The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology set the goal of bringing Moldova among the top 50 countries in the ICT sector at global level. What this ambitious objective is based on and what should be done to achieve it can be found out below, in an interview made by IPN news Agency with Minister of Information and Communication Technology Vasile Botnari, in the context of the recent anniversary of the declaration of Moldova’s Independence.
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– What are the achievements and failures of the Republic of Moldova after the declaration of Independence?
– Moldova is a young state that witnessed both accomplishments and failures during the 25 years of independence. It is now important to take them into account, to learn the lesson and to advance with the projects needed by the country so that the people regain confidence in Moldova’s prosperous future.
– How did the ICT sector develop during these years and which are your forecasts for this sector for the next few years?
– The ICT sector is a relatively young one, where the main changes occurred starting with 2000. However, owing to the efforts made at multiple levels and the openness of society to what is new, the ICT sector saw a development that was spectacular in parts and today is one of the most developed and dynamic sectors in the country. The ICT sector’s share in the country’s Gross Domestic Product is about 8%, with a market value of over 8.6 billion lei.
During the last few years for example, important investments were made in mobile communications networks and services. Currently, over 35% of the country’s territory and 65% of the population are covered with new generation 4G services. This means access speed and data transfer at a high speed that, depending on region, can reach 300 Mbps. For comparison, I can tell that at world level, the high-speed Internet in a lot of states is only 2 Mbps.
Also, the process of extending the fiber optic networks all over the country is in full swing and at least 60% of the households are expected to have access to high-speed Internet by a connection of minimum 30 Mbps towards 2020. The measures taken so far make us confident that this objective can be achieved faster.
An important, even revolutionary step was taken recently, which in the near future is projected to generate a jump in the liberalization of the local communications services. I refer to the adoption by Parliament of the Law on Access to Properties and Shared Use of Infrastructure Associated with Public Electronic Communications Networks. The new law ensures shared access to the existent communications infrastructure for all the communications operators at reasonable tariffs, guaranteed by the law. The ensuring of competition at local level is estimated to have an impact similar to that of 5-6 years ago, when the electronic communications market was liberalized at national level. As a result of these measures, the technological progress in developing Internet access placed Moldova among the world leaders by the average access speed.
We are powerfully motivated to contribute to the removal of the administrative barriers placed in the way of entrepreneurs working in the IT sector and to ensure a competitive development environment. In this regard, we have a number of projects that are at different implementation stages. The main element with which we want to stimulate first of all this area is the creation of IT parks and also the development of start-ups. For the purpose, we focus on the creation of the legislative framework and conditions that can stimulate these initiatives. Surely, there are also implemented other projects aimed at developing the electronic communications infrastructure at national level, whose objective is to create information and communications systems, the exchange of data between institutions and people, ensuring of digital access, cyber security, etc. Some of these are implemented by governmental institutions and agencies, while others by the private and academic sectors. Some of the projects are implemented for commercial purposes, while others for their social utility.
It should be noted that regardless of the motivation of these projects – either the commercial purpose or social usefulness – they are all designed to meet the necessities of a modern information society. That’s why both the IICT Ministry and the Government in general will support and promote them with the aim of developing a modern digital Moldova.
– An increasing number of people consider that Moldova can become a new force on the international information technology market. What is your opinion about this?
– The growth and absorption rates of the new services and the interest shown by the new generation in this sector make us hope that Moldova has big development prospects in this direction, not only as a consumer, but also as a generator of ICT products. At the same time, we must bear in mind that we are not the only ones who want to develop the ICT sector. I want to note that owing to the value added brought by it, the development of this sector is a constant preoccupation in all the states oriented to development.
The question and big challenge for Moldova is if it can compete successfully on the international ICT market and, respectively, if it can find the own niche on the global market and make use of its best resource – trained and creative people. I think this is possible. The ICT Ministry set the goal of bringing Moldova among the top 50 countries in the ICT sector at global level. To make progress in developing a modern digitized society, we must yet act perseveringly, in accordance with a clear strategy.
We are sure that the ICT sector of Moldova has real growth potential, but this growth will be really significant at the level of national economy only when we manage to ensure the competitiveness of the IT products and services. To achieve this goal, we should concentrate our efforts on the development of the electronic communications infrastructure, the development of local digital content and services and ICT education and strengthen confidence and safety in the virtual space. Special attention should be devoted to the augmentation of the share of the IT industry, the quantity and quality of ICT specialists and the promotion of the IT products and services on the domestic market and particularly for export.
– How can the IT technologies improve the living conditions of the people of Moldova?
– The IT industry changes the world and vice versa. 90% of the data existing now on the Internet didn’t exist two years ago. During 60 days, the volume of video materials uploaded on the Internet is larger than the volume produced during 60 years by all the broadcasters. The mobile equipment is already available to 56% of the global population, while 47% have access to mobile high-speed Internet. The demand for different services increases exponentially.
That’s why the transfer of technology and know-how, the creation of an environment favorable for the development of start-ups, support for innovations, creativity and co-creativity, development of own products and services, connection to ultramodern technologies that only appear on the horizon must be all our main objectives assumed for the next few years.
We must preoccupy with the development together with the new technological trends so as to be able to deal with the regional and global competition. We encourage the local IT companies not to limit themselves and to orient to related disciplines, between IT and other areas, such as health protection, financial services and virtualization of currencies, next-generation mobile services and technologies, etc.
There are a lot of development directions that appear at an increasing speed and we should make effort for the home market to be favorable for starting innovative businesses that would ultimately support the people.
– The presidential elections are coming. What do you think about their capacity to contribute to the modernization of the country and the lives of the Moldovan people?
– I think that it is very well that the people were restored the right to choose the President themselves. I hope our people will choose responsibly and the future Head of State will be a person who will work for the benefit of the Republic of Moldova. We need stability in the country and the continuation of good things.
On the 25th anniversary of the declaration of its Independence, Moldova needs united people because only together can we be more powerful in our road to the European Moldova, to an area that means more prosperity and stability for each family in our country.
