The 2004 Major Planning Options have been approved - Law no. 107-A/2003, of 31 December -, being part of a medium-term strategy for the development of the Portuguese society and economy, which was presented in the Program of the XV Government.
This document specifies the developments carried out in several areas, in the year 2003, and identifies the objectives of the government action for 2004, regarding each of the four broad options: to strengthen a modern and effective State, endowed with authority; to regularize public finances and to develop the economy; to invest in the qualification of the Portuguese people; to reinforce social justice and to ensure the equality of opportunities.
Electronic communications - which are explicitly dealt with in the scope of the 2nd option - are deemed as a Government strategic option for the Portuguese society, and remain one of the top priorities of the Executive. Three broad objectives were defined for the sector, in the year 2993, to be rendered concrete through different measures:
- Protection, information and training of economic agents and citizens in general - ensuring the access to the telecommunications universal service and to all electronic communication services, as well as the interconnection of operators of the corresponding networks; promoting an effective use of resources, namely of radioelectric spectrum and numbering; ensuring the existence of a national numbering plan that enables the non-discriminatory access to services; guaranteeing the quality of goods and services provided by operators; promoting the investment in the education and training of citizens, in order to stimulate a mass use of the information society services, with a particular regard being given to citizens with special needs and to residents in peripheral areas; guaranteeing a transparent and accessible information on all aspects related to the functioning of the sector;
- Protection and reinforcement of competition - through the full and effective implementation of the communitarian package that comprises the regime applicable to networks and services of electronic communications, the guarantee of the maintenance of the sector?s stability and the rights of all service providers and users in the course of the period of transition to the full implementation of the new regulatory framework and the guarantee of usage of all mechanisms provided therein and of application of prevention and/or correction measures regarding deviations to the corresponding principles;
- Generalization and strenghtening of the access and use of electronic communications and associated technologies - creating conditions that provide guarantees of security to information transmitted trough electronic means, ensuring that the legal framework is adapted to the needs of service users and providers, namely regarding electronic commerce matters, and encouraging the use of services supported in broadband and open platform electronic communications.
Postal services are also analysed autonomously within the 2nd option, being defined the following objectives for the year 2004:
- Protection, information and training of economic agents - ensuring the existence and availability of the universal service and the quality of goods and services, as well as guaranteeing transparent and accessible information on the functioning of the sector to all citizens;
- Protection and reinforcement of competition - though the implementation of the corresponding communitarian policy, which aims to the progressive establishment of a single open market of postal services in the space of the European Union, trough a process of gradual and sustained liberalization, and preparing the sector at the same time for the regulatory evolution bearing in mind a European single market, specially as regards foreseen alteration within reserved services, and the competition growth in services already liberalized.
Some measures included in the remaining three plan options, with sectorial implications, should be highlighted:
Within the scope of the 1st option - to strengthen a modern and effective State, endowed with authority - and at the level of foreign policy, a particular regard is given, among other actions, to the Lisbon strategy maintenance as a main area of communitarian action, to the reinforcement of the privileged relationship and cooperation with the Portuguese speaking countries and to the qualification of Portuguese presence at international organizations. Within the scope of internal administration, the launching of the SIRESP - Integrated System for Portugal?s Security and Emergency Networks - to be implemented in the course of the year 2004, should be emphasized.
Within the 3rd option - to invest in the qualification of the Portuguese people - several measures are specified, to be rendered concrete in the year 2004, being outlined around 7 strands of action, which aim for the following aspects, among others:
- An information society for all (mass access and use of the broadband Internet and promotion of the digital cohesion);
- New capacities (promotion of a digital culture, of the qualification and knowledge of the Portuguese people as regards the information society);
- Public service quality and efficiency - electronic government (guarantee of quality public services, support to the modernization of the public administration, cost-efficiency and promotion of transparency);
- Better citizenship (improvement of the quality of democracy through the increase of quality of citizen?s civic participation, namely by means of the implementation of a national system of claims and suggestions on public administration services);
- Health care within reach of all citizens;
- New ways of creating economic value (increase of enterprise productivity and competition through electronic business, and likewise through the adoption of legislation on electronic business);
- Attractive contents (promotion of multimedia contents, applications and services).
Consumer protection is dealt with in the scope of the 4th option - enforcing social justice and ensuring equality of opportunity - wherein the following issues are provided for: the development, in the year 2004, of the consumer portal and the strengthening of the resource to the new technologies, as well as the continuity of the elaboration and disclosure process regarding thematic guidelines and other training material and the support not only to the development of a network of out-of-court settlement of consumer disputes but also of civil society structures involved in the promotion of consumers? rights and interests.
Finally, the document includes a section regarding initiatives aimed specially at the Autonomous Regions of the Azores and Madeira. For the Azores, actions such as the implementation of the Azores Digital Region Project, the promotion of a general use of the Internet and the disclosure of multimedia contents of a regional scope are comprised, including, for Madeira, the development of studies on technology innovation and transfer and the implementation of the project ?Online forms - Digital Madeira?.
2004 Major Planning Options - Law no. 107-A/2003, of 31 December
(This information is only available in portuguese version, published in the Diário da República)
