digitalization
Association: Only every 10th government project implemented
Bitkom President Ralf Wintergerst considers bureaucracy to be the biggest brake on digital Germany. photo
© Arne Dedert/dpa
The traffic light coalition has undertaken a tight digitization program. But of the 334 planned projects, only a good tenth had been completed halfway through the legislature.
According to an evaluation by the digital association Bitkom, the federal government has considerable problems with its ambitious agenda Put Germany’s digitization into practice.
According to a study by Bitkom published in Berlin, the traffic light coalition only implemented eleven percent of the 334 digital projects halfway through the legislature: According to the “Monitor Digitalpolitik”, every fourth project has not yet been tackled. Two thirds of the projects are currently being implemented.
Bitkom President Ralf Wintergerst identified the greatest deficits in the digitization of education and administration. So far, the federal government has not kept its promise to launch a “Digital Pact 2.0” in order to be able to continue to guarantee the financing of digital technology for schools. So far, no follow-up financing for the “Digital Pact 1.0” has been provided for in the 2024 budget draft. “Our schools are now 20 years behind countries like Denmark,” complains Wintergerst.
The Online Access Act (OZG) 2.0, one of the most important digital policy projects of the federal government, is still unfinished. Unfortunately, the work has only just begun. The financing of the measures is uncertain, and this time there were no deadlines at all. “The backward German administration is growing into a real disadvantage as a location, which puts a strain on households and companies alike,” he says. Only 30 out of 600 administrative services are digitized in Germany.
Some areas are also making progress
Bitkom made great progress in healthcare and broadband expansion. The association praised the comprehensive introduction of the electronic patient file (ePA), for which the so-called opt-out procedure is planned according to the plans of the federal government. This means that the ePA is automatically activated for the insured person unless they object.
Bitkom also sees the planning and approval acceleration for digital infrastructure initiated by the traffic light coalition as positive. The expansion of mobile and broadband networks had already made great progress last year. “In a European comparison, Germany is now in 4th place in terms of the provision of telecommunications services.” In 2021, Germany was still in 11th place in the index for the digital economy and society (DESI).