“Still unpublished latest edition of the RCC’s annual public and business survey for the Wester Balkans – Balkan Barometer 2020 shows that, as expected, internet was extensively used for communication purposes with the proliferation of social media (69%), while traditionally it was less popular for education (30%) and online shopping (22%). E-government services are used by a mere 3% of the population. Data also show that less than 17% of the population in the region does not use internet, mostly 65+ citizens,” said Majlinda Bregu, Secretary-General of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) at the Regional Development Forum for Europe held remotely today.
Forced shift to digital solutions due to the pandemic represents an essential change in government and business processes, allowing for greater and anticipated use of digital technologies to create new opportunities, innovative solutions and new set of rules and market requirements. It is calculated that 10% increase in the digitisation index is associated with 0.63% of GDP growth.