The Authority for the Digitization of Romania: Clarifications on the framework for cooperation with the Republic of Moldova in the field of digital transformation

Regarding the discussions that appeared in the public space, the Authority for the Digitization of Romania makes the following clarifications:

On February 11, 2022, the first joint meeting of the Governments of Romania and the Republic of Moldova took place in Chisinau, from a historical perspective. On the agenda, among other joint projects, was the approval of the Memorandum of Understanding in the Field of Digital Transformation – a project that established the framework for collaboration between the two states in the field of digitalization, being a model of good practice throughout Europe.

The memorandum signed in Chisinau aims to make joint efforts to mobilize the technical, financial and human resources necessary for the development of the common digital space and digital transformation:

• development of electronic public services;
• automation of administrative processes;
• interoperability of information systems between the Republic of Moldova and Romania;
• deployment of digital platforms and infrastructures;
• cybersecurity;

– joint participation in development and digital transformation projects, financed by the European Union’s financial assistance programmes;

– reuse of open source software.

It was also proposed to establish a formal framework for debates and to set up a joint commission, consisting of representatives of the Authority for Digitization of Romania, the National Directorate of Cyber Security of Romania and, correlatively, of the E-Government Agency and the Information Technology and Cyber Security Service of the Republic of Moldova.

Thus, Romania had the opportunity to capitalize on the proven experience in developing digital solutions, an experience that the partners from the Republic of Moldova have successfully managed to capitalize on in the state-citizen relationship. Unfortunately, the management of the Authority for the Digitization of Romania did not consider it appropriate to capitalize on such an experience that would have brought significant time savings in the implementation of projects and also significant savings to

the state budget, opting, instead, on the conceptualization of an e-government ecosystem from scratch.

The refusal to adopt good practices concretely demonstrated at the level of digitization of public services has led to the results visible today in the gap between Romania and the Republic of Moldova in the field of digital transformation.

The intention of the two Governments to create a common digital space between the Republic of Moldova and Romania was precisely to reduce the gaps and overcome the barriers in terms of the quality of public services that the institutions offer to citizens and companies. Thanks to this initiative, from 2022 to date, Romania could have made significant progress in a field already known by our partners.

Unfortunately, however, reality did not confirm this desire. ADR has chosen another path in digital transformation, and the results are visible and within the reach of anyone who chooses to get information from credible sources.