The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the essential role of effective digital public services. However, innovative digital companies struggle to access the procurement market and innovative procurement is estimated to be less than 10% of the total. Many public bodies, research institutions and start-ups have acknowledged such difficulties and launched dedicated govtech initiatives that were brought together by the European Commission in the Govtech4all govtech incubator.
But why is the govtech ecosystem so important and what are the bottlenecks to the creation of a single govtech market? As the interoperable Europe act finally recognized govtech as a prominent policy focus, the Lisbon Council convened the Policy Roundtable on Growing a European Govtech Ecosystem. The roundtable brought together leading European decision-makers to feed ideas on implementing the interoperable Europe act and inform a digital roadmap for the next European policy cycle.
Alongside two keynote speakers, Frank Leyman, head of international relations, Federal Agency for Policy and Support (BOSA) Belgium; chair, of e-leaders group, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Ricardo Marvao, co-founder and chief growth officer, Beta-i, an exceptional lineup of experts intervened. Notable participants included Andrea Halmos, deputy head of the interoperability and digital government unit, directorate-general for digital services, European Commission; Keith Aquilina, chief technology officer, Malta Information Technology Agency (MITA); Marc Realp, secretary of telecommunications and digital transformation, Government of Catalonia; Laura Kirchner, govtech expert, Gobe studios; and Giovanna Galasso, partner, Intellera Consulting.