Romania is a country where the state competes with entrepreneurs, offering benefits unsupported by skills and a mediocre future to young Romanians, far from the European future, believes the president of the National Confederation for Female Entrepreneurship (CONAF), Cristina Chiriac.

“19 state jobs per day in 2023, 4,000 new hires since the start of the year, 64,000 in recent years. We’re moving front desk workers behind monitors, thus ticking off a formal digitization, thus adding ballast to a ship well below the waterline At each of the #ITforEnergy conferences, we emphasized the importance of the intelligent digitization of technological flows, of management processes as a whole, of the resources and skills of employees, but as long as we do not create a national synergy, which harmonizes the private environment with the institutional one, the efforts ours are in vain. We still live in a country where the state competes with entrepreneurs, offering benefits unsupported by skills and a mediocre future to young Romanians, who if they do not restructure the bureaucratic apparatus in the direction of supporting entrepreneurs, will push us and the 19 employees every day us in the bureaucratic system, far from the European future,” said Cristina Chiriac, who is also the president of the Employers’ Association of Women.

According to her, the only solution for employers in the private sector is “to raise the bar of digitization, where the bureaucracy cannot reach”.

“A new social dynamic is needed, based on people willing to build a future through continuous education, a force capable of building a new system, and I will repeat it so many times until the echoes will move the status quo”, mentioned Cristina Chiriac.

At the same time, Cătălin Niță, the Secretary General of the Oil and Gas Employers’ Federation (FPPG), responsible for attracting and implementing projects from external funds and the Project Manager of #ITforENERGY, says that “in a constantly changing social and economic reality , the direction towards digitization asserts itself as an essential pillar for progress and stability”.

“In this context, we are particularly happy that we, the employers’ organizations, make a real contribution to local SMEs through the #ITforEnergy project, a project that emphasizes improving the digital skills of employees. Through this initiative, we are laying the foundations of a professional environment adaptable and innovative, and strengthening the digital skills of SME employees is the first decisive step in this direction”, said Cătălin Niță.

The Oil and Gas Employers’ Federation and the Women Entrepreneurs’ Patronage – a founding member of the National Confederation for Entrepreneurship (CONAF) are organizing on Monday, November 6, at the Prahova Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the third #ITforENERGY national conference – Smart Industry Days – Improving the level of knowledge in it.

“The main focus is on digitization and the integration of technologies, the development of the digital skills of employees in the SME sector, with an emphasis on the green transition, the reduction of the carbon footprint and their impact in the current economic landscape”, the release states.

The data of the country report “A digital decade 2030” from 2023, cited by CONAF, reveal that only 9% of Romanian citizens have advanced digital skills, compared to the EU average of 26%.

According to the quoted source, in comparison with the EU 2030 objectives, these results suggest that the Romanian authorities and all parties involved will have to make efforts to reduce these gaps.

“We have a low share of IT specialists: 2.8% of all employees, below the EU average (4.6%), while the share of IT graduates of 6.9% places Romania among the EU leaders. The discrepancy is largely explained by the difficulty of retaining the elites in Romania”, the CONAF press release states.

Regarding digital public services for citizens, Romania recorded a score of 48, compared to the EU average of 77. In parallel, the score for digital public services for businesses is 45, also below the EU average of 84.

According to the quoted source, it is necessary for Romania to intensify its efforts in the field of digital skills. In particular, Romania should continue to involve stakeholders from the private sector in strengthening efforts to improve and retrain the workforce, to attract and retain IT specialists.