China News Agency, Brussels, July 28 (Reporter De Yongjian) The European Union released the 2022 "Digital Economy and Society Index" (DESI) on the 28th, showing the digitization of Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden among the 27 EU member states. The level is among the best, but overall, the EU lags behind in the areas of digital skills, digital transformation of SMEs and even 5G.

　　Since 2014, the European Union has released the "Digital Economy and Society Index" every year, which scores member states from the dimensions of human capital, connectivity, digital technology integration, digital public services, etc. Member States provide policy advice to advance the digitalization process.

　　The EU's 2022 "Digital Economy and Society Index" shows that among the 27 EU member states, Finland ranks first with a total score of 69.6 points, followed by Denmark (69.3 points), the Netherlands (67.4 points) and Sweden (65.2 points). In contrast, Greece (38.9 points), Bulgaria (37.7 points) and Romania (30.6 points) have the lowest levels of digitization.

　　In the relevant analysis report, the EU affirmed that member states are committed to promoting the digitalization process, especially Italy, Poland and Greece have made significant progress, but overall, the EU is lagging behind in the fields of digital skills, digital transformation of SMEs and even 5G.

　　The report pointed out that currently only 54% of the EU population aged 16 to 74 have basic digital skills; from 2020 to 2021, although about 500,000 ICT talents will enter the labor market, the total number of EU-related talents will increase to 9 million people, but it is difficult to make up for the employment gap of enterprises, dragging down the development of enterprises and the economic recovery of the EU.

　　In terms of enterprises, the report indicates that in 2021, only 55% of SMEs in the EU will have a basic level of digitalization, and the remaining 45% of SMEs will not have access to the digital economy. As for the two cutting-edge technologies of artificial intelligence and big data, the utilization rate of EU enterprises is only 8%. % (as of 2021) and 14% (as of 2020), even in Finland, Denmark and other countries, the enterprise utilization rate is less than 30%.

　　In terms of 5G, the report stated that although the 5G population coverage in the EU will increase to 66% in 2021, spectrum allocation for key links in 5G commercial use is far from being in place; currently, except for Estonia and Poland, only 56% of the 5G spectrum resources in EU member states have been allocated. As a result, the commercial potential of 5G cannot be fully released.

　　In order to "catch up", the report said the EU is using the economic recovery plan after the new crown pneumonia epidemic to promote digital transformation, stipulating that member states must spend at least 20% of their recovery funds on digital transformation, so that the EU will allocate a total of 1.8 trillion euros recovery funds.

　　The report shows that so far, the EU has approved the recovery plans of 25 member states, and the funds committed for digital transformation amounted to 127 billion euros, accounting for 26% of the total approved funds. More than % of recovery funding goes to digital transformation.

(Finish)