Romania gets the formal green light of the OECD for digital policies

As part of Romania’s accession process to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Digital Policy Committee within the Organization adopted its formal Opinion on Tuesday, November 19.

This step marks the completion of Romania’s evaluation in this Committee and the alignment of our country with the Organization’s standards regarding digital policies.

The Minister of Research, Innovation and Digitization, Bogdan Ivan, led the Romanian delegation to this evaluation session, which included the Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Coordinator of Romania’s accession to the OECD, Luca Niculescu, as well as and the state secretaries from the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitalization (MCID), Bogdan Dumea and Andrei Alexandru.

In his speech, Minister Bogdan Ivan emphasized that “joining the OECD is Romania’s most important country project, after we became members of NATO and the European Union. Digital technologies are essential in an increasingly competitive world, and Romania’s greatest advantage in this competition is represented by the brilliant minds of the Romanians”. The Romanian official highlighted the fact that the digital transformation is a process that, once started, cannot be stopped and, precisely for that reason, cannot leave anyone behind.

The evaluation of the Digital Policy Committee focused on the governance of emerging technologies – with a focus on artificial intelligence, open data and the effective use of aggregated public data to create innovative digital products and services, measures to strengthen cyber security, as well as the potential for developing digital skills.

At the Committee meeting, 90 representatives of the 37 public institutions in Romania took part, in physical and online format, for which MCID has the role of national focal point within this Committee and for which it ensured the technical coordination of the process evaluation, including the General Secretariat of the Government, the National Directorate of Cyber ​​Security and the Authority for the Digitization of Romania. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development is an intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress.