There is a new and ambitious project for the Io application, which is the implementation of public administration services after the explosion with cashless (plan to promote the use of electronic payments) and green transition during the covid epidemic in recent years. Developed and managed by PagoPa, a publicly traded company controlled by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the spread of the free app is truly extensive: the Io app has been downloaded almost 34 million times and integrates almost 200,000 digital services available from multiple locations. 12,000 entities sending nearly twenty million messages per month through the app. The application is the mobile interface for simplified access to all platforms on the basis of the digital transformation of public administration, starting with the payment platform PagoPA: in fact, more than 13 million registrations have been made to the electronic “wallet” of Io. Tools to pay taxes like tari, school fees and canteens, as well as bills from your smartphone.
The aim of the Meloni government is always to further increase the spread of the application, enrich it with the integration of new public services, in order to facilitate the interaction of Italian citizens with the public administration through Spid (public digital identity system). ) or Cie (electronic identity card) credentials. Basically, some documents need to be finished with the application: from driver’s license to election card and health card, but also school services for families and students. That’s why everything is dematerialized and at your fingertips in one app. Work continues: The project to turn the Io app into a kind of “national digital wallet” should be implemented by the end of the year (at least according to government estimates). Let’s see in detail what is known so far with the proposed news.
Documents the government wants to bring to Io
Alessio Butti, undersecretary for innovation in the Presidency of the Council, spoke on April 19 about the government’s investments in the PagoPA implementation at a hearing in the Chamber’s constitutional affairs commission. In recent weeks, work has focused on adding three key documents to the application: a car license in a certified digital version that has legal value and has access to all data associated with it; In this case, the approved and legal health card; a new transition, no longer green, but “voting”, that is, electoral card in digital format. “We therefore expect another significant positive change in the daily lives of all Italians by the end of the year,” said Butti.
As the undersecretary explained, PagoPA and the digital transformation department are working to ensure that the “notification platform” is available in the coming months. This is a new public digital infrastructure that will enable the gradual digitization of all communications that have legal value (such as fines) that administrations send to citizens and businesses. App Io will be an interface, but the service will be progressive, allowing citizens still in the digital divide to continue to receive paper registered letters.
So the latest news concerns the school world. Last Thursday, education minister Giuseppe Valditara presented information on the launch of the industry simplification plan that sees the Io implementation in the field. According to the plan announced by Valditara, families and institutions will have digital solutions to manage payments simply and quickly (already active in many public schools, but expandable to all, including equal ones), increase interaction with school services. Improving and accelerating administrative activities.
At the forefront of Europe?
Operational details will be announced in the coming months. If the planned deadlines (end of 2023) are met, Italy will propose itself among the most virtuous countries in Europe in terms of digitization of public administration services, envisioning the EU’s path for the so-called “European electronic wallet”. . Indeed, the Commission is undertaking a broad project to guarantee a public electronic identity that will allow all European citizens to securely request, obtain and store documents and information, thereby providing easy access to online services from any State member. However, it will be up to the US to offer digital wallets containing dematerialized and certified versions of documents: from educational qualifications to driver’s licenses, for example to drive or to be a member of a professional order.
Two unknowns or prerequisites for full digitization
Regarding timing though, there are two prerequisites for the Io app to contain all the important documents of the citizen. The first is compliance with the deadlines set by the Pnrr (national recovery and resilience plan) for the digitization of public administration. “In the cloud, we are aligned with the targets set by Pnrr. The next deadline will concern September 30, 2023, the date when 1,064 local public administrations should complete the transition process,” Butti said. In short, the biggest challenge is to rationalize the whole system by unifying the digital identities of the citizens without further slowing down the digitalization process of the public administration.
One of the main problems, then, remains the problem of bandwidth, especially broadband and ultra-wideband, and the difficulty of connecting in parts of Italy. “There are delays at Pnrr, we inherited this hastily prepared plan, and there are delays on some issues,” Butti said. Therefore, in light of the current issues, I “proposed an organic and global revision of the ultra-broadband strategy”. It will certainly not be easy, but the work continues.
Source: Today IT
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
