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Romania has to boost digital transformation as its public administration is lagging behind in the digital transformation index of the European Union, Chair of the National Confederation for Female Entrepreneurship (CONAF) Cristina Chiriac said on Thursday, told Agerpres.
"Romania seems to be a country of discrepancies. I say 'seems' because I want us to tear down this 'seem' together. In fact, it is a country of discrepancies. If we look at the digital transformation index of the European Union, as far as Romania is concerned, we will see that we are lagging behind in terms of the public administration. If we look at what is happening in the countryside in Romania - and how much our Romanian citizens understand about the importance of banking - and what the indicator that places us more than 26% behind the European Union average is, that should tell us a lot about the digital journey that Romania has to embark on. (...) From here, in Bucharest, things look extremely beautiful. We have many entrepreneurs. Romania's biggest entrepreneurial footprint is here in Bucharest, in Bucharest-Ilfov. People are educated, they know how to do business, they attend business events, they have information, they do networking. Elsewhere in Romania, when we are talking about the other business hubs, there are only seven of them and I would like to have more, maybe at least 20, because the contribution of entrepreneurs and citizens to Romania's GDP would be different and, thus, we would manage to raise the standards of living. When I look at what is happening, including in Brasov, Constanta, Iasi, I see that there are extremely large discrepancies. Next, in terms of local public administration, there are mayor's offices that have no web site addresses. We still have mayors who use their personal addresses in the public interest," Chiriac told the first edition of this year's "Digital UP" project organised in Bucharest on Thursday.
She added that digital transformation in small urban settings is either small or non-existent.
"There are hundreds, dozens of settlements in Romania where there is no ATM. People refuse to use the simplest tool - namely a bank card - let alone connections between websites or main institutions, as we want, between ANAF, the Pension House, the Healthcare House and so on," added Chiriac.
She said that this "Digital UP" caravan should multiply in every county in Romania.
"I started 2023 with the thought that if the entrepreneurs, the leaders of the employers' community, the NGOs, the Association of Municipalities, Towns and Cities and, of course, the government of Romania would lend a hand and boost a little everything that mean these volunteer activities that we do for the Romanian community, we probably shouldn't debate the fate of digital transformation for another five years and our efforts to see economic and social efficiency, sustainable development, which we keep talking about, would be visible in three years at the longest. What we do with these events is not only an awareness campaign, it is also education for the business community (...)," the CONAF chair added.
Chiriac added that at the moment there are more than 3,500 CONAF member companies.
The National Confederation for Female Entrepreneurship (CONAF) is the strongest confederation in Romania that unites the interests of entrepreneurs in a European spirit of gender equality and equal opportunities.
It is the largest entity of its kind in Romania, an organisation that promotes and supports Romanian entrepreneurship opening up horizons for collaboration and co-operation both internally and internationally.
