The World Bank’s GovTech Maturity Index (GTMI 2025), which was just announced last week, once again placed Portugal in group A, which is the group of countries with “extensive maturity” in the digitalization of the public sector. The report, which evaluates 197 economies and analyzes 48 indicators on services, systems and public policies, confirms that Portugal remains among the leaders, as has happened in previous years. But, as always, it is worth looking beyond the glitter of the graphics, as the distance between technical maturity and real experience continues to merit some concern.
GovTech does not listen to citizens and relies too much on the self-assessment of governments, which respond to questionnaires with the optimism typical of those who believe that a public policy is the same as applying it to all of our lives.
The 2025 document shows global progress, but also a widening of the gap between the leading countries and the lagging countries, revealing that the strongest countries continue to be the ones that advance the most. Portugal is included in this batch and clearly benefits from this dynamic, as it maintains robust central systems, a mature digital identity and an offer of digital public services that, according to various metrics, is among the most consolidated in Europe.
Portuguese continuity among leaders is not a coincidence. The index assesses four essential pillars, which include core systems, service delivery, citizen participation, and GovTech enablers (strategies, laws, and competencies). In 2025, the areas of greatest global evolution were the adoption of government cloudinteroperability and new indicators such as artificial intelligence policies, ethics and green technology. Portugal fits well into these advances, as it already had a structured digital ecosystem and in several cases was even a pioneer more than thirty years ago.
However, the report also reveals some shadows. The digital participation of citizens continues to be the least mature dimension globally and Portugal is no exception to this trend. Transparency platforms, open data portals and participation mechanisms show uneven progress and persistent weaknesses. This is statistical confirmation that many citizens feel that the digital State communicates better with itself than with those who need its services.
The same goes for digital skills and public innovation. Although the number of countries with innovation strategies and policies for startups has increased the GovTech index, this does not mean that the internal culture has kept pace. Portugal is at the forefront, however it faces the same obstacle that many leaders face, since, after building the infrastructure, it needs to function fluidly and simply.
However, the true reality lives outside the charts. It lives in the citizen who tries to solve a simple problem and ends up wandering between portals and authentications that don’t seem to talk to each other. GTMI 2025 shows us that Portugal has the right ingredients, such as interoperability platforms, online services, digital identity and transversal policies. What is not assessed is whether the end result actually pleases the citizen.
That is why being in group A is a reason for recognition, although also for concern. Because the digital modernization of a State does not end with the existence of advanced systems, as it takes place in the daily experience of those who depend on them.
Portugal continues to live in a double reality, on the one hand it is a leader in international reports and on the other hand it still reveals too many moments in which we realize that the digital country exists, without however fully reaching the common citizen, where real life actually happens.
E-governance specialist