Performance on the PSC Criteria Gap national - cross-border Home Member State 89 75 63 57 Performance per industry 5 3 2 2 1 5 2 3 I. Quality and availability of information II. Transactionality III. Accessibility for of e-procedures cross-border use Overall (CY) Obligatory (CY) IV. Usability Voluntary (CY) Host Member State Temp 52 76 74 Host Member State 1 Business Services Construction Food, Beverages and Accomodation Personal Care The PSC assessment The PSCs are assessed by mystery shoppers according to four PSC Charter criteria, which are displayed in the upper left corner: Mystery shoppers have assessed the PSCs from the perspective of three scenarios: The performance of the PSCs is measured across four major industries, which are: 1. Availability of information indicates to what extent information about a procedure is available online. - Permanent establishment of a business in their home country; - Construction; - Permanent establishment of a business in another country; 2. Transactionality of e-procedures indicates to what extent one can complete a procedure online. - Food, Beverages and Accommodation; - Cross-border provision of temporary services. - Personal care. Overall scores for these scenarios are presented in the spider chart above, and are benchmarked against the average. The results per industry are displayed in the column chart above. This chart shows differences per industry and deviations from the average. 3. Cross-border accessibility indicates to what extent the portal is accessible for foreigners. 4. Usability indicates the ease and speed of use of government procedures. - Business Services;
Performance per subcriterion Average Score Average Score (Overall) Navigation tools & retrieval of information Structure of information Procedures e-completion & Transactionality Transactionality of e-procedures Track & Trace 32 e-completion by foreign user Accessibility for cross-border users 66 63 59 72 Distinction establishment & service provision Multilingual 96 Availability & quality of services Usability 57 Payment tools Degree of available information Quality and availability of information Country Score 84 Ease of use Speed of use POOR PERFORMERS % AVERAGE PERFORMERS The bar chart above presents the performance of the PSC on the PSC Charter criteria and sub-criteria. The bars and blue figures represent the country score per criterion/sub-criterion. The country scores are benchmarked against the average, as represented by the purple figures in each of the respective bars. VERY GOOD PERFORMERS %
Performance per requirement Quality and availability of information Company registration 71 General business license 89 Operations and location Tax and financial* 47 Employing cross-border* % Country Score 39 96 59 Social security* Cross-border accessibility 65 65 83 49 Recognition & special licenses Transactionality of e-procedures 84 65 27 51 48 44 % % % 86 76 37 67 34 51 Usability % % % average to % POOR PERFORMERS to AVERAGE PERFORMERS 75 to % VERY GOOD PERFORMERS Score per requirement The graph above presents the scores for the seven categories of administrative requirements per PSC Charter criterion. The categories of requirements are displayed on the left. The score of each of the requirements is benchmarked against the average. * This category of requirements is not obliged under the Services Directive and can thus be perceived as voluntary requirements %
Policy Context of the Point of Single Contact Status and progress Background Trend and evolution Structure of the PSC Consecutive assessments in 211/12, 213 and 214/15 place The PSC of provides information on business procedures and for among top performers with overall score significantly higher than the EU some procedures it is possible to complete them online at the PSC average. portal. For others, the PSC redirects the user to other business portals or Strategy and policy objectives Enhancement of public sector capacity while reducing operational costs. Facilitate cross-border collaboration at European level. physical offices (e.g. planning permission at the Planning Authority). The enhancement of the eservices delivery, through interoperable website, as only the English version was available at the beginning. The PSC is more than just an entry point or gateway. The PSC exists flexible, accessible, complete and secure. During the years, consistently scored particularly high on the separately from the governments main website and is for businesses Revamp of the PSC. Specifically, the action aims at upgrading the PSC quality and availability of information. Compared to 213, improvement and entrepreneurs only. through the development of additional eservices so that complies The key progress was made by introducing a Greek version of the can be noted on the usability of the portal, which is praised by 215 fully to the Services Directive. users. Based on: - egovernment Strategy of the Republic of for 214-22 However, some weaknesses still need to be tackled. For example, although scores very high in multilingualism (providing information in foreign languages), users consistently report language Government portals. Delivering additional eservices, which will be Governance - Digital Strategy for (212-22) barriers in completing e-procedures, because some forms are only Initiatives available in Greek. The managing body of the PSC is the Industrial Development Service, Overall, the Cypriot PSC remains as one of the best in Europe being a Ministry of Energy, Commerce, Industry and Tourism, while the Ministry true one-stop service provider for European business wanting to do of Finance is the initiator and facilitator of the wider egovernment policy business in. However, like other PSCs it still needs to invest in. Through the specialised government body Department of efforts on enhancing transactionality of e-procedures, in particular, for Information Technology Services (DITS), the egovernment is promoted cross-border users. and implemented within the public sector. DITS is responsible for tenders and contracts related to the PSC s further development. egovernment Law is submitted for approval. There are at the moment initiatives ongoing to fully implement eid and esignature. Full implementation of Ariadni: This Government Secure Gateway enables users to access the electronic services (eservices) made available over the Internet. Further expansion of the PSC and transform it to a fully-fledged egovernment centre. Initiatives for the full implementation of eid and eprodecures are running to support the policy objective to transform the PSC into a fully-fledged egovernment centre.
Point of Single Contact The Way Forward Strengths Weaknesses provides a comprehensive and well-structured range of information on their PSC, specifically when it The performance on transactionality of eprocedures could be improved, primarily because payment tools are comes to generic requirements: The general procedure for the registration of an economic activity is well not integrated and track and trace options are missing. These additional eservices (electronic payment, described in detail and Most of the procedures were very descriptive and detailed. The sector menu was well electronic tracking) which should be provided by the PSC, will be connected through the new Ariadni program; outlined and most of the categories we were examining were in place. This is enabled by a variety of tools that It is not clear what key enablers (eids, e-signatures from other Member States are supported by the PSC. have been integrated into the PSC (i.e. service sectors index, alphabetical list index, search engine); Some important information on the PSC (not indicated by mystery shoppers which specific information) is only The Cypriot PSC portal is relatively easy accessible by foreigners. The strong performance of the portal in this available after providing credentials. Logging in seems to be a barrier for mystery shoppers: I would like to regard is primarily caused by a comprehensive English portal and the ability for users from abroad to complete suggest that all information is openly available and logging is required only for the completion of the procedures online; procedure ; The usability of the PSC is high and assistance services are fast and effective. Mystery shoppers were highly Although the portal provides a wide range of information, mystery shoppers sometimes could not find satisfied with the assistance services: Finally I would like to emphasize the excellent reply I got to an email". information for specific requirements. Recommendations Overall, the quality of PSC is high. is among the top performers in the, with a 2nd place in the overall score. Areas of improvement remain: 1. should fully implement the use esignatures and eids to further improve the quality of the PSC. The user friendliness of PSCs is perceived better when electronic identification is used; It should also ensure the recognition and acceptance of those tools from other Member States. 2. The transactionality of eprocedures should be improved. Time savings and the possibility to obtain government services anywhere at any time can only be realized when procedures can be completed online. In this respect, full implementation of the Ariadne system will be a major step forward; 3. should consider making more information publicly available, making logging in only necessary for the online completion of procedures. This will enable (cross-border) users to find information more easily, particularly when it comes to specific requirements.