The human factor in digital transformation: Eastern Partnership Digital Conference 2023

Human-centred needs and benefits must be kept in mind as we aim for a resilient digital transformation, agreed participants in the EU4Digital Digital Conference for the Eastern Partnership (EaP) on 14 November 2023. The event theme, ‘Digital strategic autonomy: leveraging digital technologies to empower societies and economies’, provided scope to explore how digital connectivity and breakthrough technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) can unlock innovation in working towards resilient government, economy and society.

The digital future of the EaP region and within Eastern partner countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine – also depends on the human factor: investment, cooperation, mutual agreements, legislation and shared standards. Ensuring that these aspects are taken into account as part of national and regional strategies can only support goals such as improving digital connectivity infrastructure, increasing access to online services, stimulating the growth of digital skills, jobs and trade, and securing the digital ecosystem through effective cybersecurity.

Gérald Audaz, Head of the Economic Development and Digital Transition Team for the Eastern Partnership, DG NEAR, chaired the event. He said that “achieving digital transformation in line with EU principles will bring a wealth of benefits to citizens and businesses”. Bringing societies and economies closer together and increasing the efficiency and transparency of online public services “will also allow the region to unlock the full potential of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, which is a game changer to increase the growth and competitiveness of our economies”. But recognising that such technologies are not risk-free, he added that regulating the use of data and developing pro-innovation AI laws are “pre-requisites to increase our technological edge and digital sovereignty while limiting risks”.

Ott Velsberg, Chief Data Officer for Estonia explained in his keynote presentation that this small country of 1.3 million people has Europe’s highest data economy in terms of GDP. In 2018, Estonia began focusing on AI to develop basic competences and decide how to proceed with the technology. Now preparing for its third AI strategy, Estonia faces a challenging shortage of relevant skills. “We need to ensure that how we are implementing AI is human-centric, trustworthy. Our approach to that is citizen-centric data governance – everything related to data accessibility, openness, governance, privacy, and so on.” A fundamental principle is that if the government invests in AI, it must be accessible to citizens. Ensuring there is no Estonian language barrier is another important aspect in making virtual public services available to all citizens. “To make those leaps possible, it is important to focus on data as an enabler,” he said. “Our strategy is a community-driven approach: re-use the services and tools already available, start small and keep it simple.”

From digital infrastructure to digital innovation

Digital connectivity is the first building block of a resilient digital transformation. Shifting the conference’s focus to connectivity infrastructure, Arturas Piliponis, ‍EU4Digital Facility Team Leader, EY, reflected on EU4Digital work carried out by Eastern partner countries to date. “The countries are improving their capability to understand the market, to gather the data and to make relevant decisions based on this.” Developments are moving towards high-speed, affordable, secure broadband access, but “at the same time, there’s still a lot to do in establishing digital connectivity as a foundation for innovation, digital ecosystems and digital economy,” he said.

Representatives of the Eastern partner countries then reviewed their national connectivity strategies, initiatives to bridge digital divides, and the challenges faced in achieving their goals.  

• Mihai Lupascu, State Secretary, Ministry of Economic Development and Digitalisation of the Republic of Moldova, discussed the country’s recently launched digital transformation strategy, in which connectivity and affordable internet for every citizen are among the top priorities. The most important challenges are depopulation – which makes big infrastructure investments economically unviable, low capacity of service providers to invest in network extensions and new technologies, and the lower purchasing power of citizens as a result of recent inflation. Objectives include 80% of the population having broadband internet connectivity by 2025 and 90% by 2030. To implement this, Moldova’s normative framework will be harmonised with the EU’s legal framework regarding electronic communications and telecommunication service providers will be obliged and supported to reduce the costs of communication networks. Lower roaming charges for citizens traveling between Moldova and EU countries take effect from 1 January 2024.

