An important international conference was recently held in Heraclion, Crete on the “Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the promotion of Local Government and development”, with high participation on behalf of the local government sector.

KEDKE (the Central Union of Communities and Municipalities of Greece) organized the conference assisted by the Laboratory of Industrial and Energy Economics (Research Group for Technical, Economic and Strategic Analysis of the Information Society) and Peta S.A. developmental company. 

The conference in which participated dozens of speakers both from Greece and abroad (among which Professor. V. Asimakopoulos, Special Secretary of the Information Society, and St.Christakos of EYD (Special Management Service) – proved to be an excellent opportunity reflecting the current state of relations between local authorities (OTA)  and new technologies, especially after the intense activity taking place recently. Numerous actions have been launched, while the implementation of the first major project under the supervision of KEDKE is already under way. This project is funded by the ‘Information Society” Operational Programme aiming at creating a “Single Network Environment of the Local authorities providing services to citizens and enterprises". This project will provide electronic and network support to all the services of a modern municipality and will make the best use of all the capabilities offered by the National Public Administration Network (‘SIZEUXIS”).

The main conclusions drawn in the context of the conference were the following:

• The use of ICT must become a main priority for the upcoming municipal election,
• ICT development must go through human networks and not be limited to the purchase of “boxes",
• the establishment of e-municipalities requires a structured transition strategy with good coordination and decentralized implementation,
• the timely and continuous involvement of the users is a key element to success,
• an architectural model with some basic features (e.g. use of freeware/open source software, reuse, multiple access, and sound interoperability) constantly adapting to various working conditions
• synergies and cooperation must take place and, evidently,
• the mobilization of society and the exploitation of broadband remain the catalytic factor for all the above.