Armenia's Minister of High-Tech Industry met with the Ambassador of Belgium on 9 April to discuss key activities and ongoing initiatives, including further development of the high-tech and IT sectors in Armenia.

Ukraine’s ‘Diia’ state app is now available worldwide as open source code. Governments and IT professionals can use the code in support of digitalising their own government services.

Are you an executive manager of an organisation that manages an innovation cluster in an Eastern partner country or coordinates collaborative initiatives between businesses and academia with a sectoral or technological focus? If you’re from a cluster or potential cluster, EU4Digital invites you to participate in a free-of-charge certified online training and assessment. The deadline for registration is 17 April 2024.

EU4Digital Facility has launched a new framework for activities to support innovation clusters in the Eastern Partnership (EaP) region. These coalitions of start-ups, small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs), research and knowledge dissemination organisations, not-for-profits and other related economic actors stimulate innovation, share knowledge and support collaboration, contributing to technological and economic development. EU4Digital’s new innovation cluster activities are part of the ICT Innovation thematic area, which connects EaP and EU start-up ecosystems in line with the Facility’s wider goals to harmonise the regions’ digital markets.

Computer Aid, a UK-based charity, has embarked on an ambitious initiative to supply laptops to universities in order to equip the academic community with essential tools for remote teaching, accessing online resources and conducting research.

Representatives of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) and EU4Digital Facility met important Moldovan stakeholders and attended Startup Moldova Summit 2024 on 12–14 March 2024.

Schoolchildren in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine received laptops to support their online learning. The Device Coalition, with financial support from the European Union, gave 3,600 laptops for students who are forced to study remotely due to the ongoing war in the region. This will help children to continue to access high-quality education.

Tech start-ups in Moldova will be able to access new funding opportunities from GapMinder Fund II, a venture capitalist fund backed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The EBRD announced a €10 million investment in GapMinder Fund II, with the aim to support the development of the venture capital ecosystem and digitalisation.

The Customs Service of Moldova is upgrading its digital systems to streamline the handling of international mail, a step that promises to bolster eCommerce. These updates are designed to accelerate the customs clearance process for packages, ensuring quick and reliable postal services, economic security, and citizen safety, in compliance with the Moldovan Customs Code's new regulations.

The EU-funded EU4DigitalUA project and collaboration partners from the Ombudsman Office and the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine presented Ukraine’s first guidelines on the protection of human rights and the right to privacy in the development and implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies.

The Republic of Moldova is a step closer to finalising primary legislation for the implementation of electronic know your customer (eKYC) technology for the remote identification of customers. Stakeholders from the banking sector participated in meetings to scrutinise recommendations and proposals related to eKYC. Representatives of the Association of Banks of Moldova (ABM) and the National Bank of Moldova (NBM) are strongly engaged in expediting the finalisation of the eKYC draft normative act.

The European Commission has established the 'European Artificial Intelligence Office' on 24 January 2024. The AI Office is tasked with overseeing the use of General-Purpose AI (GPAI) models and systems.