Two thirds of Slovaks want more digitization in communication with the authorities, Slovakia has a lot to catch up on
67% of Slovaks would welcome more digitization in communication with the authorities and 38% in the provision of medical care.
According to a survey for Seyfor, 32% of respondents in the administration related to business and work expect the improvement of digital services.
According to the IT expert, digitization will have a fundamental impact on market competitiveness in the coming years. The Internet of Things can also be key in overcoming the current energy crisis.
Slovakia also lags behind the V4
“This year, as well as in the following years, I foresee another significant shift towards the cloud, a massive development of artificial intelligence, even in applications for which it has been too expensive until now. The development of the cloud will also be the development of business intelligence, data mining, practical use of the Internet of Things,” said CEO of Seyfor Martin Cígler.
According to him, the question remains, like Slovakia in the coming years, the potential of digitization for the benefit of economic growth, better efficiency or optimization of costs, both in the private and public sector.
According to the latest ranking of the Global Innovation Index, Slovakia is in 46th place out of 132 evaluated countries and 29th among 39 European economies. It also lags behind the other V4 countries, while from 2020 its position in the ranking worsens.
“As for the last two major impacts on the economy, i.e. the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, they have not had any negative impact on the IT sector yet, and I don’t think it should be any different in the future. Information technologies are basically everywhere around us today. Their use is worldwide and all because globalization will continue, as will their development,” Cígler expects.
Retraining will be a big topic
Even so, there is a problem with qualified experts on the market. According to the World Economic Forum, machines will replace 80 million jobs worldwide by 2025, but approximately 100 million jobs will be created specifically in the IT industry.
Retraining of workers, acquisition of new skills and lifelong (self) education will be a big topic, because without it it is impossible to keep up in such a dynamic field as IT.
The survey lasted from November 8 to 15, 2022, and was conducted by the MNForce, s.r.o. agency, among a sample of one thousand respondents in the Czech Republic and the same number in Slovakia, aged between 18 and 60, who work with information and digital technologies.
Fico called the referendum the most ignored, Čaputová “totally failed” and considers the result stunning (video)
22.1.2023 (Webnoviny.sk) – Chairman of the party Direction – social democracy (Direction-SD) Robert Fico declared that the party takes full responsibility for the result of Saturday’s referendum.
As he further stated at the press conference, despite the fact that it was “the most ignored referendum by the government coalition, the president of the Slovak Republic Zuzana Čaputová a media”, almost 1.2 million voters went to the polls.
Results of the 2023 referendum on amending the constitution
“The voters came with a clear vision, they knew they wanted change. Slovaks, if you come to the next parliamentary elections in such numbers, change is guaranteed. The government Igor Matovič (OĽaNO) or Eduard Heger (OĽaNO) will definitely end,” declared the chairman of Smer-SD and added that he considers the result of the referendum to be astonishing.
Smer-SD took full responsibility
“I think we kidnapped her. This responsibility was manifested not only in the fact that we went to various television relations, but especially in the fact that we also invested money in billboard decoration in Slovakia and had a huge number of direct meetings with our voters.“, says Fico.
According to Fico, the president failed
He further stated that in Slovakia we have “bastions”, it is a left-wing, social-democratic policy. The chairman of Smer-SD added that he also respects the people who came to the referendum and circled the answer no.
“Among these people, however, I missed the president, Prime Minister Eduard Heger and the chairman of the National Council of the Slovak Republic Boris Kollár (We are family). It is established that in such a form of direct democracy, which must be followed by the head of state, the three highest constitutional officials ignore participation.” said Robert Fico.
He also stated that the president failed completely. “What the president demonstrated is an assassination of democracy. We ask what they were so afraid of that Zuzana Čaputová considered it necessary to issue a public statement the day before the referendum that she would not come to the referendum.” Fico asked. At the same time, the chairman of Smer-SD thinks that the three highest constitutional officials are afraid of democracy.
1.2 people’s love followed Fico
Vice-chairman of Smer-SD Richard Takac He considers the result of the referendum also successful. He stated that even according to the representatives of the Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO) movement, this referendum was successful.
“If we all remember well, in 2020, before the election, the OĽaNO political association had in their election program that they wanted a threshold of 25 percent in the referendum, so according to the movement, this referendum is successful,” Takač explained.
Vice-chairman of Smer-SD Ľuboš Blaha he stated at the press conference that they had heard from the media that this referendum was Robert Fico’s referendum.
“Be that as it may, 1.2 people’s love followed Robert Fico. We did not have this success even in 2012 during the parliamentary elections,” said Blaha.
According to a political scientist, the fact that it was linked to a certain political party could have deterred voters from participating in the referendum
Although the participation in Slovakia did not cross the threshold within the corresponding validity, it is not even one of the historical lowest that we recorded in the referendum in Slovakia, says political scientist Jakub Bardovič from the Department of Political Sciences at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of St. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava.
As he further stated for the SITA agency, the entire referendum must be understood in the context of the fact that it is connected to a certain political party, which may discourage many voters from participating. They also marked their participation very discreetly as an important factor that belongs to participation, as well as the fact that many political actors did not participate or announced their non-participation in the referendum.
More complicated evaluation of the results
For Barovič, the evaluation of referendum results is more complicated, especially in the case of participation, than in the case of elections. This results from the fact that, in addition to the usual reasons for non-participation that are present in elections, potential expressions of disagreement with the question or questions are also attached to the referendum.
“In the event that the voter knows that it is less likely that you will achieve electoral participation and at the same time does not want to vote for, it becomes his statement, since I am talking about the participation itself, which only increases the quorum. This was also the case of this referendum, when even stable voters did not participate in the elections due to their disapproval. This is also why the attempt to interpret the results in the sense that the voters in general in Slovakia unequivocally want to change the Constitution is not correct, despite the fact that the majority of the participating voters voted for it. said the politician.
We are in a specific situation
But rather, according to him, maybe about a certain segment that leans towards the given proposal. “On the other hand, it is appropriate to add that there is a current group of voters who would agree with the wording of the referendum question, but because of the existing label associated with a specific political party, they refused to participate in this agenda.” remarked Bardovič.
According to Bardovič, the solution to the issue that was the subject of the referendum will finally be discussed at the level National Council of the SR (NR SR). As the only way to perceive political consensus within the parliament. He pointed out, however, that we got into a specific situation, given that both the NR SR and the referendum dealt with the same topic.
He considers it an aspect that could influence a certain group of voters when making a decision, or even when participating in the referendum itself. However, according to Bardovič, the holding of the referendum or access to it may become one of the topics for, for example, the next presidential election.
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