JULY 25, 2019

President Piñera presents State Modernization Agenda: “It’s about making people’s lives easier”.

Fifty measures have been introduced to make State processes more efficient and user-friendly. The initiatives that have already yielded positive results include the provision of Civil Registry certificates free of charge, the digital implementation of more than a thousand bureaucratic procedures, and a Virtual Police Station where citizens can process their paperwork online.

On Thursday, President Sebastián Piñera unveiled the State Modernization Agenda, which seeks to improve the work of the state and have a positive impact on its efficiency, facilitating processes and procedures for members of the public.

“This is the way to make the government work for the people, making their lives easier,” said President Piñera, who appeared with Minister Secretary General of the Presidency Gonzalo Blumel and Treasury Minister Felipe Larraín as well as the Permanent Advisory Council for State Modernization.

The proposals include mobilizing all government institutions through digital transformation in an effort to make digital platforms the way in which the government relates to the public; data-based government designed to improve public policies through feedback using information from each institution; and shared services, which address problems that are common to all public institutions in a coordinated manner, saving resources and avoiding duplication.

All of this is being carried out through an agenda of concrete projects and clearly defined goals.

The initiative has as its principles working in the best interests of the public, people as a key factor in transforming institutions, the search for cross-cutting improvements, aligning gradual implementation and early results, and privileging the use of current legislation and efficiency as a goal.

President Piñera praised the work of the Permanent Advisory Council for State Modernization, which developed proposals and will lend continuity to the process. “The Council is seeking to accelerate the pace of changing our State, which is often slow and bureaucratic, into one that is agile, efficient and transparent,” he explained.

As part of the government’s efforts to improve efficiency, all vital certificates are now issued free of charge by the Civil Registry. This has increased the average number of documents issued each day from 6,500 to 30,000. The use of electronic medical leave certificates has halved the amount of time workers must wait to receive their payment (from 70 days to 30). An effort is underway to digitize over one thousand government processes, 220 of which will be electronic by the end of this year.

A Virtual Police Station has also been launched, which will allow five types of reports to be filed online without the need to personally visit the police station in order to be attended by a police officer.

The Executive Committee on Modernization will serve as the internal coordination agency for the main institutions involved in this area. The initiative will also benefit from the active collaboration of the coordination teams of the Treasury Ministry and the office of the Ministry Secretary General of the Presidency.