The EU’s “i2010” strategy comes to a close this year. A strategy which the European Commission adopted in 2005 in order to boost Europe’s lead in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and to unlock the benefits of the information society for European growth and jobs. The consistent drive for fair competition and a borderless market for digital content and media services are the basis for Europe’s success in the ICT sector to date. While its continuous efforts to establish a critical mass of R&D in emerging fields of ICT, generate Europe’s technological capacity. It also has a great ability to capitalize on its cultural assets, such as the film and media sector and the European digital library. Therefore, one can conclude that the overall thrust has been a successful one and is still a valid concept for the future.

 

However this strategy cannot remain static, it is essential that it is further enhanced and developed to be able to meet the emerging challenges, to create a world beating infrastructure to and unlock the potential of the internet as a driver of growth and the basis of an open innovation, creativity and participation’ . Hence the European Commission carried out an online consultation with all the Member States in order to gather feedback for the preparation of a new EU strategy for the information society. The medium used for the public hearing was a questionnaire, categorically divided  into sections in order to analyze the needs of this sector and to understand what is the best strategy to accelerate the economic recovery and maintain the EU’s world leadership in high-tech sectors; to spend research budgets more effectively so that bright ideas are marketed and generate new growth; to kick-start ICT-led productivity and to offset GDP stagnation as the labour force;  to foster new, smarter, cleaner technologies that can help Europe achieve a factor for growth; and to use networking tools to rebuild trust in Europe as an open and democratic society.



The Malta Business Bureau has carefully noted the structure and the questions of the Post-i2010 questionnaire and replicated the exercise of the European Commission with the ICT Business Section of the Malta Chamber with carefully selected and targeted queries.  The questionnaire had the aim of eliciting the ideas of this specific sector in order to be able to mould the obtained reactions into a detailed report on aspects which are most relevant to Maltese ICT-related business. The findings are categorised into four different sections which analyse the potential of ICT for a growth and jobs agenda, the possibility of creating a hundred per cent connected society and economy through a high-speed and open internet for all, how to consolidate the online Single Market, and making modern and efficient public services available and accessible to all.



An important issue which is evident throughout the report is the building upon the potential of ICT to create a stronger online single market. This is now more important than ever to boost economic recovery. The new digital agenda must strive to develop an improved digital infrastructure across a broad range of commercial services, making e-services more accessible throughout the EU and to create a vision based on desired end results. As a consequence the development of a thoroughly connected European society and economy through high-speed and open internet raises serious challenges especially with regards to privacy, security of networks and identified shortcomings within EU network investments. Hence, equilibrium between the best possible use of innovative services and the associated risks with regards to privacy and security must be struck.



The ambition of an EU digital single market is to be the core guiding objective for a post-i2010 strategy. In this regard, substantial measures must be taken into consideration, as this would be an initiative from which both companies and consumers will benefit. For this to become a reality there is a paramount need to increase consumer confidence in online business transactions, in particular on cross-border e-commerce in both goods and services. This can be achieved through the development of best-practice codes of conduct and through the diffusion of various EU-wide trustmarks. Once this confidence is instilled in consumers, e-government, e-learning and e-health tools can be fully developed, deployed and exploited commercially by the private sector.



Please download the report from the resource .pdf file below.



Mariella Scicluna