No digital transformation without digital inclusion, MEP says

Europe’s digital transformation cannot move forward without digital inclusion, MEP Franc Bogovič said on Monday (17 October).

“Digitalisation can bring people together and strengthen social bonds”, Bogovič said in his keynote speech at the Huawei Connect 2022 conference in Paris.

The MEP emphasised that bridging the gap between rural and urban areas is a crucial aspect of digital inclusion, adding that “digital development must help revitalise rural centres across the EU” through impactful policies, as only 37% of all European have access to high-speed internet.

Digitalisation is concentrated more in urban centres where high-skilled workers are located, to the detriment of more remote areas. According to a 2019 G20 policy report, this enhances global inequality while limiting social cohesion.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has continuously warned against the risk of digital clusters, arguing that the concentration of innovation activities in a few firms could lower market competition and increase wealth inequalities.

“The underrepresentation of certain social groups in innovation activities implies that human resources in the economy are not used to the full potential,” the organisation stated.

OECD research has shown that concentrated digital clusters foster further innovation, though this innovation does not spread to other, less urbanised areas.

Efficient policymaking to bolster digital literacy across all EU regions and support smaller firms in making sound investments in digital solutions is more needed than ever at a time when Europe lags behind China and the US in digital investment and growth.

“The US invests six times more money than the EU on new technologies, especially AI,” Victor Marçais, a senior partner at consultancy firm Roland Berger, told a panel at the Huawei conference.

The EU has already laid out different ways to help level up rural areas and allow regional SMEs to compete against larger, more advantageously located firms.

The path has been set by the Digital Decade targets, which include broadband connectivity everywhere in Europe, basic digital skills for 80% and essential digital intensity for 90% of European SMEs.

Back in July, the European Commission released its skills partnerships for Digital Ecosystem as part of its Digital Decade goals for EU digital literacy – expanding on the up- and re-skilling of workers in many digital sectors.

The realisation that digitalisation can catalyse company growth and train workers accordingly is already showing positive effects in France.

According to a 2022 French SME trade union CPME study, 81% of all French SMEs acknowledge that there is a “real” benefit to digitalisation, up 14% since 2020 – a sign that understanding digital solutions and being able to deploy them is becoming second-nature for more entrepreneurs every year, CPME’s digital lead said.

However, in-company trainings on issues as fundamental as cybersecurity are still lagging. According to the survey, only 29% of entrepreneurs hosted digital training for employees at least once a year, while 63% never did.

Bogovič, who chairs the European Smart Villages Forum, an initiative aimed at fostering resilience and innovative solutions in rural areas in the EU, said that creating dedicated funds “to help villages identify relevant solutions and implement them” is another way to further access to digital solutions to smaller firms in more remote areas.

In this vein, the Digital Europe Programme, intended to fund strategic digital investments for SMEs with a budget of €7.5 billion, is a welcome start.

Digitalisation is not just about profitability and can also increase the level playing field for social equality across the EU. “Technologies can be implemented in smart ways to improve the quality of life of every citizen”, Bogovič concluded.

Skills partnership launched in effort to meet Digital Decade targets

A new EU skills partnership is set to drive forward the up- and reskilling of workers in the digital sector, a key element of the Digital Decade targets, progress on which has been criticised by some as being too slow. 

[Edited by Luca Bertuzzi/Nathalie Weatherald]

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