Nine of the top 15 cities that have access to the fastest high-speed internet are in Romania, Elisabetta Capannelii, World Bank Country Director in Romania, stated at the launch of the Digital Dividends World Development 2016 Report.
At the same time, the World Bank official pointed out that Romania is 23rd in the European Union in what concerns connectivity, but almost half of its households do not have a subscription to high-speed internet.
“The gap between the number of internet connections in rural areas and those in urban areas continues to remain high. Romania is 23rd in the EU when it comes to connectivity. 11 per cent of Romanian households are not covered by the landline high-speed internet network and almost half of the households do not have a subscription to high-speed internet. The Government’s strategy is for high-speed internet coverage to grow from 90 to 97 per cent (EU-28 value), and the penetration rate among rural households to grow from 55 to 70 per cent (EU-28 value). In the next five years, over 3.4 million households have to be connected to the high-speed internet network in order to obtain universal coverage,” Elisabetta Capannelli stated.
According to the World Bank’s Country Director in Romania, the potential of the Romanian human capital in the IT domain is extremely high, and the efforts to expand the eGovernance services for citizens and companies should be amplified.
“The Romanian language is the second language spoken in Microsoft offices worldwide, and Romanian Information Technology (IT) experts are among the best in all large global IT companies. Some of the most popular apps in our mobile phones are developed by Romanian engineers. The potential of human capital in this country is extremely high. Nevertheless, the paradox is that Romania has the lowest percentage of constant internet users at EU level (48 per cent), and 39 per cent of Romanians never used the internet, the EU average being 18 per cent. (…) Digital competencies are necessary for every type of labour force in Romania, and their lack represents an important obstacle to economic development. (…) Romania has to amplify the efforts of expanding eGovernance services for citizens and companies alike. Romania made progress in certain eGovernance services for companies,” Capannelli emphasised.
The World Bank launched, on February 9, the Digital Dividends World Development 2016 Report, a document that shows that the number of internet users worldwide had reached approximately 3.2 billion at the end of 2015, growing three times over the last decade.