Margarida Balseiro Lopes was speaking at the end of the meeting of the first Council of Ministers dedicated to Digital Transition and Modernization, which took place today at the Faculty of Science and Technology of Universidade Nova (Nova FCT), in Almada.
Among the 15 measures, the minister highlighted the case of identification numbers for foreign citizens.
"We know that the Finance, Social Security and Citizen's Offices have been faced with long queues" and "we have thousands of foreign citizens living in Portugal who cannot access something as basic as a Tax Identification Number [NIF], the Social Security Number or the Health User Number", continued the government official.
And, therefore, "what we are going to do now in 2024 - this is a measure for this year, in the last quarter of 2024 - in a project that is being implemented by AMA [Agency for Administrative Modernization] and AIMA [Agency for Migration and Asylum Integration] is in one place for citizens to have access to the three identification numbers", explained Margarida Balseiro Lopes.
"This is particularly important because we will take pressure off" the people who work in these entities, she said.
"We are going to make this service available in Espaços Cidadão", explained the government official.
