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Summary
The global COVID 19 pandemic has clearly set digitalisation as a horizontal priority both in the public sector and for the business environment. It boosted the development of new e-services and digitization measures in a number of key sectors in support of the efforts to preserve the citizens’ health and help endangered businesses.
Progress made prior to the pandemic has influenced how well prepared have been different parts of the world to face the challenges posed by COVID-19 and its associated disruptions to normal life, including the challenge of switching from physical’ to ‘digital’. In the current context, the provided data present a mix of findings on digital readiness and resilience that offer a new perspective on the impact and importance of connectivity to every nation’s economy. All 3 pillars of sustainable development - economic development social inclusion and environmental protection need ICTs as key catalysts.The development potential of ICT as crosscutting enablers must therefore be fully harnessed for achieving the SDGs.
Digitalisation opens up a new chapter in the economic development. Digital infrastructures, products and services are changing business, science, society and politics. The technological changes associated with digitization currently include the use of information and communication technology in the manufacturing sector, the use of big data and artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things applications that are entering everyday lives. Digitization is also changing the way in which we communicate, our social relationships, opportunities for our working environment and us to participate.
Digitalisation is not a development that will be faced in the future. It is neither a technological niche issue nor a business issue that is solely relevant to major corporations. The potential of digitalisation is enormous and wide-ranging: it can open up new opportunities for growth, work and prosperity, improve health care, be a driving force behind the turnaround in energy policy, facilitate equal opportunities and social participation, support government transparency and help to enhance our democracy.
The vision and targets for 2030 should aim to achieve digital boost, strategic development, and shared responsibility to enable a sustainable and prosperous digital future for people and enterprises based on technological leadership.
Efforts should focused on integration, digital skills, the digital transformation of business and digital public services, following the principles of freedom of expression and information, the right to privacy, free movement of data, and cybersecurity.
Contribution :
Progress made prior to the pandemic has influenced how well prepared have been different parts of the world to face the challenges posed by COVID-19 and its associated disruptions to normal life, including the challenge of switching from physical’ to ‘digital’. In the current context, the provided data present a mix of findings on digital readiness and resilience that offer a new perspective on the impact and importance of connectivity to every nation’s economy.
Globally, 4G network covers almost 85 % of the population at the end of 2020. Between 2015 and 2020, 4G network coverage increased two-fold globally. Annual growth has been slowing down gradually since 2017 and 2020 coverage is only 1.3 percentage points higherthan 2019. Today 93 % of the world population has access to a mobile broadband network, less than half a percentage point higher than a year ago. In most regions, more than 90 percent of the population has access to a mobile-broadband network (3G or above).
Internet access at home in urban areas is twice as high as in rural areas. Almost 70% of the world’s youth are using the Internet. International bandwidth usage continues to grow during COVID-19 crisis.
As networks around the world were put to the test during the COVID-19 pandemic, increased Internet traffic caused a temporary drop in speed in many countries, but international bandwidth usage is estimated to have grown globally by 38%, exceeding the growth rate of the previous year by 6 percentage points. The highet international bandwidth use occurs in Asia and the Pacific, with over 300 Tbit/s, followed by Europe (over 150Tbit/s) and the Americas (over 140Tbit/s). Growth of international bandwidth usage in developing countries outstripped growth in developed countries.
The development of a solid and reliable digital infrastructure is a case in point where public authorities have a significant role and should be working along with private actors. Reaching the maximum number of the population requires a massive mobilisation of resources and overcoming still very significant investment gap. The combined efforts should be focused on ensuring the development of high-quality and reliable gigabit networks, with full transparency around the use of data.
Low ICT skills remain a barrier to meaningful participation in a digital society. The development of a solid and reliable digital infrastructure is a case in point where public authorities have a significant role and should be working along with private actors, as only 40% of European households have access to high capacity networks at the moment. Reaching the entire EU territory requires a massive mobilisation of resources and overcoming still very significant investment gap. The combined efforts of the EU should be focused on ensuring the development of high-quality and reliable gigabit networks, with full transparency around the use of data.
In 40% of the countries for which data are available, less than 40 percent of individuals reported having carried out one of the activities that compose basic skills in the last three months, e.g. sending ane-mail with an attachment. In 70 percent of the countries, less than 40 percent of individuals had done one of the standard skills components, such as creating an electronic presentation with presentation software. In only 15 percent of the countries had more than 10 percent of individuals written a computer program using a specialized programming language in the last three months.
All 3 pillars of sustainable development - economic development social inclusion and environmental protection need ICTs as key catalysts.The development potential of ICT as crosscutting enablers must therefore be fully harnessed for achieving the SDGs.
Bulgaria in 2020
Even though Bulgaria is a small country, the developments in 2020 ilustrate the struggles during the pandemic and the need to overcome the digital divide. In human capital, Bulgaria’s level is still amongst the lowest in the EU. People with at least basic digital skills account for 29% of the total Bulgarian population aged 16 to 74, against an EU average of 56%. Companies still have difficulties to match the skills they need for their workforce.
