Sursa foto: Pixabay
Romania’s history of the digitalization is not a long one. On the contrary, the whole phenomenon of digitalization, as we perceive it today, has only recently emerged, in the last decade. In 2019, Romania established the Authority for the Digitalisation of Romania, an institution whose importance and reach proved itself in 2020, with the outbreak of the CoVID-19 pandemic.
Digitalization “on paper”
On paper, Romania should already have been at an important stage of digitalization: 35% of its citizens should have been using e-government solutions by 2020, according to a strategy covering the period between 2014 and 2020. In reality, the figure of those actively using e-government programs in 2018 was only 6%.
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Herein lies the paradox of Romania for a few years now when we talk about digitalization, which many rightly consider to be at least a strange extreme: while our country benefits from a highly-developed internet infrastructure, with high network speeds, and a considerable number of IT specialists, it is ranked only 26th out of 28 EU Member States in the DESI index ranking.
Thus, most state institutions still work predominantly with physical papers, which places us on the very honorable last place in the DESI ranking in the chapter of “Digital Public Services” in the last 3 years. Statistically, an upward trend is observable, but the pace of digitalization in public institutions is extremely slow compared to other EU member states.
Information during the Pandemic
A Eurostat statistic reveals that although there is a fragile increase in the digitalisation index in Romania, public information remains one of the areas with the biggest problems. During 2020, only 10% of Romanians got their information from the official websites of local authorities, the lowest percentage in the Union. Italy and Bulgaria, the other two countries trailing the top, still have a percentage almost double than that of Romania, at 19%.
In consequence, in a pandemic year, where communicating public-decisions by authorities was crucial, most Romanians relied on information form other sources. Due to this lack of communication, most Romanians were not even aware of the existence of official websites, which ironically, have the role to inform them.
Many projects, highly expected achievements
The next few years will be crucial for the digitalization of Romania and its institutions. The Authority for the Digitalisation of Romania has in implementation no less than 12 different projects, ranging from the establishment of the framework for the development of e-government tools, to the creation of a computer system for health registers, and a national computer system for adoptions. All these projects are intended to reduce red tape and to facilitate communication with public institutions, and their implementation could represent a significant benefit to those who, during a pandemic, had to physically go and solve their problems at the offices of public institutions.
It remains to be seen, however, whether what we find on the Authority’s website can be translated into reality in a timely manner, and especially whether it will be accompanied by clear and well-structured communication.
Translation: Ovidiu Harfas