Neelie Kroes, EC vice-president, attends innovation fair in Romania

Newsroom 15/10/2013 | 13:35

Neelie Kroes, vice-president of the European Commission and Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, will come to Romania to take part in the Future Communities//Open Innovation Fair between October 30 and November 1.

Dacian Ciolos, European Commissioner for Agriculture, will also take part in the event.

The Future Communities// Open Innovation Fair 2013 is initiated by the Biblionet program and the Ministry for Information Society under the patronage of the Romanian Government and will be taking place at the National Library of Romania.

The event will open in the presence of Dan Nica, Romanian Minister for Information Society, and Paul-Andre Baran, the Digital Champion of Romania.

The visit of the EC vice-president will come after a meeting of the European Council on October 24-25, where one of the topics of discussion will be the Digital Agenda.

According to the European Commission, the ICT sector generates directly 5 percent of the European GDP and has a market value of EUR 660 billion annually, having a greater contribution to the global growth in productivity. Twenty percent of the growth comes from ICT and 30 percent comes from investments in ICT.

Following the implementation of the Biblionet program, an initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, approximately 2,300 libraries were equipped with ITC and software equipment while more than 3,000 librarians were trained in computer use skills and library management.