As regards connectivity, Bulgaria scores only 59% in overall broadband take-up of households subscribing (EU 77%) and is lagging behind also in the take-up of high-speed fixed broadband of at least 100 Mbps (15% against an EU average of 34%). In the area of mobile broadband, 4G coverage is high but 5G coverage is 0% for 2020, compared to the EU average of 14%. Take-up of mobile broadband is still low at 63% (EU 71%). The recently completed 5G auction is an important step toward achieving timely 5G deployment, although there is still lack of sufficient spectrum in certain bands while there is some lack of commercial interest in other available 5G pioneer bands such as the 26 GHz band. As a result, a considerable catch-up has taken place compared to 2020 and as of today, 5G readiness is at 20,55% compared to the EU average of 39%. In addition, 5G mobile broadband coverage is now available in major cities and continues to expand which shows that in terms of coverage the percentage is not any longer 0 (for instance, one of the mobile operators announced coverage of 75 cities and resorts with speeds above 1000 Mbps outdoors).
Bulgaria shows a mixed picture in the integration of digital technology by businesses. Use of Artificial Intelligence is more widespread than the EU average. On the other hand, most SMEs do not yet engage in e-commerce: 8% of Bulgarian SMEs sell online; 3% of SMEs are selling cross-border, and 8% of turnover comes from the online segment (these figures are about half the EU averages).
As regards digital public administrations, e-Government users represent only 36% of internet users (while EU average is 64%), and digital public services for citizens score 57% (while the EU average is 75%). However, digital public services for businesses and the use of open data by public administrations are just above EU average. A national strategy and the activity of the national state e-Government agency have delivered good improvements in this domain. Several actions have been undertaken to engage with citizens to encourage take-up of e-government services. Until the launch of the national electronic identification scheme, the following means of identification will remain in use — qualified electronic signature, various personal codes (personal identification codes, used by the national regulatory authority (Communications Regulation Commission) and the National Social Security Institute and unique access code used by the National Health Insuarance Fund), usernames and passwords. Electronic identification would bring a large progress but so far, little progress has been made over the past year. Systems to support eHealth solutions were prioritised to support health administration processes and the Covid-19 vaccination campaign.
The vision and targets for 2030 should aim to achieve digital boost, strategic development, and shared responsibility to enable a sustainable and prosperous digital future for people and enterprises based on technological leadership.
Efforts should focused on integration, digital skills, the digital transformation of business and digital public services, following the principles of freedom of expression and information, the right to privacy, free movement of data, and cybersecurity.
It is necessary to develop a clear and achievable framework of digital policies and principles and to ensure that the same rights that apply offline can be fully exercised in the online environment. The focus should be to what extent the set goals and indicators are widely recognized by businesses and citizens It is important to know what their specific expectations are, and what is the effectiveness of individual indicators. Artificial intelligence is one of the main drivers of digital transformation worlwide and a significant factor in ensuring the competitiveness of the economy and a high quality of life. High-speed connectivity, the availability of a large amount of data and their free movement are key prerequisites for its successful implementation.
However, the usage of artificial intelligence should guarantee the safety and fundamental rights of people and businesses, and at the same time, to intensify the entry and investment of artificial intelligence and innovation. It is also a step towards setting the rules for ethical and reliable artificial intelligence. The creation of a trusted ecosystem would allay citizens' concerns about using artificial intelligence applications and provide businesses and NGOs with the necessary legal certainty for innovations using artificial intelligence.
On the other hand, we should not forget that a large part of the engines in artificial intelligence, are micro, start-ups and small companies. They require regulation that does not create excessive obligations that may undermine innovation opportunities instead of stimulating their development. Therefore, the policy should set the right incentives for small companies to test and develop their applications. We appreciate the opportunity that European digital innovation hubs can provide to support them, including guidance on the implementation of the new legal requirements. Policies should be shared, consistent and coherent, aimed at stimulating innovation through the necessary preconditions and legal certainty, and their management should not create additional bureaucratic burdens. Any established rules should be easy to understand and therefore easy to apply, not cumbersome, complex, and demotivating in order to boost innovation. Facilitating the rules for implementing AI types of projects, which are difficult to coordinate due to their cross-border nature, and promoting the benefits of their first results can increase interest in joint projects as well as ensure adequate investment, but mainly - wide recognition of their long-term business benefits.
The political messages are a good starting point for a shared, long-term vision on digital policies, which will be the subject of a number of discussions, both in non-legislative initiatives and in future legislative proposals. We support the provision of appropriate and accessible connectivity, especially with a focus on remote and sparsely populated regions, as well as the development of digital skills and competencies both in these regions and in general, with a view to improving territorial cohesion and digital inclusion. Efforts should focus on the possibilities for cross-border data movement in the context of international trade agreements, which is beneficial for the development of innovation.
The following areas are particularly important :
• Digital skills, functional and digital literacy
• Sustainable digital infrastructures
• Secure connectivity - connected cars, the Internet of Things, high-performance computers, artificial intelligence
• Smart applications - agriculture, healthcare,
• Computing capacity - high-performance computing
• Digital industrial transformation
• Digitalisation of public services
• Digital civil rights
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