Head of IT Association of Slovakia: Digitization is stagnating in our country, but Slovakia would save billions of euros
We are ranked 23 out of 27 in Europe in the evaluation of the Digital Society and Economy Index from the European Commission workshop. Only Poland, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania are behind us. What is the reason?
We have been declining in this index for several years. The reason is that neighboring countries are investing in their digitization. However, we can say that these investments literally stopped in 2016. If you don’t invest in something, then there must be results.
Is there a vision of how investments in this area will develop?
The plan is to give 1.2 billion for digitization. The question is whether they are correctly divided and whether they will bring results such that we jump in the mentioned index. Other resources are found in structural funds in the Slovakia program. However, it is important to say that the Support and Resilience Plan also applies to neighboring countries. And if they invest more or more wisely, it may come to the point that we will not catch up with them, but, on the contrary, will move away from us.
From your point of view, is this money properly distributed?
If I have about the Recovery and Resilience Plan, then no. Some three percent of all funds are allocated to the digitization of companies, six percent to human resources, and zero percent to connectivity. This is contrary to how other countries have it. Therefore, it is possible that while we speed up the pace, other countries will speed up even more and continue to move away from us.
So what should we focus on and what change do you propose?
If there is going to be a review of recovery and resilience, I assume that it could be done, a plan is needed for the mentioned three areas. Digitization of businesses, human resources and connectivity, in which the state does not invest at all.
In one of the interviews, you stated that Slovakia does not have a long-term vision for the digital transformation of the country beyond the election or program period of individual governments. Missing a long-term goal?
We have a situation where every four years the set comes and reviews what its predecessors did. He tries to come up with his own vision, concept. In other words, every four years we have a reboot. If the company were to function like this, it would probably disappear. If there is no agreement on the long-term vision of digital Slovakia, this will continue to happen. The present countries, which have been working on their digitization for a long time, have set some goals since the 1990s. For example, Estonia. Whether there is a left-wing or a right-wing government, they are still going in the same direction. This also applies to education and other segments where projects or strategies reach beyond individual election periods.
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