Coronavirus and its impact on technology and digitalisation – interview with VNICTP president Jakub Rejzek

The state of emergency that the government declared in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic ended at the end of last week. Various safety measures associated with the pandemic are also gradually being relaxed. It could be said that life is in many ways returning to normal. However, the measures also brought a completely new way of using communication technologies. Will we get used to a new style of work and communication? How has the Czech Republic performed in the area of digitalisation? And to what extent does the state have digitalisation under control? We answer these and other questions in our interview with the president of the Committee of Independent ICT Industry (VNICTP), Mr Jakub Rejzek.

Good day, Mr Rejzek. Do you expect that once life returns to normal, the use of digital communication technologies will also return to normal, or that the current situation will turn into what is called the "new normal"?

I would like to see general digitalisation of society as the normal state. We can see how many different meetings and consultations we are now able to handle from home or from the office. Hundreds of thousands of people across the whole country travel each morning to tasks that they could handle over the internet. If half of them stayed at home, it would greatly relieve public and individual transport, and thus the environment too. For some of our members, handling routine business electronically was standard even before the coronavirus crisis. 

Thanks to the possibilities of various applications for remote collaboration and video conferencing, we could raise labour productivity. We would have more time for family and hobbies. 

For some time after the end of the state of emergency and the quarantine measures, companies will certainly try to turn the processes they have learned into permanent practice. But in government offices the situation will slowly return to the old ways. Inertia and tradition are too strong, so the new norm will be a partial shift only halfway. It is, however, good that the senselessness of any regulation of working from home, which the Social Democrats tried to push through, has been shown up. The trend will gradually strengthen.   

Did the coronavirus crisis reveal any weaknesses in the Czech Republic's digitalisation, and if so, which?

We conducted a survey among our members. We noticed stiff resistance from some offices to accepting digital signatures, although they should accept them. Other problems reported by our member companies are complicated processes in building permit proceedings, which do not really envisage the electronic form of acts. And even when the option exists, some officials are afraid of innovation. That is why we submitted a comment on the draft of the new Building Act. We want building proceedings during which we will not have to come even once to the building where the building authority is seated. We did research within the EU. A whole range of administrative acts can be converted into a digital form: registering a vehicle, arranging a passport or another document. 

Resistance to digitalisation, and the related change of mindset, is greatest in the judiciary, which is quite logical. Imagine coming to a hearing in a civil case from home, using a "state-vetted and state-guaranteed" video conferencing application, with a link sent via a data box (the state's official secure electronic mailbox). Verifying your identity with an electronic ID card or bank identity. Do you know how much money would be saved? And how much would it speed up the proceedings themselves? 

In our survey we also approached some school facilities, mainly primary and secondary schools. A weakness of the digitalisation of education is the lack of modern computers, or rather, not all children have access to equipment with the required parameters. Although they do have access to an internet connection, laptops with an outdated processor inherited from grandad do not meet the requirements for remote access.

TIP: Read the article Internet in schools to learn more about this topic.

Did the coronavirus crisis show where the state could help digitalisation and speed it up? Does the state even still have digitalisation in its hands?

A significant support is the Digital Constitution, that is, the act on the right to digital services. But all processes concerning relations between the state and the citizen need to be set up so that citizens can use all services from home. We need further legislative changes, the setting of methodologies and the training of officials. There is demand in society, but the system is used to employing thousands of officials for something a citizen can comfortably manage on their own, if we give them the option. 

I am optimistic about the future, but we still have to put in a great deal of effort. Above all, the traditionalists need to be overcome and our approach changed. We know exactly what needs to be done, now we just have to push it through. 

Continue with the article Covid-19 opened consumers' eyes: we cannot do without the internet.

Updated 13 March 2024