Working Group Discusses Inclusion of Elderly, People without Internet in Digital Transformation

On Friday 13 December 2019, the members of the “Digital Inclusion” working group met for a first meeting during which Marc Hansen, Luxembourg's Minister Delegate for Digitalisation, outlined the challenges of digital inclusion in the Grand Duchy.

This working group, coordinated by the Ministry of Digitalisation, brings together representatives of the Luxembourg State ministries in order to meet one of the commitments made by the government in its coalition agreement, namely the development of a national plan intended to make digitalisation a lever for inclusion and an opportunity for all. This action plan, which is set to be finalised for the second half of 2020, must propose ways to include all citizens in the digital transformation of the country and thus thwart a possible digital divide.

While the inclusion of the elderly is considered one of the important points to be addressed, the members of the working group will also focus on the inclusion of people without internet access, as well as those lacking the required knowledge or who simply are not making digital choices.

In this context, Marc Hansen recalled the results of the recent opinion survey commissioned by the ministry on citizens' perception of digitalisation. Although citizens had a fairly positive opinion of digitalisation, 4 in 10 asked for state support to better understand these tools. In addition, 5% of those surveyed said that they did not have access to the internet; this was mainly the case for people over 65 or with a low level of education.