Greece: Naxos is the first “smart island” in the world

Digital Governance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis referred to the contribution of digital transformation to the effort to unfetter the country’s productive forces in the greeting he addressed during the presentation of the “Smart Island” program of Amazon Web Services on Naxos.

The minister referred to the example of gov.gr, explaining how small changes work exponentially in the functioning of the state and the economy, but also in the daily life of citizens. He emphasized that there are over 1,500 services found on gov.gr and very soon there will be 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 – as many as are the procedures of the state. “We started with 9 million digital transactions in 2018 and this year we will hit 1 billion digital transactions. If one does the division, basically we are talking about every Greek citizen not having stood at more than 100 queues. We are talking about 120 fewer queues for each of our adult fellow citizens”, he pointed out.

As Amazon Web Services chose Naxos as the first international station of the “Smart Island” program, Kyriakos Pierrakakis spoke of “a great effort that starts here”. As he mentioned, the goal is “to be able to combine the capabilities of many Greek companies, multinationals and domestic startups, structures of the state (Local Government and the central state apparatus).”

He also noted that the government is generally investing in “Smart Cities”. It is the first programme providing services that have such a broad scope, while its pilot application on the Aegean island will be the passport for its export both to other parts of Greece but also to other countries around the world.

Smart Island will develop solutions for smart mobility, primary health and transportation of goods. These solutions include the digital recording of passenger ship arrivals and departures and the transportation of biological and pharmaceutical materials using drones. Overall, the island’s existing infrastructure, such as the marina, power grid and water management systems, are being upgraded through Internet of Things (IoT) solutions and smart infrastructure management systems.