Economic Recommendations to European Governments

Nov 11,2020

The COVID-19 pandemic poses a worldwide threat and stress-test to our social, economic and political life. A stress-test that showed alarming shortcomings in certain areas of the economy.

On 27 May 2020, the European Commission published their recovery plan ‘Europe’s moment: Repair and prepare for the next generation‘. However difficult, the COVID-19 pandemic provides Europe with the opportunity to build a better, more connected and stronger European economy.

At IBM, we strongly believe that digitisation is the central building block to increase resilience of key sectors and our economies. Therefore, IBM has developed a set of specific Economic Recovery recommendations to European governments and institutions as they are developing and deploying Recovery plans (See full report below).

From helping to prevent and manage future pandemics, to ensuring the continuity of supply chains and strengthening cyber security, our recommendations describe what European governments could achieve through increased digitisation of industries and public services and how to unlock the potential of data faster and more securely to get there.

Summary

Prepare for future pandemics by further digitising the healthcare industry, categorising ICT workers and services as essential to limit mobility restriction, and by adopting different ways to ensure e-learning and increase digital skills.
Logistics are the backbone of our economy. Through the broad use of blockchain technology we can achieve transparency, increased efficiency and security of supply chains and a trustful cooperation of all parties in the global ecosystem.
Broadband, wireless networks and cloud computing have become essential for a resilient remote economy in Europe. As open architectures lead to increased economic gains, governments should invest and accelerate their adoption and lead by example.
Governments should prioritise cybersecurity and collaborate with private sector initiatives like the Charter Of Trust to ensure proper standards and safe interoperability.
Further deploy existing technologies such as IoT systems to track, steer and augment climate solutions to reach Europe’s green objectives.
Public Administrations and key sectors should adopt a ‘digital first’ mentality to allow secure, scalable and agile work methods, based on regulatory standards and data protection.
The power of data will benefit European citizens if Member States remove barriers to cross‑border collaboration, treat data and approach ‘tracing’ responsibly and leverage AI and open-cloud tools for scientific research, data-sharing and economic activity.

— By Liam Benham, Vice President, Government and Regulatory Affairs, Europe

For more information and all our specific recommendations to European governments, download the full report.

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