The European Commissioner boosts the idea of investing in digital infrastructure to be competitive with Silicon Valley and the Chinese digital industry
The digital infrastructure will be a mainstay in our future economy. That´s the idea that the European Commissioner Günther Oettinger explained the last Thursday. In the case that Europe can´t develop fiber-optic networks and next-generation high-speed 5G wireless applications and networks fast enough, “we will lose, because important technological applications will not be possible any longer in our industry“, the Commissioner said.
Maybe, for this reason, Oettinger, also explained that, “according to our calculations” the European area will need “investments of 600-700 billion euros“. Numbers that the Commissioner explained during the European Alpbach forum, an annual summit in Austria. The Austrians had the opportunity of listening a strategy that also includes investments in Switzerland, Ukraine and the western Balkans, “which are part of the pan-European infrastructure”.
But, why has Europe this necessity?, because there is a breach to catch up countries like the United States or China, the biggest competency of the European Union in this field. “In less than two years we will have one European legislative standard and a balance between data protection and the right to use the data,” he said, talking about the necessity of a unique strategy to face giant companies like Google or Amazon. The main reason why he has been touring arround some European countries.
“Standards such as how to connect cars have to be the same in Europe. They should be strong enough to become part of the global norms and standards,” noted, urging European universities to attract international IT pioneers.
“We have to bundle our European strength we have at universities and in the industry, or our 28 silos will be not strong enough to compete with Silicon Valley and the Chinese,” said to finish his intervention.
