Increasing Economic Competitiveness through the Contribution of Digitalization

Abstract

What does digitalization really mean? What is the impact on increasing economic competitiveness? How does it affect the way we live today? The answers may be different from multiple perspectives of understanding this phenomenon. For some it means advanced technologies in everyday work, for others it means permanent communication with others or even a whole new way of doing business, facilitating access to services, fast execution of time-consuming activities etc. In essence, it seems that digitalization means the use of information technology to create added value in an accelerated way, an element that makes you competitive with others. Romania occupies the last place in the European Union, in terms of digitalization, which we could regard as an opportunity, because the dynamics of the last years show a rapid growth of the digital economy in Romania compared to the countries of the European Union. Based on these premises, the article aims to answer the following questions: With what additional effort could Romania accelerate the growth rate of the digital economy?; what are the measures that the private sector should take?; what should the public sector do?; diversification of digital tools used to increase productivity, accessing new customers, will expanding on global markets lead to increased economic competitiveness?; will the integration of technologies in the public sector increase the quality of the services offered to companies and citizens?; is Romania in a good position so that it can benefit from the opportunity of digitalization?; Does digitalization mean the elimination of jobs at an unprecedented rate or the creation of new jobs? We also intend to conclude whether the Romanian economic model can be a digitalization provider or only a consumer of it.