José Contente, the Regional Secretary for Science, Technology and Infrastructure of Portugal's Azores region and archipelago, remarked that the Island of Pico is seeing a positive trend regarding the implementation of several eInclusion programmes and projects.

More specifically, these programmes and projects include: the Azores Digital Region project ('Açores Região Digital'), the Digital Schools project, the Support Programme for the Integration of People with Disabilities in the Knowledge Society ('Programa de Apoio à Integração dos Cidadãos Portadores de Deficiência na Sociedade do Conhecimento' - CIDEF) and the free Wi-Fi project.

The Regional Secretary took stock of the situation on the occasion of a visit to the IT club of São Roque do Pico, cultural association of São Roque, in June 2010. Mr. Contente said the computer centre of São Roque do Pico contributes to the digital inclusion structure the government has been building on all the islands. He also outlined how dynamic that ICT space is; on average, two dozens of persons visit the centre daily to use the Internet, but during the summer period and school holidays the number of visitors is much higher.

Mr. Contente reminded the audience that apart from the two ICT spaces that are being deployed, other projects are being implemented on the island, such as the aforementioned CIDEF programme which has already supported the institutions involved with €560 000.

The Regional Secretary said that the CIDEF programme aims to provide citizens with disabilities with equal access to new technologies in a way to enable them to acquire digital skills. He added that this set of achievements forms a smart digital network that the region wants to develop on two other Azores islands - Santa Maria and Corvo respectively - in an aim to create a new ICT skills culture.  

 

Further information: 

• Original news article - RTP/ Antenna 1 Açores (in Portuguese)