«My job is to ensure that Italy by 2026 fiber or 5g reaches everywhere, we have a goal of coverage and fairness of the network. To make it happen there will be competitions, there will be public funds to be used according to certain rules ». This was stated by Vittorio Colao, minister for technological innovation and digital transition, guest of the Ambrosetti forum underway in Cernobbio. «The exciting debate of the single network, which is unique in Europe, I leave it to others. Politicians have to be politicians, managers have to be managers, mixing roles is dangerous because then nothing is achieved. Everyone has to do their job and mine is to ensure that by 2026 Italy will have fiber everywhere ».
«The theme that is very close to my heart – continues the minister – is how digitalization technology can be a vector of growth, an opportunity to recreate social cohesion and European pride. Quotas dedicated to digital can contribute to a change in the perception of Europe ». On the innovation front, investments in the digitalisation of the public administration, in the cloud, in health “not only improve the lives of citizens, but contribute to Europe’s technological autonomy”.
The autonomy of the continent is a topic on which the minister focused on the sidelines of his speech: “I don’t know if I want to use the word independence or sovereignty – he said – but certainly at least European autonomy is important because when one is autonomous then we negotiate, cooperate and trade even better ». Then a reference to the shortage of microchips and electronic components that afflicts a part of the supply chain: “We cannot completely depend on others, it does not mean doing everything alone but setting the conditions for better negotiation”.
Colao says he is satisfied with what has been achieved in these first months of work, but is not unbalanced on the tenders and on what will be unveiled on Tuesday in the press conference with the Cyber Security Agency: “On Tuesday the national cloud project will be presented, there will be a role for everyone with clear rules. We did the work together with the cybersecurity agency. Tuesday’s presentation will be a situation in which we will explain what and why there will be a role for everyone, but with rules defined together with the agency’s colleagues. We will talk about it on Tuesday ».
The minister summed up the first six months of the Recovery: «I’m happy with how these 6 months went, we made a coupon of all the initiatives. On connectivity, by September we will conclude the consultations and begin the design of the competitions ».
«You need to have a vision and an architecture and then start having people to do it, we will hire a certain number of people, we will negotiate a series of contracts but we have to start, precisely because the processes are long. One thing that makes me happy is that we are getting ten resumes per hour. There are many and many experts who are pleased to dedicate their expertise and their lives to the digitization of Italy which I think is exciting ».