Engracia Hidalgo, the delegate for Economy, Innovation and Finance in Madrid, defended the need for a public administration that leverages technology to simplify procedures, anticipate citizens' needs, and automate processes, while ensuring that decisions requiring human responsibility remain in human hands.
During a roundtable discussion titled ‘New Governance Challenges in Specific Sectors: Public Administration, Health, Retail,’ held as part of the Global Technology Forum organized by the Spanish Association of Consulting Companies (AEC), Hidalgo emphasized that “processes and administrative tasks can be automated, but there are decisions that must remain in the hands of people.”
She pointed out that administrations are evolving from merely “digitizing procedures to redesigning services; the question is no longer just how we digitize a procedure, but whether that procedure is still necessary, if we can simplify it, or even avoid requiring citizens to initiate it,” she stressed.
As examples of this redesign, Hidalgo mentioned the municipal registry, the Taxpayer Portal for tax payments, and the social project La Paloma, which aims to combat unwanted loneliness among vulnerable groups. These initiatives have allowed in-person attention to be focused on those who truly need it.
Furthermore, Hidalgo detailed some of the projects the Madrid City Council is currently working on, including the Digital Twin project—an initiative that facilitates decision-making by applying emerging technologies for hyperconnectivity and hyperautomation—and the Sandbox program, which allows testing of technological developments in real urban environments, along with other efforts aimed at energy efficiency and waste management.
