Colao tightens on the digital divide, 1 out of 5 Italians never used the internet

by time news

Rome, March 18 (time.news)


The digital transformation of Italy “has to be done” – too

Why “digital can and must be inclusive” –
but to achieve it you have to tighten on the digital divide which sees us as “one of the countries in Europe” with the widest gap, with practically 1 Italian out of 5, “17% of the population between 16 and 74 who have never used the internet, against 9% in Europe, almost double “. In more than a month of work since he has been in government, for the Minister of Technological Innovation and Digital Transition, Vittorio Colao, this is one of the ‘hot’ dossiers on which to push also from a Pnrr point of view. And it is not the only dossier. “Only 42% of Italians”, again among teenagers and the over 70s, have “basic digital skills, compared to 58% in Europe”, Colao noted showing one of the folders on which he is already working also at the meeting commissions of the Chamber of Transport and Budget, Public Works and Politics of the EU of the Senate during his hearing today.


IThe digital divide, underlined Colao, also arises from the lack of skills “ and the Department also plans “to strengthen the Digital Civil Service, through the recruitment of a few thousand young people who help about one million users to acquire digital skills, especially among the most needy segments of the population. “. Because the new innovation minister believes that even through a ‘conversion’ to digital our country can shorten the gap and become more inclusive. “We are often led to think that the digital transition concerns individual initiatives, or procedures that simply need to be modernized compared to the past. In truth – the minister observed – this is not the case: the digital transformation that is affecting our society, our economies, and our lives daily is much more. It is a fundamental change in the way we work, produce and interact in our lives. ”

“Thanks to digital, public administrations can improve the ways in which they respond to social needs in terms of speed, agility and quality in the provision of services. In essence, the socio-economic and relational framework that has characterized our society from the first industrial revolution to today is being completely redesigned and within which our knowledge, our activities and our lives as a whole mature “and in this sense Colao has highlighted as “the digital transition is a unique opportunity for growth, employment, and innovation, of sustainable preservation of the territory and of nature and also of diffusion and wider access to art and culture “.

Italy, the minister is convinced, “must seize this opportunity without hesitation. And it must do so above all to allow our young people, who will truly live in a digital future, to have access to those opportunities from which they have too often been excluded. “So” the country’s digital transition is for us a priority in government action “ Colao recalled placing, in this time of pandemic, “health and school” among “the most crucial areas” on which not only the Department for digital transformation he chaired but “all the administrations and public functions to which, through the newly created Interministerial Committee, we want to ensure consistency and a common strategy “.

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