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As much as 21% of the funds under Romania's National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) is allocated for digital transformation, the equivalent of over 6 billion euros, and as far as public bodies go, we try to bring Romania into the 21st century, senior official with the Ministry of European Investment and Projects (MIPE) Csilla Hegedus told a specialist conference on Tuesday.
"MIPE is always to blame for PNRR (...) I assume that it is also to blame that 21% of PNRR funds will go for digital transformation and around 40% for green projects. There are many things that MIPE did not necessarily want, but the European Commission did. Negotiating PNRR, good or bad as it is, was a very difficult procedure, because the European Commission has very clear ideas about what should be under our PNRR. We relied on two country reports, 2019-2020, and the needs highlighted there had to be covered by PNRR. If we talk about 21% of PNRR for digital transformation, then we are talking about an amount of over 6 billion euros. There has never been so much money and I don't think it will ever be again for this sector. From my point of view, the money is needed. I hate to queue at the counter, everyone is standing and some lady is giving you a dirty look because you haven't bring a piece of paper again. Not to mention that the online form has to be filed on the 2nd floor, room 23... I hope all this doesn't happen again. MIPE here has the role of a watchdog, so that everyone can do their job. The hard part is shouldered by ministries... And from that point of view we are trying to bring Romania into the 21st century," added Hegedus.
According to the MIPE official, the government cloud is the most important among digital transformation projects.
Hegedus also said that telemedicine was an acute problem during the COVID-19 pandemic in Romania, and that funds of 470 million euros are expected for the development of this field.
Central and local administration officials, government officials, private companies and economic stakeholders attended a conference on Tuesday on opportunities and funding mechanisms under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR).
AGERPRES.
