Investments in digital transformation conducted by Romania are translating into progress on the public services component and in the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) ranking, which witnessed an improvement of over 20% in the 2024 relevant report, chairman of the Authority for the Digital Transformation of Romania (ADR), Dragos Cristian Vlad declared this week at a conference on digitalisation and cybersecurity.  

    “Romania saw a significant growth compared with all the other member states also because we had recovery potential in terms of the digital transformation process. As you well know, we were doing very well in terms of connectivity, speed and availability of the internet in our hands, but we had a lot to recover in terms of public services, e-public services and, last but not least, at the level of SMEs. (…) The 2024 measurement reveals some growth figures that show that investments in the digital transformation process are generating progress. On the public services component, we have an increase of over 20%, against a European Union average of 3.6%. So, we are basically back in the middle of the ranking or above the European average. At the level of online provision of essential cross-border public services between states, we have an increase of 45%, as against 4.3%, as a result of strategic measures and projects for Romania in the digital transformation process,” Vlad said. 

    According to him, Romania still has to bridge the existing gap on the digital skills component. 

    “At the ADR, through the National Cybersecurity Network, we have promoted and required that each project, each financial allocation should have a minimum of 10% of the investment intended for the cyber protection of the data information system for the future digitalisation investments. Last but not least, the government Cloud project is a successful initiative, a good example at European level, because it meets all the conditions of resilience, scalability and most of all data sovereignty. We all have to catch up – from all public administration actors up to and including companies that promote solutions; it’s not just about having equipment, but also about having the adequate culture and duly use the security component in the online life we all have,” the ADR head said.