A total of 660 people have received training in digital skills in Cantabria thanks to the program 'Administration near you', a new service promoted by the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory whose objective is to bring Electronic Administration closer to the population of rural areas and combat the digital divide.
This has been announced today by the Government delegate in Cantabria, Eugenia Gómez de Diego, who has made a provisional assessment of this program, which began in November 2022 and will last until the end of 2026.
On a visit to the old Schools of Pontejos, where one of the informative sessions was held today, Gómez de Diego highlighted the “good reception” that this initiative is having.
As he has pointed out, so far the staff of the Government Delegation in Cantabria has held a total of 88 information sessions in 66 municipalities, has advised 660 people, of which 129 were over 60 years old, and has facilitated the obtaining of 550 electronic certificates and digital key.
“The Government of Spain is aware of the importance of bringing services and procedures closer to the citizens to strengthen social and territorial cohesion and guarantee equal opportunities,” said Gómez de Diego, who stressed that “the fight against the digital divide is a priority for the Government.”
The delegate pointed out that through e-government, information of interest to the citizen can be accessed “immediately” and a multitude of procedures can be carried out without having to travel, such as filing the income statement, checking working life or cadastral data, payment of taxes, registration in the municipal register, applying for scholarships and benefits, a work permit or access to medical records, among many others.
The delegate of the Government thanked both the staff of the Delegation and the municipalities, which cede the spaces and spread the calls, for their “involvement” to “achieve together to increase the use of electronic services and thus facilitate the relationship of citizens with the Administration, avoiding unnecessary displacements”.
The Mayor of Marina de Cudeyo, Pedro Pérez Ferradas, also attended the briefing this morning. He thanked the Government of Spain and the Delegation for this program that “helps to lose the fear towards the use of e-government, which offers many advantages, and more in rural areas where public transport is a service to improve”.
‘The Administration Near You’
As the delegate recalled, the Plan ‘The Administration near you’ has the collaboration of the Federation of Municipalities and its mission is to bring the General Administration of the State closer to citizenship in municipalities between 500 and 8,000 inhabitants, facilitating access to public services regardless of the place of residence.
In Cantabria 68 of the 102 municipalities that make up the Autonomous Community have a population between 500 and 8,000 inhabitants. These municipalities constitute the place of residence of 25% of the total Cantabrian citizenship, and because they reside in small and medium-sized municipalities, they endure greater difficulties in access to the public services that the AGE offers.
In order to minimize this gap in access to services, the Delegation, in collaboration with the municipalities, organizes face-to-face sessions in these municipalities in order to inform citizens about the services provided in the administration and overcome the digital divide through the assistance of qualified public employees.
In this way, the objective is to allow the citizens of the municipality to proactively access the public services from anywhere, through the venues and electronic procedures already available, acquiring the appropriate knowledge in the use of technological tools, in order to use the electronic administration in an autonomous way.
Finally, the delegate also wanted to thank the fundamental work in the training of the population carried out by the two Agents of Rural Diffusion of the Electronic Administration contracted for this purpose through the program of First Work Experiences, as well as the other two young people who have participated in this same program, specifically in the Unit of Attention Women Victims of Gender Violence and in the Department of Communication.