GovMesh Digest: Can digital public infrastructure crack the Italian bureaucracy?

Italy's story is one of those featured in the GovMesh Digest special report. You can find the individual stories on the other participating governments at GovMesh 2.0  here.  

Digital public infrastructure (DPI) should not be viewed only as an internal tool for digital transformation, but also an instrument to foster cooperation across society. 

Agency for Digital Italy (AgID)’s Director of Administration, Operations and Vigilance, Chiara Giacomantonio, pointed to DPI’s value as a strategic framework for economic growth, social inclusion, national security, and international collaboration. 

She was speaking at GovMesh 2.0 event, co-organised by GovInsider and interweave.gov, which happened in early-June in Berlin, Germany. 

Her presentation shed light into the crucial role played by governments to build trustworthy foundations that enable whole-of-society digital transformation. 

A well-designed DPI builds trust by providing secure, reliable, and transparent digital services, she noted.  

This trust was essential for people and organisations to confidently engage in digital transactions and collaborations, knowing that their data and identities are protected. 

AgID is a technical agency operating under the Italian government’s supervision responsible for the technical and regulatory aspects of a country's digital transformation.

Its functions ranged from building and maintaining the country’s DPI to setting standards for digital services, ensuring accessibility and upskilling civil servants to drive adoption. 

She shared more about the four building blocks to Italy’s DPI, namely the digital identity ecosystem, e-invoicing, digital payments, and data sharing and services platform. 

Pillars of DPI  

Giacomantonio highlighted that the digital identity ecosystem, not just the digital ID alone, would be key to enhancing the security and interoperability of electronic transactions across the European Union (EU). 

Italy’s digital identity ecosystem, eIDAS2, included the national digital ID (SPID), as well as authentication and trust services. 

Adopting an ecosystem approach with digital ID is a significant step forward towards fulfilling the region’s ambitions of this new cross-border EU Digital Identity Wallet. 

The e-invoicing platform (SDI) and digital payments platform (PagoPA) have played a key role in monitoring public finances and preventing corruption, said Giacomantonio.   

SDI was first introduced in 2015 and mandated in 2019 for B2G, B2B and B2C transactions. In 2024, the platform handled more than two billion transactions, indicating its widespread adoption and significant scale. 

PagoPA was designed to make it easier for citizens and businesses to make payments to public bodies easier, safer, and more transparent, through participating payment service providers. 

The digital payments platform has processed more than one billion transactions with a total value of €277 billion (S$415 billion) as of September 2024, and 47.9 million unique users in 2024. 

It has seen an average annual increase of 61.4 per cent for transactions carried out between 2020 and 2024. 

Complemented by the National Digital Data Platform (NDDP), invoices and payments flow through a centralised system which allows the government to better track all transactions. 

She added that the platform also enabled a key benefit of the Once-only principle, meaning that citizens and businesses only need to submit certain information once to the government. 

The platform helped connect the different digital layers across the agencies and prevents information silos, ensuring that information can be shared seamlessly. 

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How DPI tackles siloed digitalisation 

Giacomantonio underlined that DPI could help bridge siloed government digitalisation efforts. 

“While every public administration can have a particular system, all systems must be integrating with each other,” said Giacomantonio. 

Through a shared, foundational infrastructure, DPI enabled faster digital transformation while simultaneously enforcing interoperability standards.  

This meant that while different agencies may use their own tools to meet their unique needs, the systems could still communicate and exchange data seamlessly. 

Beyond government operations, DPI could also enable an efficient digital network for private businesses and citizens by “transforming traditional sectors into innovative and competitive ecosystems,” she said. 

This is especially so since Italy tends to excel in traditional sectors like manufacturing, agriculture, tourism, and fashion. 

Lastly, a robust digital infrastructure – enabled by DPI as the foundation – could help reduce the urban-rural divide in the country.  

Smaller towns can access digital public services, distance learning and remote work, which could support local entrepreneurs by connecting them to global markets and eventually revitalise more marginalised areas, she noted.