Porto Digital: on the way to the knowledge based society City of ...

2. POLITICAL AND STRATEGIC CONTEXT
In order to increase the quality of education, skills and knowledge of the population toward
an information and knowledge society, and to keep in line with the Lisbon Strategy and the
i2010 European Commission policy guidelines for the information society 1 , the Portuguese
government created the Operational Programme for Information Society (POSI). The
Programme was implemented between 2000 and 2006 under the responsibility of the
Ministry for Science and Technology. POSI was funded by the ERDF, the European Social
Fund (ESF) and the Portuguese state.
One of the nine priorities established by POSI was called Portugal <strong>Digital</strong>, which had as its
main objectives: increasing the use of the Internet; improving the quality and efficiency of
public services by supporting the modernisation of the public administration; increasing
the competitiveness of industry through higher use of ICT; and promoting a digital culture.
Under the Portugal <strong>Digital</strong> banner, the government launched a €231m initiative called
<strong>Digital</strong> Cities and Regions to support projects that promoted an information society at local
and regional levels with the involvement of a wide range of regional and local
organisations. Twenty-eight Portuguese cities and regions were funded by this initiative in
order to develop e-communication infrastructures and e-content, launch vocational training
actions, reinforce the modernisation of public administration, induce more and better e-
government and e-business activities etc. <strong>Porto</strong> <strong>Digital</strong> was one of these projects.
Located in the northeast of Portugal, <strong>Porto</strong> has an area of 41.5 km 2 (predominantly urban
and industrialised) and approximately 265,000 inhabitants. It is the second largest
Portuguese city, just after the capital Lisbon. <strong>Porto</strong>’s economy has traditionally been
dominated by the commerce and, in particular, by the famous <strong>Porto</strong> Wine. The service
sector has experienced a booming development in recent decades.
The industrial structure of the region is based on small and medium sized enterprises
(SMEs). The main industries include metal-mechanics, ceramics, furniture, textile,
footwear and jewellery, among others. These industries have become more and more open
to the integration of new technological development.
There were a number of reasons leading to the launch of <strong>Porto</strong> <strong>Digital</strong>. First, the city
council had around 50 services scattered all over the city and the existing
telecommunications infrastructure was too weak for online services and collaborative
work. Second, schools had just a few computers and made little use of Internet connection.
Third, the northern Portugal region (which includes the <strong>Porto</strong> sub-region) has the highest
unemployment rate of the country. Although ICT is not the answer to this problem, it was
seen a potential contributor to somewhat decrease this inequality. Finally, the tourist sector
is quite underdeveloped if compared to other Portuguese regions, particularly in the central
and southern parts of the country.
1 http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/eeurope/i2010/index_en.htm
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