Lithuania focuses on Europe’s digital future
The Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė has opened the ‘ICT2013: Create, Connect, Grow’ conference in Vilnius, the largest ICT event in Europe and one of the biggest under the Lithuanian Council Presidency. The three-day event will see around 6,000 participants gather in the Lithuanian capital
Addressing delegates in the opening plenary, the President said: “The future belongs to innovative and ambitious people. Europe should invest more in research, look for new solutions and show more resolve in implementing interesting ideas. The digital economy offers huge opportunities for growth, job creation and competitiveness. Therefore, Lithuania, as the EU presiding member state, devotes special attention and efforts to building the Digital Single Market. We hope this market will be fully operational by 2015.”
Grybauskaitė underlined that Lithuania is already among the world’s leaders in terms of developing the digital economy. “We are well known for having an internet speed among the fastest in the world; our mobile penetration is one of the highest in Europe. We are leaders in putting public procurement online. Lithuania has quite a few ICT champions that are known beyond our borders, such as GetJar or Pixelmator.”
The President also emphasised the importance of cyber security and establishing proper data protection rules. She added that it was essential to effectively use the funding under Horizon 2020 for the development of innovation and research.
Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice-President responsible for the Digital Agenda, is also attending the event and will participate in the signing of the National Coalition for Digital Skills and Employment Promotion in Lithuania memorandum. A total of 11 Lithuanian institutions will obligate to co-operate when organising the documents of information society expansion, initiatives, and projects which demonstrate the benefits of IT and promote citizens to use IT services. The Coalition’s partners will invite other businesses, educational, public administration, non-governmental, and social companies, institutions, and organisations with similar goals to join in.
The conference will last until 8 November 2013.
