IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

The State Service of Special Communication and Information Security of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the National Institute for Research & Development in Informatics (ICI Bucharest) of Romania have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation, News.az reports.

The memorandum, inked by Head of the State Service of Special Communications and Information Security of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Lieutenant-General Ilgar Musayev and General Director of ICI Bucharest Adrian Victor Vevera, envisages conduct of joint research in the field of cybersecurity policy and development strategy, cyber diplomacy, cloud security, the Internet of Things (IoT), cybersecurity in smart city concepts, "Big Data", blockchain application in top-level domain systems, artificial and augmented intelligence.

The Romanian Smart City Association is organizing the 7th edition of the Smart City Industry Awards, the largest event dedicated to the Smart City Industry

Artificial Intelligence is a reality in Romania, and it is essential for local authorities and companies to adopt it to achieve the best results.” - Eduard Dumitrașcu, President of the Romanian Smart City AssociationBUCHAREST, ROMANIA, March 11, 2023.

On March 30, 2023, the 7th edition of the smart city industry awards will take place, the largest event dedicated to the Smart City Industry in Romania, organized by the romanian smart city association (RSCA) and will bring together representatives of local authorities , companies and institutions working in the field of Smart City, to recognize the best, sustainable and innovative projects from communities in Romania.

The broadband Internet connection of the 783 localities will be implemented under the project titled "Ro-NET: Building a national broadband infrastructure in disadvantaged areas through the use of structural funds" where the MSI is an applicant - beneficiary as of December 18, 2014.

Romania has the potential to become one of the most digitalized countries in the region, given that 50 percent of villages can become smart by 2030, according to the estimates of the Romanian Smart City Association (ARSC). The rate of digitalization depends on several factors, such as the degree of involvement of local authorities, access to finance, and the rate of technology adoption in rural areas, including the development of the necessary digital skills.

Thus, more than 140 municipalities in Romania are implementing more than 220 smart village initiatives, including schools with distance education systems, digitalized town halls, public transport, and waste collection.

Romania can achieve a considerable digitization advance in the coming years, especially in the public sector, if a de–bureaucratization process occurs. Although improvements have been made in this regard in recent years, additional investments are needed in the development of smart city projects to increase the quality of life of Romanians, show the conclusions of the debates on innovation and digitalization in Romania, during the Christmas Innovation Gala event, organized by the Romanian Association for Smart City, in partnership with Vantage Towers Romania.

As part of the digitization process in Romania, Vantage Towers Romania launched the Customer Portal platform at the event, an innovative solution for managing the digital infrastructure, promising to simplify and streamline access to technological resources for companies and users.

Cluj-Napoca City Hall will transform a street from Marasti neighborhood, after a pilot project, in a smart street that provides not only more space for pedestrians but also high tech facilities.

The street will include Electric Mobile Loadable Banks, state-of-the-art LED lighting poles that incorporate WIFI systems for internet in public space, as well as charging stations for electric bicycles or scooters. In addition, 50 trees will be planted.

Confident Communications, a specialised marketing communications agency, is the new partner for the Romanian Smart City Association (ARSC), the primary independent authority in the Romanian Smart City industry. ARSC has taken on the mission of promoting the development of smart cities in the country by collaborating with public authorities and industry partners to implement innovative solutions that enhance the quality of life.

From 2016 to the present day, ARSC’s experts and professionals have contributed to the reinvention of cities and have undertaken large-scale projects, such as the Smart City Academy – the first such specialised course in Romania, the publication of Smart City Magazine – the first magazine dedicated to the industry, and the national program “Smart City Caravan” – conducted in the main regions of Romania. In almost 8 years of activity, ARSC has provided direct expertise in more than 100 communities and projects, working alongside a team of almost 40 experts – from the creation of Smart City, Smart County and Smart Village strategies to providing consultancy services and technology recommendations.

According to the cited source, the key performance objectives of the Digital Agenda require cumulative efforts by the European countries for meeting the objectives assumed by the European Commission.

The World Bank and the Romanian Ministry for Information Society hosted a workshop entitled “e-Government Transformation: Moving from Nice-to-Have to Must-Have” in Bucharest on May 30^th as part of the Bank’s regional work on the Smart Specialization and Digital Agenda.

Experts and key practitioners from the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) field, as well as local attendees that work in ICT sectors across the Romanian Government, shared their experiences with e-Government. The workshop was designed as an exchange on strategies, frameworks, and approaches developed by the EU, and already successfully implemented in different countries.

The report also says that in November 2008 the Agency for Information Society Services (ASSI) published its eGovernment strategy, which aims to improve the performance of the public administration at the service of citizens.

Romania has the lowest performance among EU Member States when it comes to digital public services, the country having a score of 43.2 in the European Commission's Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) 2019. By comparison, the average EU score is 62.9.

DESI is a composite index that summarises relevant indicators on Europe’s digital performance and tracks the evolution of EU member states in digital competitiveness. The index evaluates the EU countries on five criteria, namely connectivity, human capital, use of internet services, integration of digital technology, and digital public services.

'The e-Romania strategy entails an ambitious vision of Romania's information future that in the short and the medium-term will translate into a huge web portal that will provide nearly 600 online services,' said Sandu.

The ministry has been rolling out this project starting December 18, 2014.

The RO-NET project is co-financed through the European Regional Development Fund and amounts to RON 377,38,279. The non-reimbursable financial aid amounts to approximately RON 252,281,872.

Romania ranks last in EU for the digitalization of economy and society, said Dorian Farkas, senior manager financial consulting at PwC Romania, at a specialised conference on Wednesday.

He presented results of three stages carried out on this topic at world level, Romania ranking last in EU for each of them.

In the context of the pandemic caused by the new coronavirus, Zitec, leader in the IT & digital marketing segment in Romania, announces that it will provide free access to two modules of the document management application Regista. Thus, non-digitalized public institutions can apply for three months of free license for the Document Management and e-Government modules. This way, Zitec aims to encourage authorities to electronically register documents, petitions submitted by the citizens and to receive online notices, in order to avoid congestion, to limit queues formed at their headquarters or to completely eliminate the need for a visit.

Regista is a market leader SaaS in the segment of registry and document management in local public administration, currently helping to streamline and digitalize the internal activity of over 500 public institutions and companies from 40 counties in the country. To this date, the application has over 9,000 users and more than 7 million documents have been registered.

Romania, the biggest advance in the region in the transformation of cities into smart localities

The Romanian Smart City Association (ARSC) launches a new edition of the SCIA Gala, the only Smart City competition in the country and Eastern Europe, because Romania registers the greatest advance in the region in the transformation cities and villages in smart localities, being a landmark in the field.

The Smart City Industry Awards (SCIA – 8th edition) competition is open until March 25, 2024, and is dedicated to smart city and smart village projects, both developed and implemented by public institutions and those carried out by private companies. Within the competition, the most innovative smart city and smart village projects in the country are awarded, which contribute to the transformation of the localities in Romania to improve the quality of life of the citizens.

Bucharest mayor Nicusor Dan signed the contract under which F.I.P. Consulting, a firm specializing in smart city solutions, will develop a master plan for the bike lanes network in Romania's capital city within 12 months. The price of the contract is around EUR 100,000 (RON 530,000).

According to the mayor, this document will form the basis of projects for the development of an extensive network of bicycle paths in Bucharest.

Taken together, Bucharest’s general city hall and the capital’s sectorial city halls ran the most smart city projects, according to the Scanning Smart Cities in Romania report for 2022.

Broken down across individual city halls, Cluj-Napoca (63) becomes the city with the most numerous smart city projects, followed by Iași (56), and Bucharest’s general city hall (54).