Minister Marc Hansen: COVID-19 Shows "Urgency to Accelerate Digital Transformation"

On Tuesday, Luxembourg's Minister Delegate for Digitalisation gave a speech during the first web edition of Luxembourg Internet Days, which is taking place from 17 to 19 November 2020. 

Organised for the first time digitally by LU-CIX (Luxembourg Commercial Internet eXchange), Luxembourg Internet Days 2020 revolves around the theme of crisis resistance and resilience.

In his speech, Minister Delegate Marc Hansen referred to the health crisis context, highlighting that events such as the digital Luxembourg Internet Days were proof of the resilience of society in the face of an extremely difficult situation. He noted: “The coronavirus pandemic has forced us to find new ways of working and interacting. This crisis has underlined the urgency to act and accelerate the digital transformation of our society. Furthermore, it highlighted how digital technology is a key part of our collective effort to meet this challenge”.

The Minister Delegate went on to explain how the past few months have illustrated how digitalisation has helped keep the country operating despite the difficult circumstances. Digital solutions in areas such as utilities and communication systems have allowed some form of continuity in everyday life. He continued: "We have succeeded in maintaining essential public services and offered citizens the possibility of carrying out even more administrative procedures online".

Minister Delegate Marc Hansen then outlined the various projects underway at the Ministry for Digitalisation and which will be presented in the coming weeks or months, starting with the GovTech Lab, a joint initiative of the ministry and its technological extension, the Government IT Centre (Centre des technologies de l'information de l'Etat - CTIE). By adopting an open innovation approach in many of its projects, the ministry is preparing to launch initiatives to collect ideas, skills, technological solutions and external contributions to accelerate innovation within the state and improve the services it offers to individuals and businesses.

He explained: “In particular, we intend to accelerate technological innovation within public administration through innovative challenges. This joint initiative will be based on the contribution of innovative minds and creative start-ups to offer technological solutions that are more user-centered and more efficient. It embodies a new mode of governance of technological innovation within government”. 

The concept of the GovTech Lab will be presented in detail in the coming weeks.