GLOBSEC 2020 Digital Lighthouse Roundtable

GLOBSEC’s Digital Lighthouse Initiative was born at Tatra Summit 2019, aiming to create a dialogue between key stakeholders from the public and private sector in the area of digital and innovation policy in the CEE region. Throughout the whole year, we organize online events, high-level closed-door sessions and publish policy briefs, making sure that our outputs reach the most relevant stakeholders on the EU and national level.

In October 2020, we continued this conversation at GLOBSEC Forum with some of the key CEE-based stakeholders from the private and public sector, as well as academia. The main focus of the discussion was “Kickstarting the PostCOVID Growth in CEE in the Digital Era.” There was a general consensus among policy stakeholders and businesses alike on what the new macroeconomic growth model for the region should look like: based on green & digital technologies, a more diversified export profile, driven by higher value-added activities, education reform, and close cooperation between the public and private sector.

At the same time, the new vision of economic growth needs to consider the wider impact of the adoption of new technologies on vulnerable populations, as well as security concerns. It is also essential to clearly define innovation-related priorities within the given ecosystem, coupled with efforts to carry out future-oriented education reforms and re-skilling of the existing workforces. An increased level of trust among key stakeholders working towards a common vision, coupled with a truly systematic public and private collaboration, is key to driving future-oriented policies shaping the new economic model for CEE.

You can find the full session summary in the report below