“We have reached a point where now it is the citizens themselves who are looking for the digital transition.” With these words, the Minister of Digital Governance, Dimitris Papastergiou, began his presentation at the “9th Delphi Economic Forum” with the central theme of Innovation and the Digital Economy in Southeast Europe.
Mr. Papastergiou referred to the digital identification, the digital ticket at the stadiums, saying that “the numbers speak for themselves, 240,000 citizens have registered in the National Communication Registry in order to have access to the digital wallet, 125,000 sports fans have downloaded the gov in a short period of time .gr. wallet to be able to enter their ticket. Over 10 to 15,000 people for this Sunday have transferred their ticket to the digital wallet.”
He even added that it is not the state that goes alone to pull society forward, but rather it is society that has realized the need for digitization.
In the meantime, the minister spoke about the abolition of the digital bureaucracy brought about by the relevant bill through the abolition of the issuance of certificates. “Let’s go to direct interoperability,” he said characteristically, while also referring to the new competitions that are “running” for New Space.
“It is very important to develop data centers, to provide the necessary infrastructure, but all this must also be seen in terms of energy, to build smarter networks and of course to look more closely and directly at the issue of energy storage” and he continued: “Let’s not only look at two dimensions but at the possibilities that now come to us from the third dimension, which is satellite policies”.
“Technology should leave no one behind”
The minister did not fail to talk about the cyber security aspect, but also the valuable funding to the municipalities, with half a billion from the Recovery Fund, NSRF and the “Antonis Tritsis” program which they should make use of, while he also referred to the financial support to small and medium enterprises. “There’s another 40 million and whatever else we can raise to enable them to get the tools they need,” he said while stressing that the skills part is obviously very important, “so that technology doesn’t leave anyone behind ».
Nikos Efthimiadis Chairman, Thess INTEC, Greece spoke about the difficult period that Europe is going through in relation to its competitors in America and China, as “America slowly developed with our own minds and China with our own investments ” and emphasized that there is a huge opportunity for small countries like Greece and Bulgaria, which are “reborn through this new situation. We are in another revolution where we can use our minds better.”
He spoke about a combination of digitization, digital economy and knowledge, so that “we can see what we will do with all the social problems we have, which need a lot of knowledge but without digitization we will not succeed”.
For her part, Giota Paparidou, president of the Board of SEPE (Association of Informatics and Communications Enterprises of Greece) pointed out that innovation is something mandatory, not optional, in which the Balkan countries mainly lag behind, as in the majority of these countries they are active SMEs, which do not invest in research and innovation.
In the meantime, he emphasized that there is a need for a digital upgrade of businesses, but also a digital upgrade of citizens’ skills, “to do reskilling, to retrain people”.
Source: RES-MPE
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