Romania needs one or more technopoles, deliberately built and guided through multiannual planning over several decades, following the model of France's Sophia Antipolis, Minister of Economy, Digitalisation, Entrepreneurship and Tourism Irineu Darau said on Tuesday at the launch event of the SME Digital Index study by IMM Romania.
"We need one or more technopoles in Romania, deliberately built and guided on a multiannual basis, if not over several decades. I lived in France, in Nice, 20 kilometres from Sophia Antipolis, what is called, somewhat exaggeratedly but reflecting its scale, France's Silicon Valley. It is a technopole designed and created from scratch over 40 years, which has generated 50,000 jobs. It is a cradle for companies from across Europe and some from outside Europe. So, it can be done," the minister said.
He believes that in Romania it is not possible to speak of centres or cities dedicated to digitalisation, such as Cluj-Napoca, Bucharest, Iasi or Timisoara.
"I would slightly rephrase the notion of cities designated for digitalisation. I believe we have clusters of IT or technology, that also benefit from university environments, but these are not clusters guided by multiannual objectives. I would like to see this happen in those major cities. I would also like us to have at least one technopole to which all these cities and all these companies, why not from across Europe as well, would be attracted and where they could bring their minds together for innovation and research," the minister added.
On the other hand, Irineu Darau said that state aid schemes need to be rethought in the current context.
"The state aid schemes, even in tourism, need to be reconsidered, compared in terms of impact, consolidated to some extent and narrowed down to two or three that truly have a multiplied impact. Today, we are checking off state aid schemes that all have limited impact," the minister added.
IMM Romania launched on Tuesday the SME Digital Index, a study assessing the level of digitalisation of SMEs and trends in the area of digitalisation as identified by specialists.
Comentează