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Telecom.IT: Romania must invest 3.9 billion euro for IT&C projects until 2020
Romania must invest 3.9 billion euro to increase the degree of broadband coverage, the use of e-governing services, online sales and the number of employees in the IT&C field, as part of the country’s targets in the IT&C domain until 2020.Figures are available in the project referring to the National Strategy on the Digital Agenda for Romania, published by the Ministry for Information Society.
“A complete implementation of the strategic outlook for the IT&C sector in Romania which will fulfill the targets specified for Romania will need a total investment of over 3.9 billion euro. The direct and indirect impact on economy, calculated according to good practices from other European countries which made similar investments, can be translated in 13% GD increase, 11% more jobs and the 12% decrease of administration costs in the 2014-2020 interval”, the document shows.
Most investments - 3.1 billion euro will be allocated to the development of broadband infrastructure.
The National Strategy on Digital Agenda for Romania has in view the UT&C sector and intends to contribute to economic development and increase of competitiveness in Romania both by direct actions like the effective development of the national IT&C sector and by indirect actions like increasing efficiency and reducing costs in the public sector, improving productivity in the private sector by reducing administrative barriers in relations with the state by improving the competitiveness of the labor force.
The strategy has targets of increasing the broadband coverage degree from 90% in 2013 to 100% in 2020, the increase by 4 times of the share of small and medium companies selling online to 20% in 2020, the reduction of the share of population which has never used the Internet from 48% in 2012 to 30% in 2020, and the increase of the share of citizens who use e-government services from 5% in 2013 to 30% in 2020.
The ministry expects that the share of people buying online will grow from 8% in 2013 to 30% in 2020.
According to the document, there will be 250,000 employees in 2020, from 128,000 in 2011 in the IT&C sector in Romania.
“If in past years the IT&C sector registered a slower evolution in the development and labor force occupation that is due to the average increase of the labor force occupation race in the IT&C sector in Romania (7% per year) before the economic crisis and projects it as a future investment target for 2014-2020. Major contributions have already been made by the government of Romania to improve the hiring degree in the IT&C sector, the project shows.
Costs to set up a telecommunications network (Next Generation Network- NGN) to ensure higher speeds for Internet access in Romania at a level according to the targets of the Digital Agenda for Romania are estimated to reach between 1.3 and 3.5 billion euro according to the technology chosen.
“These costs will be covered partially by private investments and such a financing estimated between 0.7 and 1.7 billion euro is needed from the public and/or other financing sources”, the document shows.