Technology and innovation, under debate at ANIS International Summit 2026

• 50 top speakers and over 300 leaders in the IT industry, in a conversation, about sources of growth and competitiveness

Romania is strengthening its digital economy, but remains stuck in a model that generates too little innovation. Investment in research and development is about 0.3% of GDP, among the lowest in the European Union. The level of collaboration between companies is the lowest in Central and Eastern Europe, and the IT industry, although it represents 8% of the added value of the economy, continues to generate value mainly from services, less from its own products and intellectual property.

These data are part of an extensive analysis, which will be launched for the first time tomorrow, at the ANIS International Summit 2026, in Bucharest.

The theme of the edition – From Scale to Innovation: Romania’s Next Competitive Edge – proposes an applied discussion about the bottlenecks that slow down innovation and about the solutions to overcome them. In this context, the study “Stimulating the transition to a more innovative ICT industry in Romania” analyzes the level of investment in innovation, the use of existing tools and the structural barriers that limit the development of products and intellectual property.

The ANIS summit asks one of the most important questions for the local economy: how can Romania move to a growth model based on innovation and greater added value? And above all, what would it mean for the national economy, in terms of GDP, jobs and tax revenues?

The agenda of the event deals directly with the critical points of this transition:

• The role of the regulatory framework in stimulating innovation
• Challenges and opportunities in orienting business models towards innovation
• How have other countries in the region succeeded?
• Artificial intelligence as a driver of economic growth
• Cybersecurity as the foundation of the digital economy.

International guests will bring concrete examples from countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic or Estonia, where the transition to an innovation-based model has already been accelerated through coherent policies and functional support instruments.

The summit brings together more than 300 leaders from public administration, European institutions, international organizations and industry companies, in a format oriented towards applied discussions and solutions.

In a context where Romania’s traditional competitive advantages are under pressure, ANIS International Summit 2026 becomes a space for clarification: what works, what doesn’t and what needs to be changed to accelerate the transition to innovation.

About ANIS

The Employers’ Association of the Software and Services Industry (ANIS) is the representative association of the IT industry in Romania. ANIS has over 130 member companies, is a promoter of digitalization and has been representing the interests of the IT industry for over 25 years, being a credible dialogue partner that can contribute to the creation of public policies that facilitate the capitalization of technology for socio-economic development.