The GOP - Major Planning Options (Grand Options Plan) for 2013 (Law no. 66-A/2012) were published in the Official Journal (Diário da República) on 31 December, as part of the ongoing strategy of fiscal consolidation and Portugal's social and economic development, as presented in the Programme of the XIX Constitutional Government and in the GOP for 2012-2015.
According to the fifth option set out in the GOP - The challenge of the future: priority sector measures - action in the communications sector will focus on efforts to improve market functioning, specifically increasing competition and creating conditions enabling more effective regulation (section 5.2.11). Note is made of the following measures:
- conclusion of the process to designate the new universal service provider of electronic communications (in 2013);
- continued development and use of broadband networks as part of the National Digital Agenda;
- continued liberalization of the postal sector and the implementation of the new contract with CTT - Correios de Portugal (CTT) governing the concession of the universal postal service;
- determination of the model for the privatization of CTT, with the objective of completing the process by the end of 2013, an area also addressed in the first option - The challenge of the change: structural transformation of the Portuguese economy - which indicates the 1st quarter of 2013 to begin the privatization process (section 1.1.2).
Also as part of the fifth GOP option, on entrepreneurship and innovation (section 5.1.4), the new National Digital Agenda is highlighted as a key measure for the 2013-2015 three-year period, responding to the priorities and objectives of the European Digital Agenda, an initiative that seeks to leverage next generation broadband infrastructure with the development of content and services in various areas.
Consult:
- Lei n.º 66-A/2012, de 31 de dezembro https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1148432
