Digitalisation Policies Should Be Country-Specific

The Transition Report 2021-22 of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) was presented as part of the online format of the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF). The report is dedicated to digitalisation and highlights the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the world of labour.

Friesenbichler outlined the effects of digitalisation on the basis of WIFO studies commissioned by the European Commission and the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB) and thus presented a blueprint for a country-specific policy for information and communication technologies (ICT). For EBRD's client countries, the question arises how the diffusion of technologies can be advanced and how the expansion of broadband infrastructure can be accelerated. On the one hand, the structural change accelerated by digitalisation can create profitable markets, but it can also put existing business models into question and make it more difficult for companies in transition economies to enter international value chains. All this in turn affects inequality.

Further information about the event can be found here.

The presentation documents are available here.