Romania is last in the European Union (EU) for the digitization degree of the economy and society, according to Dorin Farkas, senior manager for financial consultancy at PwC Romania.

He cited the results of three international studies that lead to the same conclusion, namely that Romania is among the last in EU in terms of digitization, local Agerpres reported.

“All these studies take into account the human factor and the way countries use and adopt digital technologies,” Farkas said.

The first study, made by the United Nations encompasses the telecom infrastructure, human capital and online services. The second one is the European Commission’s Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), in which Romania ranks last among the EU member states. This study is based on a wider range of indices and Romania is among the last in EU for most of them. The third study is the IMD World, in which Romania ranks 20th out of 21 European countries.

The PwC representative also said that Romania’s annual economic growth in recent years has been 1.2 to 2.5 percentage points lower that it could have been if the country had been more advanced in digitizing public services, such as the Baltics. Moreover, productivity in Romania is 50% lower than in digitally-advanced countries.

editor@romania-insider.com