“Digital Economy, Smart Government and Entrepreneurial State”

The pervasive spread of “disruptive” technologies will not only open up enormous opportunities, but will also dramatically transform the government of the economy and give rise to new challenges.

This third “Digital Government Summit” – the flagship event in Italy – will see leading economists, academics and members of the ICT industry discussing the following key questions with Italian government authorities and representatives of the EU:

• Will the new “disruptive” technologies and the extension of the Internet from people and data to processes and objects create greater wealth by enabling major improvements in productivity and restoring higher rates of economic growth?

• Will the digital economy increase unemployment and lead to greater inequality, or can we expect it to generate more jobs outside the “traditional” ICT industry?

• What education and retraining policies should be implemented in order to develop the necessary new digital skills and deal with the social impact of such massive transformations?

• Should “innovation policies” be driven by an “entrepreneurial state” prepared to make high-risk investments in strategic development areas, or should government interventions be reduced and leave the development of the digital economy to the invisible hand of the market?

• Do we need a national industrial policy for the digital economy? What investments should we be prepared to make in Italy and the rest of Europe in order to ensure that we can compete on a global scale? How can we raise the appropriate financial resources, and by what forms of public-private partnership?

• After years of discussion, where do we stand in terms of the Italian digital agenda? What is the strategic vision of our digital public administration agencies? What are the plans for implementing current projects, and what are what are AgID’s priorities for the near future?

• There will also be a review of the smartest innovation cases in healthcare, education and local government, the innovation policies of the Italian Regions, and the new perspectives opened up by the creation of “metropolitan areas”, in addition to a discussion of the role of the start-up movement in developing the digital economy in Italy and Europe.