No other single event has confirmed the importance of digital transformation as much as the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, in less than a year, both the state and private companies have achieved the digital transformation goals, which were initially planned for the next few years. However, this significant progress has brought new risks – risks for digital resilience.
What is digital resilience? At its most fundamental level, digital resilience is a mindset as well as a set of strategies, policies and practices that protect digital governance and the digital economy. Digital resilience is the degree of readiness to adapt and recover from short-term shocks and prolonged stress. Digital resilience is not limited to cybersecurity; although the ability to protect digital infrastructure is one of its main attributes. Digital resilience has three main dimensions: systems continuity, cybersecurity, and data protection.
This panel has followed the discussion organized by the World Bank at the StrategEast State and IT Eurasian Forum 2020. This time, it was focused on digital resilience in the Eastern Partnership countries undergoing digital transformation processes.
“For the next five years, digital remains one of the two priorities of the European Commission, along with the Green Deal – says Nino Samvelidze – Program Manager for Digital Economy, Youth, Culture, and M&E – Delegation of the European Union to Georgia – digital transformation is important for us, but it should be human centric. And for this we have defined three pillars. The first is the use of the most advanced technologies. To develop and maintain such technologies, we need strong professionals with proper skills, and the number of such people in the region is still limited. In order to provide the opportunity to use these technologies to the maximum number of citizens, we need to provide broadband Internet access. The second pillar is the growth of economy and private business. One of the keys to this growth is to provide this business with access to quality data. The third pillar is the European Health Data Space with uniform rules for diagnosis and treatment, which are standardized through digitalization. It is clear that such goals need a high degree of digital resilience to make this whole system as sustainable as possible.”
According to Anatoly Motkin – President of StrategEast digital resilience in this region starts with education. «This includes education at all levels – starting with the most basic digital literacy, followed by the basic professional IT education and, finally, with the relevant higher academic education. Without universal digital literacy, there is no possibility to transfer public services to a completely digital format, and the state will have to support two systems simultaneously. The next level is the training of IT specialists. The domestic IT industry is the key to digital resilience. It is difficult to talk about cybersecurity if there are not enough developers inside the country who can at least support and expand digital transformation,”- explained Mr Motkin.
Gulsanna Mamediieva – Director-General of the Directorate for Strategic Planning and European Integration, Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine talked about the processes of digital transformation in Ukraine. “For a proper digital transformation, this process must be well managed and absolutely transparent. Therefore, in addition to our specialized Ministry of Digital Transformation, every Ukrainian ministry has a deputy minister for digital transformation. We call them “digital agents”. And such a structure is very similar to the one through which Ukraine’s European integration is taking place – each ministry also has a deputy minister for European integration. In some sense, we are integrating into Europe in a digital format”.
Sebastian Molineus – the Regional Director for the South Caucasus at the World Bank moderated the panel «Digital Resilience in the Eastern Partnership Countries».
