Portugal is one of the Leading Countries in eBusiness, eCommerce and eGovernment for Enterprises

• Electronic exchange of information with clients/suppliers in value chain management (Portugal=31%; EU=15%; 2nd in the EU)
• Using applications for integrating internal business processes in all enterprises (Portugal =55%; EU=41%; 6th in the EU)
• Automatic exchange of business documents with clients or suppliers (Portugal=32%; EU=26%; 7th in the EU)
• Using applications for integrating internal business processes in large enterprises (Portugal =82%; EU=71%; 8th in the EU)
• eInvoice issue/reception (Portugal=23%; EU=23%; 13th in the EU)
• Analytical customer relations management use (Portugal=15%; EU=17%; 14th in the EU).

Portugal’s figures are also above the EU average in 1 of the 3 indicators examined for eCommerce:

• Percentage of enterprises selling online(Portugal=16%; EU=12%; 8th in the EU)
• eCommerce as a percentage of total company turnover (Portugal=12%; EU=13%; 11th in the EU).
• Percentage of enterprises buying online(Portugal=19%; EU=24%; 14th in the EU).

The “Europe's Digital Competitiveness Report” for 2009 that was recently published by the European Commission  also highlights Portugal’s leading position in eGovernment, particularly as regards enterprises, where its figures in all 4 indicators examined are above the EU average, with 1st place in one indicator and 3rd in another:

• Percentage of basic public services for enterprises fully available online (Portugal=100%; EU=86%; 1st in the EU)
• of which to submit bids in eProcurement systems (Portugal=17%; EU=11%; 3rd in the EU)
• Percentage of enterprises using eGovernment services to deliver completed forms (Portugal=70%; EU=55%; 5th in the EU)
• Percentage of enterprises using eGovernment services (Portugal=77%; EU=71%; 15th in the EU)

The European Commission Report also highlights how Portugal has prioritised increasing ICT capacity for the scientific community (eScience) and for elementary and secondary schools and students. This includes the development of a high-performance research and education network, digital scientific libraries (including providing online access to scientific publications by research and higher education institutions, open access repositories and Grid Computing. As regards elementary and secondary schools, all Year 1 to Year 12 state schools have had broadband connections since January 2006 and the number of computers in elementary and secondary schools has risen.

As regards fixed broadband speed, Portugal comes 4th in the EU for the percentage of connections with a speed of over 2 Mbps (Portugal=98%). According to European Commission data for 1st January 2010, Portugal came 3rd in the 27 EU countries for broadband penetration of 10 Mbps or above in the population (Portugal=11.3%; EU=5.8%) and 9th for broadband penetration of 2 Mbps or above in the population (Portugal=18.3%; UE=20.8).

The “Europe's Digital Competitiveness Report” shows that Portugal is one of the group of most advanced countries as regards Mobile Broadband use by the population, according to the two indicators examined: percentage of the population that uses Mobile Broadband to access the Internet via a UMTS/3G mobile phone (8th place in the EU) and the percentage of the population that uses laptops to access the Internet via broadband through a wireless connection outside their home or workplace (7th in the EU).

Also according to the European Commission data for 1st January 2010, Portugal came 2nd among the 27 EU countries in Mobile Broadband penetration for data services (boards, modems, keys) in the population (Portugal=16.1%; EU=5.2%).

This “Europe's Digital Competitiveness Report”indicates low levels of regular Internet use among the population (Portugal=42%, EU=60%) which, as we know, are related to the very low percentage of the Portuguese adult population with secondary education (the lowest among the 27 EU countries). Portugal’s position as regards Internet use by people with secondary schooling and no higher education background (87%, 6th in the EU) and with higher education (93%, 10th in the EU) is one of the highest in the EU and above the EU averages (71% and 91% respectively).The same is true of student Internet use (Portugal=97%, EU=96%), which far exceeds what one might expect, given the country’s socio-economic background.