Romania outlines steps towards Digital Agenda

Newsroom 04/11/2013 | 05:15

The Ministry for Information Society has put up for public consultation the National Strategy Digital Agenda for Romania, which outlines the steps in the country’s ICT development through to 2020. Updates on the e-Romania portal and the Prevent digital project, which eliminates conflict of interest in public acquisitions, were announced last week at the Future Communities//Open Innovation Fair.

Under the National Strategy Digital Agenda for Romania, the state envisions IT investments of EUR 900 million in the implementation of public services, cloud computing, e-health, e-commerce and research by 2020. Furthermore, it estimates that 250,000 jobs will be created in the ICT sector by that time.

“The biggest worry for me is youth unemployment, which in some member states has reached 64 percent. (…) With the help of the Digital Agenda, we expect to create over 1 million jobs in ICT for young people. Currently, in Romania, one out of ten people does not have broadband access,” said Neelie Kroes, VP of the European Commission and Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, during the Future Communities//Open Innovation Fair. The event was organized by Biblionet and the Romanian Ministry for Information Society.

The National Strategy Digital Agenda for Romania is part of the Digital Agenda for Europe, one of the seven pilot initiatives of the Europe 2020 Strategy which aims to bring about durable social and economic change by achieving a single European digital market. Currently, the ICT sector generates about 5 percent of European GDP, which stands at EUR 660 billion annually.

The EC vice-president reiterated her dedication to creating a single European digital market which should guarantee consumer protection and eliminate roaming, “which is outdated and not in accordance with the European single market.” Also, spectrum should be dealt with in an efficient way, she said.

The National Strategy Digital Agenda for Romania focuses on three main pillars – the modernization of the public administration, supporting the competitiveness of the private sector via ICT, and providing ICT access and digital education to the public at large.

In order to achieve these goals, the state will work across four pillars. The first will be e-government, inter-operability, cloud computing and social media. The second will be promoting ICT in education, healthcare and culture. The third one is ICT in e-commerce, research & development and innovation. The last pillar will be broadband and digital infrastructure services.

“Romania is a country of contrasts. While 40 percent of the population has never used the internet, Romania ranks second in the world as far as internet speed is concerned,” said Dacian Ciolos, European Commissioner for Agriculture, during the event. He said that until 2015, Romania can tap into EUR 100 million to introduce broadband to rural areas.

In his turn, Dan Nica, the minister for Information Society, called for the roll-out of 4G, since this is the cheapest and most effective technology in covering rural areas, where about half of the Romanian population lives, with internet. The minister announced that the Digital Agenda would be published at the end of November. New developments made by Romania in ICT were also announced during the Future Communities//Open Innovation Fair.

In November, the e-Romania portal will become functional, announced Nica. The portal cost EUR 12 million and is to be implemented by Omnilogic, which won the contract in 2010 following a public tender.

Also, by mid-2014, the National Agency for Integrity (ANI) will have successfully and fully implemented Prevent, a digital project intended to eliminate conflict of interest in public acquisitions in Romania, announced Horia Georgescu, president of the institution.

The cost of the scheme will amount to EUR 7 million, and it will be implemented from structural funds.

The system will function based on a form that is filled in by participants in public tenders and will be connected to the Electronic System of Public Acquisitions. The data processing will be done by ANI. “In the first phase, the system will monitor everybody involved in public acquisitions financed with structural funds. The system will issue warnings when it detects that first- or second-degree relatives of the interested parties are involved. In the second phase, the system will monitor any public acquisitions at national level,” Georgescu explained. “The next step is to sign the financing contract.” He added that ANI has a good financing track record, since over the past five years it had a budget of EUR 15 million, of which EUR 12 million constituted projects implemented from European funds. “If we add to this sum the quantum of the seized fortunes, I believe we are in credit,” said Georgescu.

Otilia Haraga

 

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