The 12th edition of the Telecom and Innovation Gala brought together personalities from government structures and representatives of the main ICT domain operators.
It was a demonstration of rigorousness and determination to put Romania in the innovative orbit of the digital era in Europe and the world. Especially since, as one of the participants put it, our country is perceived to be a veritable hub when it comes to the development of information technology and to putting IT research to good use in society.
Consisting of several panels – Strategy for Innovative Digital Society & Economy; Industrial Internet: Networks and Virtualized Services; Mobile Money for Modern Administration Research and Innovation, ICT Industry Alumni – the event featured dozens of speakers from the country and from abroad. We will present some of the essential elements.
Education Minister: There is creativity and innovation
From the wide range of issues tackled by Education Minister Adrian Curaj (photo) we note that he considers that the domain he represents will not have enough time (the current Government has a limited term in office – editor’s note) to finalize a lot of things.
“We won’t have time to finalize a lot of things, but when I worked on Romania’s Education Strategy and Education Vision 2025, years ago, I said that when it comes to what you can’t do today you can plant the seeds for the future. I believe that if we do a serious job and we plant the seeds and make sure they are watered until they grow into trees, I believe we will be able to do beautiful things. I am afraid of experiments not carried through. I am convinced that we have sufficient capacity to come up with interesting products for our youngsters,” the Education Minister said.
“I very much believe that operators along with equipment suppliers can come up with interesting software solutions. Turnkey solutions are gorgeous, but I would like to see what someone from Romania could contribute. I believe we have very good connectivity in Romania and it can be improved. We need network services and we all know that they are important, and we need consolidated applications that would later become success stories. Romania has extraordinary human capital, especially in the ICT technologies area. I believe that if we put our minds to it and we will have agriculture and technology as priorities, this is known as Agriculture 4.0. I believe that the traceability of our products, which are natural products, would also lead us in this area higher up the chain of added value. I believe Agriculture 4.0 will make a show in Romania,” Curaj emphasized.
ANCOM: Notable results in the expansion of Internet and mobile telephony
The number of broadband mobile internet connections stood at 12.7 million in mid-2015, up by 22 per cent year-on-year, while the mobile telephony sector registered a number of 22.7 million users, up by 1.8 per cent year-on-year, according to the data presented by Eduard Lovin, Executive Director of the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM).
“Broadband mobile internet continued to register a sustained growth rhythm in Romania in the first half of 2015, this kind of connections reaching the 12.7 million mark, up by 2.3 million compared to the same period last year, according to the most recent ANCOM statistics. Despite being forecast, the over 400 per cent annual growth in the number of connections through which 4G Internet was accessed at least once in the last 6 months is remarkable – from 253,000 at the end of H1 last year to over 1.3 million halfway through this year,” Lovin said.
Romanian Post diversifies services
The Romanian Post has sent to the National Bank of Romania (BNR) a new project, this time dedicated to financial services, National Post Company (CNPR) CEO Alexandru Petrescu stated on Thursday at the Mobile Communications Gala.
At the same time, the head of the National Post added that the institution he leads has a lot of catching-up to do on the e-commerce segment, the latter’s share in the services offered by CNPR standing at 6 per cent.
“The IT&C sector has a GDP share of just 6 per cent in Romania, compared to 10 per cent in Poland, 14 per cent in Ireland and the United Kingdom. We have projects, we have speeds, but we still have a lot to do. An economic component is missing. The Romanian Post has a lot of catching-up to do on what we call fast post, namely e-commerce. The share is 6 per cent, very small compared to the 16-18 per cent we see in more advanced countries. This development can be organic, through partnerships such as our partnership with e-Mag for PostCollect services. Many users prefer to pick up their packages from fixed points,” Alexandru Petrescu emphasized.