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European Society and Digital Economy Index and the digital progress gap in Romania

The Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) was published last year on 12 November. The situation in the first year after the Covid-19 pandemic called for measures to counterbalance the resulting deficit and relaunch development programmes. A package of measures called the Recovery and Resilience Facility, a financial instrument worth EUR 337.97 billion in grants and EUR 385.85 billion in loans at European level (English text), had been launched since thebeginning of the year. The DESI results for Romania show that the proportion of broadband coverage and fixed very high capacity networks is above the EU average and the proportion of women ICT specialists in Romania is among the highest at European level. On the other hand, Romania has an extremely low level of basic digital skills, integration of digital technologies and public digital services. Also, the share of SMEs with a basic level of digestible intensity and the percentage of companies exchanging information electronically are the lowest in the EU. To redress this situation, all measures under the Romanian Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) will be supported by a EUR 6 billion fund. For a better understanding of the reasons for these gaps, a recent video conference involving members of the Government with responsibilities in the digestion process shows that the private environment is much more active than state institutions, which are still at the stage of experimentation in the field of digital technologies.

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Link Type

Target audience

Digital technology / specialisation

  • Artificial Intelligence

Digital skill level

  • Intermediate

Geographic Scope - Country

  • Romania

Target language

  • Romanian