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EU4Digital at Moldova Digital Summit 2023

EU4Digital Facility and European Commission DG NEAR representatives participated in the Moldova Digital Summit 2023 – The Future of Digital on 15-17 June 2023. The event was organised under the patronage of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova and marked a new stage in the country’s digital transformation. Under the theme ‘Evolve towards our borderless future’, the summit aimed to re-position the ICT field on the regional economic map and build a new image of digital Moldova, with potential for sustainable development. 

The summit gathered ecosystem players in Chișinău to discuss the challenges and opportunities of the digital future in the Republic of Moldova and beyond. It connected over 2500 people from 30 countries, including 68 speakers, public officials, experts and leaders of technological and business communities. The event’s agenda included a meeting of the Joint Intergovernmental Commission for the creation of a common digital space and a Memorandum of Understanding in the field of digital transformation between Moldova and Romania. 

Experts from Moldova, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belgium, the UK, Sweden, Romania, Georgia, Armenia, the US and others shared their views on a range of topics. These included progress in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the opportunities and controversies related to its widening use, experiences in digital transformation and technological innovation based on data and AI, the importance of cross-organisation and cross-border collaboration, and the challenges faced by the educational sector to foster future-proof skills.  

Moldova’s digital transformation 

During the opening of the Moldova Digital Summit, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, Dorin Recean emphasized the ongoing progress in Moldova’s digital transformation and the new opportunities it brings for society and the economy. He stressed the importance of putting users at the centre of attention when re-engineering all digital transformation processes, in government, in business, in government-to-business (G2B) and government-to-citizens (G2C) relations.  

“Everything that can be digital should be so. It should work remotely, including cross-border, doesn’t matter where the person is – in Moldova or in Silicon Valley. If they want to open a company in Moldova, or obtain a document from the state, we must give them the opportunity to do so without requesting physical presence and hard copies. Payments, documents, communication – everything should be digital.” Dorin Recean, Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova 

Data and Artificial Intelligence 

During the first day, EU4Digital Facility Team Leader Arturas Piliponis participated in a panel discussion on ‘Partnerships for digitalisation – exploring for AI and data science”. He touched upon topics regarding the right use of data and the need to put AI regulation in place. “Data is a basic for everything, we can forget AI if we don’t have data,” he said. Making data accurate, full, accessible and secure is the key priority of any government or organisation, he explained. The trend is that European institutions are increasingly getting the point of good data management and governance, and are putting data analytics solutions in place. He cited an increasing number of projects in diverse sectors from agriculture to finance, where big data platforms, analytical platforms or data models are put in place not just on the institution level but across sectors and across institutions. And progress in AI has been developing very fast, he continued: “Some recent applications are now already seen as ‘business as usual’. In March alone, more than one thousand AI applications were developed, and some researchers say that the latest kind of AI will significantly impact more than 300 million jobs, both positively and negatively.”  

The first day culminated with the Moldova Innovation Awards. In the ceremony, five local startups were appreciated for outstanding achievements in the following categories: Best Product Innovation and Best Service Innovation, Rising STARTup, Impactful Initiative, and Special Jury Award.  

The Moldova Digital Summit concluded with Tekwill Expo Day, showcasing achievements in the implementation of educational technologies and innovative engineering projects.