Romania allocates 7pct of GDP for public procurement, half of European Union average (INACO)

Europe must manage the new global competition more intelligently in Revolution 4.0, while Romania allocates only 7pct of GDP for public procurement, half of the European Union average, Andreea Paul, President of the Competitiveness Initiative - INACO, told a Friday's specialist conference. 

"There is a digital competitiveness report released last week, which shows us that the US is leading the world rankings of this segment, followed by Singapore and European countries like Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland and so on. In the same report published by IMD, Romania goes up seven positions, but continues to be in the second half of the rankings of the 63 countries analyzed, namely on the 47th place. The good news is that we have climbed from the 54th place last year to the 47th this year and that we rank 12th in the same rankings in terms of Internet speed, 14th in terms of number of graduates in science and 15th in digital competencies. The news is not very good when we talk about Romania being at the bottom of the global rankings in terms of involvement of local communities, cities, but also the ability of the Government to acquire new technologies, including those in ITC and digitization," said Paul. 

University lecturer Andreea Paul also mentioned that at European level, 14pct of GDP is dedicated to public procurement, while the average for Romania is half. 

"As much as 40pct of the European workforce does not have sufficient digital literacy, and in the area of public procurement there is enough room for new digital innovations. At European level, 14pct of the GDP is dedicated to public procurement, while in Romania the percentage is only 7pct," said INACO chief. 

The European Committee of the Regions and the Romanian Association of Municipalities is organizing on Friday, in Bucharest, a conference on "Enhancing the Competitiveness of SMEs through Digitization - Challenges for Regional and Local Authorities".