Cyprus ranks 20th among 27 EU Member States in the 2022 edition of the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) and is still below the EU average on basic digital skills.
In fact, one out of two Cypriots lacks basic digital skills, according to DESI which indicates that a significant change of pace is needed in the country’s drive to improve its citizens’ digital skills.
Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy Philippos Hadjizacharias told Philenews the government has drafted an action plan aiming to empower and digitally train all citizens of Cyprus – regardless of age. And regardless whether they live in urban or rural areas.
He also said the goal is to strongly improve Cyprus’ connectivity – both fixed and wireless and to achieve these targets the government is partially relying on Cohesion policy funds and on EU Digital funding programmes.
DESI which is a tool of the European Commission to monitor digital progress gives Cyprus a score of 48.4 with the EU average being 52.3 points.
The best performers are Finland (69.6), Denmark (69.3), the Netherlands (67.4), Sweden (65.2) and Ireland (62.7). In contrast, the worst performers are Romania (30.6), Bulgaria (37.7), Greece (38.9), Poland (40.5) and Slovakia (43.4).
Although in most cases Cyprus still scores below the EU average, nonetheless, it has improved its performance in almost all DESI dimensions.
The most marked progress has been made in Connectivity, Integration of Digital technology and Digital public services.
Moreover, 66% of Cypriot SMEs use digital technologies and have at least a basic level of digital intensity, which is above the EU average of 55%.
