MEP Negrescu: Digital transformation must be a priority of future gov't, incumbent president

Digital transformation must be a priority of the future government, but also for the incumbent president of Romania, MEP Victor Negrescu told a conference on Wednesday on digitalisation and cybersecurity.

"I am trying once again to sound the alarm on the need for Romania to accelerate the digital transformation process. Obviously, this is not a simple keyword, but we are talking about a profound change that can help Romania, especially in the current economic context (...) That is why a zero moment is needed and digital transformation must be a priority of the future government of Romania, but also a priority for the incumbent president. I support the proposal coming from the business community to the President of Romania to have an advisor specialised in digital transformation, but at the same time I want the entities responsible for digitalisation at the level of the Romanian government to work more together and to have a central role in what the governmental act means. Basically, to have these bodies at government meetings and every point that has a component regarding digitalisation should be treated seriously, because digitalisation means that things go faster, things are cheaper and at the end of the day the citizen feels that he can have direct contact with the state," Negrescu said.

According to the official, currently, digitalisation does not mean computer science and programming only, but it is present in all fields of activity.

"In my capacity as chief negotiator of the European Union budget for this year, I have increased the financial allocations for all these components, because I am a strong supporter of digital transformation. In this logic we must innovate, and I would like to be more courageous. Just like we were in the past when we introduced Computer Science courses in high schools. Why not think about how we can introduce courses related to Artificial Intelligence, to make sure that access to training on robotics is a real one. Let's make sure that we have these integrated components in the university area as well. Today, digitalisation does not mean computer science and programming only, but it is present in all fields of activity, whether we are talking about social levers or the technical area. All professions need these types of skills and, obviously, we must not forget to inform the population as a whole, to develop mechanisms to protect citizens. We have seen in recent months how fragile Romanian society is to foreign influences, to fake news. I don't think anyone could estimate the impact of this information and the impact of social media on the way people think."
Negrescu added that the safety of the citizen is closely linked to cybersecurity, and in this context a real partnership between the public, private and civil society is needed.

"Today, citizens are faced with dozens of such obstacles and challenges, not only when we talk about political options, but also when we talk about using the credit card or when we talk about an online order or when we talk about a document that is digitised. There are countless such challenges and, unfortunately, we have to note that the citizens are not ready. They don't know how to react when these things happen, when there are people who want to abuse their honesty. Cybersecurity must also be a central thing, a priority in terms of the act of intervention of the relevant bodies. When we talk about the safety of the citizen, we must also talk about cyber safety. We need not only specialised structures, but we need professionalised people and we need a real partnership between the public sector, the private sector and civil society," Victor Negrescu pointed out.

Romania's cybersecurity agenda, ways of detecting and countering cyber-attacks and trends in technology and in the digital market were discussed on Wednesday at a conference on digitalisation and cybersecurity organised by Bursa publication.