The value of being the best and the importance of learning from the best

Yesterday it was announced that Sweden is the second best in the EU in terms of digitalization. The European Commission has developed a new index, the DESI (Digital Economy and Society Index), which measures EU countries' progress towards a digital economy and society. Sweden comes in second place after Denmark. This is obviously good news. Sweden's goal is to be the best in the world at taking advantage of the opportunities offered by digitization, and with this result, we are obviously well on our way. But the question is whether this goal shouldn't be seen as a vision rather than a concrete objective. For what real benefit does the goal of being the best in the world actually entail; what benefit does it mean for society/business/individuals? What problems/challenges do we want to solve by becoming the best in the world? For me, as a convinced digitization evangelist, there are of course many obvious answers to these questions, but from a political perspective, the answers are unfortunately conspicuous by their absence. And as long as we do not have a common view on the value of being the best in the world, I unfortunately believe that political initiatives and priorities will continue to be conspicuous by their absence.

Commenting on the results, IT Minister Kaplan says that the government is working hard to ensure that Sweden becomes even better at taking advantage of the opportunities that exist in digitization, whether in schools, for the environment or for business. Isn't it strange, then, that we don't have any concrete political goals for digitization, but the goals that exist relate to IT policy (broadband goals, etc.)? Of course we still need goals for IT policy - the expansion of the digital infrastructure, for example, is not something we will finish. As the range of digital services grows, as the public sector (slowly but surely) becomes more digital in its contacts with citizens, patients, etc. - there will also be increasing demands on capacity, robustness, etc. But we also need policy goals that deal with the digitization of society - "whether in schools, for the environment or for business" (to quote Kaplan again...).

Denmark is the country in Europe that is better than Sweden according to the index. In December last year, the Danish government presented a plan for digital growth. According to the Danish Minister for Economic Affairs, "digitization and the use of IT are central to the growth of the Danish economy. With this plan, we want to accelerate the use of technology and digital solutions in businesses. This will strengthen competition and help to future-proof Danish business."

The contribution of digitalization to growth and competitiveness is of utmost importance also in Sweden. According to the Growth Analysis report , the e.g. sector has largely driven productivity growth in Sweden over the past 20 years. The question I continue to ask myself is: when will we see a strong, coordinated digitalization policy with clear goals and direction? When will we seriously move from an IT policy to a horizontal digitalization policy that includes all policy areas? If our goal is to become the best in the world and thus overtake Denmark in the measurements, the government must begin to act - in a coordinated, clear and forceful manner. And why not take inspiration and lessons from those who are actually the best?