Poland: New Ministry to Digitize Public Administration

Submitted by Oliver Kovacs on 1 December, 2011 - 11:59

Country:

Poland

Donald Tusk has commenced his second term as Poland’s prime minister. This means, to a large extent, a continuation of the hitherto innovation policy, but changes are also possible. The new government features a brand new post, namely the post of the Minister of Administration and Digitization. Furthermore, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education has announced that it would pursue the policy of tightening the co-operation between science and business and encourage Polish scientist to be more active in applying for international grants.

The Ministry of Administration and Digitization will be created by joining together selected departments of the hitherto Ministry of Interior and Administration and the Ministry of Infrastructure. The new ministry is to deal with the issue of insufficient level of digitization of Poland’s public administration on the national and local level. The key tasks of the ministry will include improvement of the Internet communication between citizens and the government institutions (today a business can be registered through the Internet, but the registration application requires a signature or a costly digital signature).

The ministry will also be responsible for a more efficient spending of the funds provided for in the 8th priority axis of the Operational Programme Innovative Economy (“Information society – increase of innovativeness of the economy”), i.e. funds allotted for the reduction of the digital divide and for ensuring Internet access at the so called last mile stage. The 8th priority of the OP IE, which is now the responsibility of the Ministry of Interior and Administration, lags behind the majority of other OP IE programs. By the end of September, only 41.5 per cent of the funds for 2007-2013 were used, compared to over 60% in the case of the majority of other priorities. The Ministry of Administration and Digitization is headed by Michał Boni, previously the head of the team of strategic advisors to the Prime Minister and the author of the report entitled “Poland 2030,” laying out a strategy for the development of Poland in the context of the current global crisis.

Barbara Kudrycka, the Minister of Science and Higher Education — also to serve her second term of office — has also presented her objectives. She said the main tasks of the ministry would be to increase the number of Polish scientists participating in international research programs, such as the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) or — in a more distant future — “Horizon 2020.” “We intend to build interdisciplinary research teams in Poland” — sys Kudrycka in an interview for “Gazeta Prawna.” According to the National Contact Point for Research Programmes of the European Union, so far the number of Polish researchers participating in projects carried out within the framework of the 7th Framework Programme has not been very impressive — 1100 Polish teams have obtained only EUR 210 million, which ranks Poland 12th in Europe. Moreover, the projects carried out so far have seen little involvement on the part of enterprises. And therefore it is the tightening of co-operation between business and science that Barbara Kudrycka considers to be her second key task. She has announced changes in the taxes on innovative activity. For example, an owner of copyrights to an invention will not be obliged to pay a tax upon bringing it to a company for as long as the invention does not generate revenues. The co-operation between business and science is also expected to develop through the programmes of postgraduate studies addressed to innovation managers. Kudrycka believes the following areas of science to be strategic for the development of Poland’s economy: information technology, biotechnology, material research and application of physics in medicine.

The Ministry of Regional Development and the Ministry of Economy — considered key from the point of view of innovation policy, are also expected to pursue their hitherto policy. The Ministry of Regional Development, headed by Elżbieta Bieńkowska, is responsible, together with other ministries and institutions, for EU funds spending. In November, the total value of agreements concluded with the beneficiaries amounted to PLN 279.9 billion (EUR 61.3 billion).

The Ministry of Economy will still be headed by Waldemar Pawlak. The Ministry supervises the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development — a key institution for the development of innovative economy (Polish representative to TAFTIE). In the coming years, PAED intends to focus on supporting the business environment institutions. It plans to spend PLN 2.8 billion (EUR 0.62 billion) on investments related to the development of infrastructure, technology parks and incubators as well as on training their staff.

References / further information: