Brussels, 11/12/2014 (Agence Europe) - On December 11, the European Commissioner for the Digital Economy, Günther Oettinger, hosted a meeting for senior representatives from BusinessEurope. This European confederation representing European business expressed its concerns to the Commissioner regarding the too slow transition towards the digital economy.
The director-general of BusinessEurope, Markus J.Beyrer, said, “We must speed up this digital transformation to be amongst the leaders. And we need urgent action to create Europe's digital single market”. Beyrer said that using smart technologies would substantially improve industrial productivity and add a further €2,000 billion to European GDP by 2030 but he regretted that Europe was lagging behind and that only 8 out of the top 100 information and communication technology companies have their headquarters in Europe, “which is not a good sign”.
Oettinger said that the business community and political decision-makers had to collaborate to make Europe a genuinely digital economy, “Business needs to invest and develop new technologies, and we need to get the regulatory framework right and invest in research. Together we will make it”. (IL)