Digital Transformation of Centru Region – Romania. Needs Assessment

Competitiveness represents a never-ending moving target for any institution/entity, no matter the level of analysis (micro - companies /public administrations, mezzo - industries / national regions, or macro - countries / world regions); but its determinants (or key success factors) are changing, as ages go by, asking for continuous watch and strategic flexibility. With digital technology nowadays disrupting (almost) every aspect of human life, while framing a new age - of digitalization being both a source of competitiveness (for the industry leaders - whatever the “industry” might be), and (just) a prerequisite for survival (or doing business) for almost everyone else, the European Commission’s political priority for 2019-2024 “A Europe fit for the digital age” and the EU’s digital strategy aiming for a “digital transformation that will benefit everyone” are of great interest (accentuated by the new pandemic context) for all the EU regions and their institutions/entities. Within this framework, the paper (which is part of a bigger research) aims to perform an overview scan of Centru Region-Romania (mainly by comparison with Romania’s other Development Regions and with EU benchmarks) in order to broadly identify its needs for digital transformation, while setting the backgrounds for a more systematic, focused and applied analysis to follow.