Slovenščina
English
15/11/2021
The Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) summarizes Europe’s digital performance indicators and monitors the progress of EU countries.
The latest DESI 2021 report (Digital Economy and Society Index) shows that Slovenia has made significant progress and is ranked 13th, which is the highest place so far.
“Recent data from the DESI index – the 2021 Digital Economy and Society Index – reveal that our work has borne fruit in recent years. Slovenia has gained three places in the overall ranking of the index, which measures the digital progress of the member states, since last year and advanced to a total of 13th place among the 27 EU member states. Particularly noticeable progress was made in the area of connectivity, where we contributed to excellent results with our measures for the construction of broadband networks (GOŠO) and the auction of 5G frequency bands, which was conducted by the Agency for Communication Networks and Services in April. The increase in the number of users of e-government services is also gratifying, reaching 77% of all Internet users last year, which was more than 10% higher than the EU average. We have also been excellent in the field of open data for several years, “said Minister of Public Administration Boštjan Koritnik at the time of the published report.
Slovenia has recently been ranked around 16th among all Member States (in 2018: 16, 2019: 17, 2020: 16), and this year’s report shows that Slovenia has advanced by three places in just one year. and is ranked 13th among the 27 EU member states on the DESI 2021 index. We are above the European average and, like last year, we are ahead of the Czech Republic, Latvia, Portugal, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Cyprus, Italy, Romania, Greece and Bulgaria, and we have further overtaken France and Lithuania in digital progress.
In the field of human capital, Slovenia is ranked 13th among EU members, and we can be most proud of the high number of STEM (science), technology, engineering and mathematics graduates and the number of start-ups. in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT), which is higher than the European average. Compared to last year, the percentage of ICT professionals in the field of human capital in Slovenia increased (2020: 3.9%, 2021: 4.4%) and also the percentage of ICT graduates (2018: 3.5%, 2019: 4.1) %). The percentage of female ICT professionals is slightly lower than in the previous year (2019: 20%, 2020: 17%) and the percentage of companies providing ICT training (2019: 28%, 2020: 26%). The percentage of people with at least basic digital skills is just below the European average (SL: 55%, EU: 56%). The coronavirus pandemic has fostered awareness of the need to acquire everyone’s digital skills, which could be a great springboard for action and progress in this area as well.
In terms of connectivity, Slovenia ranks 9th among EU members. We are successful in the coverage of households with a fixed high-capacity network (SL: 66%, EU: 59%), the general prevalence of fixed broadband connections (SL: 80%, EU: 77%) is also higher than the European average, as is the coverage by high-speed broadband connection (next generation networks) is good (SL: 88%, EU: 87%). The key role in improving the country’s ranking in the field of connectivity is played by the auction for 5G frequency bands from April 2021, on the basis of which the percentage of readiness for the 5G network increased from 0 to 98%.
In the field of digital technology integration, Slovenia ranks an excellent 8th among EU members. The analysis of statistical data reveals that the effect of measures from recent years is certainly noticeable in Slovenia. In Slovenia, we are better than the EU average in the field of digital technology integration in the percentage of companies that use e-invoices (SL: 58%, EU: 32%).
As of this year, DESI is analyzing several indicators in this category, including the percentage of small and medium-sized enterprises with at least a basic level of digital intensity (SL: 68%, EU: 60%), the percentage of companies using artificial intelligence (SL: 33%, EU : 25%) and the percentage of medium- or high-intensity green enterprises through ICT (SL: 74%, EU: 66%).
Since 2014, the European Commission has been monitoring Member States’ annual digital progress and preparing an annual DESI report based on parameters. The DESI report has in the past included an analysis at European level for five areas of the digital economy and society: connectivity, human capital, the use of Internet services, the integration of digital technology and digital public services. In 2021, however, the European Commission has adapted DESI to reflect two important policy initiatives that will impact the European Union’s digital transformation in the future – the Recovery and Resilience Fund and the Digital Compass for the EU’s Digital Decade.
