Portugal - National Digital Strategy 2030

The National Digital Strategy 2030 (Estratégia Digital Nacional — EDN) was launched in 2025 by  the Government of Portugal. The strategy aims to enhance citizens' quality of life, boost economic competitiveness, and streamline interaction with public administration.The strategy is fully aligned with the European Union’s Digital Decade 2030 framework and targets. 

Its 2026–2027 Action Plan, approved by Council of Ministers Resolution No. 214/2025 (29 December 2025), includes 49 actions organised into 16 initiatives, supported by an estimated investment of €350 million. Its objectives include ensuring that 80% of the population has at least basic digital skills and that 90% of SMEs reach a basic level of digitalisation by 2030.

The Four Strategic Dimensions and Key Initiatives

The Strategy is structured around four dimensions—People, Businesses, Government and Infrastructure—and is based on seven guiding principles: trust, inclusion, sustainability, security, ethics, efficiency and collaboration.

PEOPLE: Focuses on upskilling and reskilling citizens across all life stages, reducing the digital divide, and promoting gender balance in tech.

• Digital Competencies: Continuous training, basic literacy campaigns, computational thinking, and AI literacy for students and workers.
• National Girls in STEM Program: Initiatives targeting primary, higher education, and the job market to attract and retain women in STEM and tech leadership.
• Digital Skills Curriculum: A digital portfolio/wallet system for micro-credentials to validate digital skills aligned with market needs.
• Civic Participation through Digital: Enhancing platforms like participa.gov.pt to engage citizens directly in public policy decision-making.

BUSINESSES:Aims to build a dynamic, competitive, and sustainable business environment by encouraging digital tool adoption and ecosystem growth.

• Digital Journey for SMEs: Structured support providing digital maturity diagnostics, clear adoption pathways, and leadership upskilling.

• Collaborative Digital Hub: A multi-stakeholder platform linking public entities, SMEs, higher education, and research centers to develop solutions in AI, quantum computing, IoT, and blockchain.

• Simple and Digital Interaction with Businesses: Redesigning public sector interactions, public procurement, and funding access to reduce bureaucracy.

GOVERNMENT: Transforms government services into proactive, user-centric, and fully integrated digital operations.

• Digital Journey for Public Administration: Digital maturity assessments and training programs for civil servants and administrative leaders.
• Simpler & More Digital Public Services: Enhancing the single public portal (gov.pt) across four channels (portal, mobile app, phone, in-person) with automated, proactive notifications.
• National AI Agenda: An ecosystem roadmap launching in early 2025 focused on AI Innovation, Talent, and Infrastructure in alignment with ethical standards.

• National Digital Agency: A centralized coordinating body overseeing public digital policy implementation across People, Businesses, and Government.

INFRASTRUCTURE:Ensures robust, resilient, and secure connectivity across continental Portugal and its autonomous regions.

• Cybersecurity & Digital Infrastructure: Development of a government sovereign cloud, incident monitoring tools, and an expert cybersecurity pool for public bodies.

• Data at Everyone's Service: Establishing common public data governance models, data spaces (Health, Agriculture, Transport), and an upgraded open data platform.

• Territorial Cohesion through Digital: Deploying the CAM (Mainland–Azores–Madeira) submarine cable ring to connect island infrastructures to mainland advanced computing networks.

• Digital Blueprint: A centralized national platform to monitor and evaluate the progress of digital ecosystem initiatives in real time.

• Digital & Smart Nation: Expanding smart city/territorial initiatives from urban hubs to rural regions using IoT, sensor networks, and 5G.

The successful implementation of the strategy’s biannual Action Plans will rely on close, continuous collaboration between the newly established National Digital Agency, public administration bodies, industry leaders, and academic partners.