MetroDigital initiative shared in Duisburg
On the 20th of July, in Duisburg, at the Fraunhofer-inHaus-Zentrum, all project’s partners had the opportunity to share the good practices of their territories in the field of SMEs competitiveness and green-digital transition. In this regard, the Department of Economic Development of the Metropolitan City of Turin (MCT) had the opportunity to present the initiative called ‘MetroDigital’.
In Italy, local governments aren’t taking full advantage of the opportunities offered by the digital transition (eg. ameliorating their services to communities and SMEs). On average, in less than 45% of cases, digitalisation leads to a revision of PA services’ processes in term of real efficiency and innovation. In the MCT, there is a disparity in terms of Internet access, particularly in the mountainous areas. Despite a positive trend in terms of access over the years, the increase is less significant in the case of interactions with the PA, where less than 30% of users (including SMEs) interact with local authorities via digital services.
This initiative aimed to work in synergy with another measure that the MCT carries out, which brings the ultra board band connection in mountainous and rural places not covered by any national or regional funds.
MetroDigital is an initiative promoted by the MCT in collaboration with ANCI Piemonte, UNCEM Piemonte and the Piemonte Innova Foundation (which is the Regional ICT Cluster and the National Technology Cluster for Smart Communities). It analysed the level of digital maturity of the territory through a meticulous assessment conducted by the ICT Cluster. The initiative aimed to identify actions to concretely support the technological innovation of local authorities, to the benefit of citizens and enterprises, by making rational and effective use of available resources (starting with RRF funds), to generate opportunities for the competitiveness of the whole territory.
It managed to demonstrate the successful cooperation between the metropolitan authority and the Regional ICT Cluster, of which the MCT is a founding partner.
The assessment made it possible to identify the main territorial needs in relation to the adequacy of infrastructure, security and services for users and SMEs; it also highlighted critical issues related to the digital divide.
The main result is the mapping of the state-of-the-art of digitalisation in the area selected (metropolitan in this case), which represents the baseline and framework for future actions and initiatives to foster digital innovation and competitiveness in the area. It also represents a key element for the impact evaluation of future policies and measures which will arise on the topic.
The presentation raised a question from Ricardo Reitz, from the Duisburg Business & Innovation GmbH, the partner hosting the event. He asked: “How are you managing, as a public administration, the questions arising from the enterprises which want to digitalise and become greener?”.
The MCT answered that the role of the Metropolitan City of Turin in regards of the economic development is to pool the know-how of the area and putting together the different stakeholders’ interests in the innovation ecosystem, in order to act as one of the enabling factors of development.