Digitalisation for increased competitiveness

01 Jan Digitalisation for increased competitiveness

Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering (IVA)
2019

Digitalisation as a phenomenon is creating a profound change in society both in Sweden and globally. IVA believes that a broad and insightful discussion is needed on the changes that digitalisation enables, as Sweden’s future prosperity will depend on society’s ability to take advantage of the power in development and renewal that digitalisation bring. IVA’s project Digitalisation for increased competitiveness wants to contribute to such a discussion. The following areas are in focus: digital infrastructure, security, skills, privacy and the initiatives and forms of collaboration that are needed to strengthen the international competitiveness of Sweden as a nation as well as Swedish industry.
IVA concludes, among other things, that privacy needs to be discussed in a more nuanced and structured way depending on who is using the personal data and for what, and that the responsibility for digital infrastructure today is following a layered model with complex interactions between different actors. In addition, IVA considers that the responsibility for digitalisation issues at central-political level needs to be reorganised. The establishment of a coordination office within the Government Office is proposed. The coordination office should have financial resources and a mandate to pursue governance and coordination issues. The report is available in Swedish.