Thursday we presented the results of the Research Observatory Digital Agenda and we were able to take stock of the implementation of the Digital Italian along with many representatives of policy, institutions, businesses and public administrations. It showed a picture of lights and shadows, in which compared with results that are slow to arrive, you can look to the future with positivity digital of our country.
If we will just look at the results it seems that Italy is increasingly relegated to a marginal role in Eastern digital counts. Only 23% of the Italian population using eGovernment services against the European average of 47%. Only 5.3% of our online business sells its products against 15.1% of the European average. Only 47% of Italians have digital skills base while in Europe the figure rises to 59%. Considering these numbers is not surprising that the DESI – the indicator introduced in June by the European Commission to measure the status of implementation of AD – positions us in 25th place, ahead of only Greece, Bulgaria and Romania.
An analysis of the digital environment Italian last year, however, we find a number of important innovations that make us hope for a breakthrough digital country. First of all we have a strategy. Although not without its shortcomings, the plan of Digital Growth – drawn dall’AgID March – has the advantage of drawing a path for the digitization of the country which defines the objectives to be achieved, the critical aspects to be safeguarded, the timing reference and the resources necessary for implementation. Even the approval of plans on ultra wide band and the digital competences they can frame between the initiatives undertaken in the last year to clarify the implementation of the Digital Strategy.
Another positive factor is the strong focus on effective “execution” i mpresso all’AgID by its new director. Took office in May, Antonio Samaritans identified in Italy Log catalyst project that will serve as the frame of reference to the whole national digitization strategy and decided to focus his attention on some key projects: SPID, Single Register, Electronic Payments, Open date, Digital competence and guidelines of websites for the PA. The premises are good to get the same results as part of e-invoicing, where over 20 million bills are passed through the system Interchange from March 31 (date of the obligation of electronic invoicing to all PA) to October 31.
At local level there is a significant ferment. Half of the Italian Regions appointed a contact person for the implementation of the Digital and almost all had already developed or is in the pipeline in the production of documents which explain the strategies and priorities of digitization. In March, the Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces then set up the Special Commission Digital Agenda, which is the political interface unique, strong and unified between the regions and all other stakeholders concerned with the Digital Agenda, with the tasks of decline locally the national strategy, suggest priorities for action shared and coordinate the implementation processes of regional Digital Agenda.
Last year, Europe has adopted almost all the national and regional operational programs through which the central and local PA have negotiated the availability to the structural funds of the new programming framework. This means that they are now finally available many resources with which to support the interventions planned digitization of both central and local levels. Our research reveals a good availability for businesses, thanks to the many calls for funding launched by the Government to which you can nominate digitization initiatives.
The collaboration between public and private is then finally back to the center of the debate among the experts due to the revision of the procurement code and the transposition of European directives that frame public procurement as a powerful policy lever economic and industrial. Once adopted, the guidelines could give a new impetus to the simplification and transparency of procedures for the award of public contracts, making compatible the time of procurement processes with those of technological change.
They seem muted the concerns of public spending cuts in digital technologies provided in the first draft of the financial statement at the end of October by the Government. The passage in the Senate has meant that the cuts were to be implemented only to current expenditures, spreading them over the three years 2016-2018 and retrieved using the resources to invest in technological innovation. It seems you want to go in the direction of a much-desired redevelopment of ICT expenditure of the PA rather than a mere rationalization. I am confident that the parliamentary debate of recent weeks confirm these trends.
Positive signals are also coming from the recovery of investments in digital by the private sector. After years of great difficulty, the demand has started to grow, with an increase of 1.1% expected by the end of 2015 (data Assinform). To drive this change are the most innovative and emerging segments like the Internet of Things, Cloud and Analytics that – according to data of the observers – grow by at least 15%, offsetting the decline in structural more traditional segments.
In summary, the past 12 months have been quite turbulent and rich of news for the Italian Digital Agenda. Although there is not yet a quantum leap forward in terms of effective implementation, are certainly many foundations were laid to fill, at least in part, the differences that separate us from countries that are a point of reference in Europe. New strategic plans with specific objectives and clear priorities, a strong orientation to the implementation dell’AgID, enabling projects, a renewed governance by new mechanisms of coordination between the center and periphery, European resources finally be used, a new framework for public procurement and a digital market that started to grow after years of compression. They are all extremely favorable conditions that were unthinkable just last year.
Just in these conditions renovated the title alludes Research that we presented on Thursday 26 in Rome: there are no more excuses to make. This is demonstrated by the analysis of more than 100 digital innovation initiatives that have applied to the “ Awards Digital Agenda ” proposed this year by the Observatory. Examples of success are there. What is lacking is awareness, adequate levels of collaboration between public and private, solid skills and – above all – such instruments should finish the implementation of the Digital Agenda, translating strategies into measurable results. It is in this spirit that the Observatory, in this year of research, is committed to develop evidence, models, tools and proposals to facilitate and accompany the most of the digital transformation of our country. In the coming weeks we will provide some of the principal results.
We are more convinced than ever that every actor-us included- should accompany the complaint right obstacles and delays, initiatives and concrete proposals. The Digital Agenda can then pass from the definition phase of the plans to that of their execution.
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