of resources based on a cloud will be critical."
 
"The coming years will be guided to a major dynamic, developed under the administrative reform, where the dematerialisation of processes will be a key factor in order to ensure greater proximity, speed and transparency in the relation with citizens," said the government official.
 
According to Vítor Fraga, "administrative modernisation ensures the cost/benefit balance since it implies a significant reduction of costs in terms of time and effort in the management of processes, which contributes to the reallocation and profitability of human resources and the optimisation of services."
 
The Regional Secretary also emphasised the "great pride" in participating in the presentation of the Google cloud platform, "not only because of the Azores are the stage for the first national presentation but also because it was a regional company [GlobalEDA] that was chosen by Google to provide technical support in Portugal."

For Vítor Fraga, this Google's decision is a "demonstration of confidence in the Azorean company and its human capital."
 
"As a result of strong investment that GlobalEDA has been making over the past few years, it is now possible to have a company in the Azores that is a reference for the US multinational," said Vítor Fraga. The government official stressed that "this also evidences that is possible to have companies in the Azores that stand out in a global competitive context, which brings added responsibility and the opening to new business opportunities. "
 
The Regional Secretary also reiterated the Government's commitment to "transform the Azores in a desirable location for this type of companies that bring added value through technology and promote qualified employment."
 
"We believe the development of the Azores involves synergies that should balance a series of areas such as the environment, technologies, science, digital, administrative modernisation and energy," said Vítor Fraga.