• Gevorg Mantashyan, First Deputy Minister of High-Tech Industry of the Republic of Armenia highlighted human-to-human and business-to-business interactions and the “hot topic” of needing a high-skilled labour force and government initiatives to invest in human capital development and attract foreign talent. With a vibrant start-up ecosystem and strong focus on digital education, Armenia sees the digital divide from a “philosophical and even spiritual” perspective, and there’s enthusiasm and commitment for cooperation and piloting regarding digital and platforms. Digital connectivity and the quality of infrastructure are key to society’s targets, trade, market accessibility and the economy. Better-quality infrastructure and edge technologies will help accelerate creativity and further stimulate the start-up ecosystem.

• Yuriy Matsyk, Director of the Department of Broadband Infrastructure in the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation, described the impact of Russian aggression on digital connectivity in parallel to the country’s structural development. Before the current conflict began, 98% connectivity had been achieved, with 2.7 million Ukrainians in 8,300 towns accessing 4G for the first time. In 2021, a government programme had given over 1 million Ukrainians in 3,000 villages high-speed internet and more than 7,000 social facilities were connected. Now, ICT networks have been partly or fully destroyed, more than a thousand cyber-attacks have targeted IT and telecommunications, and more than 600 operators had their infrastructure destroyed. Nearly $2 billion is needed to restore the telecommunications sector and loss of a reliable electricity supply is a major obstacle. The goal is to modernise and reconstruct the networks to improve resilience, stabilise and protect internet access, improve cybersecurity, and aim for a Europe–Asia digital link across Ukraine and the Black Sea.

• Gulnaz Bokuchava, Main Specialist in the Communications, Information and Modern Technologies Department of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia said geographical and financial challenges are among the greatest obstacles to connectivity projects, making the digital divide between urban and rural or mountainous regions an ongoing issue. The country’s broadband development strategy for 2020-2025 provides three directions: increase competitive pressure, attract investment, build skills. Through the Log-in Georgia project there is already investment in expansion of the national broadband network to bring fast and reliable internet services to rural areas. The ministry is serving as a policy-making body, coordinating money for digitalisation and actively executing various activities. Investment for international connectivity is important; a project to attract investment includes a digital hub and regional data centres, along with activities to support community networks in less densely populated areas. Digital interest programmes in underserved areas empower residents to use digital tools and are opening up economic opportunities for individuals in remote locations. Georgia is harmonising laws with EU legislation, legal and technical frameworks are making cost reductions, and in 2023 a law on infrastructure sharing was adopted, facilitating measures that support improvements to digital networks and services.

• Jeyhun Hajiyev, Senior Consultant with the Strategy, Innovation and Digitalisation Department of the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport of Azerbaijan introduced the Online Azerbaijan project. This is replacing old ADSL technology with modern, cheap technology and aims to improve citizen well-being through high-speed internet access, as well as innovative solutions to facilitate connectivity use in the most remote areas. The project is based on public-private partnership and collaboration and provides an ‘umbrella’ under which various initiatives are implemented, including a plan for all households to access internet at a minimum of 25 megabits per second by the end of 2024. To prepare for this, work has been done to identify digital literacy and behaviours in the regions. Azerbaijan has also recently established an independent telecom regulator – the Information Communication Technologies Agency. Its activities include regulation control and spectrum management to create a digital environment with high quality, accessible, transparent, reliable and responsible consumer-oriented telecommunication and postal services.

Further information

This was the third annual EU4Digital Digital Conference for the Eastern Partnership. It was followed by a closed meeting of the EU4Digital Steering Committee on 15 November 2023. Together, these are among the main events dedicated to discussing the joint European Union (EU)-Eastern Partnership (EaP) digital agenda. These yearly events strengthen the relationship between EU4Digital Facility and its stakeholders from Eastern partner countries and EU Member States. In this way, stakeholders are empowered to increase their engagement with and ownership of the results generated by the project.

Slides and a video from the Digital Conference will be made available via the conference webpage.

Highlights of the Digital Conference and the Steering Committee meeting will be published in a special edition of the EU4Digital newsletter. To receive such updates by email, please subscribe to the newsletter.

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