PSD Minister of Digitalization Bohdan Ivan (32 years old) gave a difficult-to-understand speech at the Victoria Palace on Wednesday with grammatical errors regarding the conclusions of the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Čolaku on the issue of digitalization. Ivan talked about the deadline set by the Prime Minister for 30 ministries and agencies to present IT projects, which will be funded with 524 million euros, and what he wants from the ION robot.

Digitization Minister Bohdan Ivan and government spokesman Mihai Konstantin held a press conference on Wednesday at the end of a meeting of the Committee on e-Governance and Reduction of Bureaucracy (CERB), which is aimed at administration. simplification and digital transformation, a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Marcel Čolaku.

Both wanted to announce the “milestones” set at this meeting regarding the digitization of the state, but the way of communication was unclear.

VIDEO 12-minute press conference from Victoria Palace:

The conference was opened by Mihai Konstantin, spokesman of the Government.

• “For the first time, the Prime Minister chaired the Committee on e-Governance and Reduction of Bureaucracy, the meeting of which has just ended, and I am pleased to have with me the Minister of Digitalization Bohdan Ivan, who today will talk in detail about the milestones of stability and the steps to consider from this point of view.” said Mihai Kostyantyn.

After thanking the journalists present in the Government, the Minister of Digitalization began his speech.

Here are some of his statements verbatim:

• “Very clearly, today is the deadline by which the ministries and state bodies will come up with the very clear programs that can be brought to the field of e-government and digital services for citizens.
• More pragmatically, we are talking about 30 public institutions of the Romanian state that will be able to translate what today means direct interaction from the counter to an online format. That is, the way people today go, sit at the counter and wait for submission or receipt of documents, it will be possible to do it online.
• Prime Minister Marcel Cholaku has very clearly outlined a deadline of October 30 by which each ministry will be able to identify clear projects that will be included in this funding, and most importantly, we already have this money on the table – 524 million euros, half a billion euros, an impressive amount that will be used exclusively for this component, which, in addition to the very important field of e-government services, will also be able to have everything that is related to cyber security, the component means, and at the same time we will also have an open data platform , which will collect, centralize the data coming from the Romanian state in order to justify everything that means decisions regarding public policy. (…)”, said Bohdan Ivan.

NOTE Minister Bohdan Ivan recently announced at the I3M business forum that EU funding more than 524 million euros“money that will be dedicated exclusively to the migration of databases to the cloud.”

His statement is surprising in the context that the public cloud has more than €560 million in funding from the PNRR, which also includes database migration.

• Since then, HotNews.ro has asked the Ministry of Digitalization for an explanation on the topic of Minister Ivan’s statements, but we have not received an explanation until now.

Returning to Wednesday’s speech at the Victoria Palace, the Minister of Digitalization thanked Prime Minister Marcel Čolak for his direct involvement and especially the PSD Minister for Investments and European Projects, Adrian Cachiu, for the very good cooperation to secure more than half a billion euros in funding. to state institutions.

Then Bohdan Ivan made it clear that the list of 30 ministries and institutions will not be known yet.

• “The way these 30 institutions are created has two, two very important criteria: on the one hand, the speed with which these institutions will be able to offer public e-government services and, at the same time, the number of users.
• The way in which they will be able to provide this service will be simultaneously funded in proportion to the number of users who will benefit from these public e-government services.”, said the minister.

Bohdan Ivan: The goal is that by 2024 we will finally be able to transfer most of the 30 cash registers of institutions to a digital interaction format

When asked by journalists when 30 state institutions will transfer their interaction from the counter to online, the Minister of Digitalization gave an equally confusing answer.

• “I can tell you that because of the ROeID digital electronic identification, which is a very important project of ours, some of the 34 life events will be able to be carried over to the end of the year as an interaction.
• The goal is to finally transfer most of the 30 institutions’ counters to the form of digital interaction of citizens with them by 2024,” said Minister Ivan.

Another reporter persisted and asked the minister if this interaction would actually require him to physically approach the rack eventually.

• “No, that’s the point. Interaction means that the state directly interacts with the citizen through the ROeID application, he knows that Bohdan Ivan is in front of him, for example. Then he asks to renew his driver’s license, this can be done directly online, and the time when the man appears for a photo at the registration service and issuance of car documents can also be done online.
• You will not be able to take a photo ID online, instead the entire process and the entire file that is initially submitted can be done online,” he said.

NOTEThe ROeID mobile app was launched in beta during the tenure of former Liberal Digitalization Minister Sebastian Bourdugia in May 2023.

The application should provide a digital identity for all Romanian citizens, facilitating their authentication on all digital platforms managed by the Romanian state, as well as connecting to other public digital platforms throughout the European Union. A picture of an ID card, a selfie and a short video are the necessary steps to create a ROeID account.

The project is European, with a total cost of 74 million lei, which has a completion date of August 2023, the Ministry of Digitalization reports.

Ivan: ANAF can be one of the 30 government institutions that we prioritize

Asked on Wednesday in government whether the computerization of ANAF would also be part of these projects with more than €524 million in funding, the minister said the Treasury was an acceptable institution.

• “ANAF is a high priority because we have been having weekly meetings with both ANAF leadership and task force colleagues. There is very clear work to identify the changes that can bring ANAF as close to digitization as possible. ANAF is also suitable here.
• ANAF can be one of the 30 public institutions that we consider as a priority to come and interact directly with citizens through this virtual private space that is still operating today.” This was announced by Minister Bohdan Ivan.

Ivan wants the ION bot to respond as ChatGPT to questions like “how can I update my newsletter?”

Asked what his plans were for the government’s ION robot, the minister said he had discussed it with the team behind it.

• “I had a discussion with the team that created the ION robot, they are wonderful, visionary people.
• At this point, what we’ve asked for as a very clear project is one where we can use some of the technology that created ION to provide very clear data to the chatbot model of the information that the state can provide.
• For example, until we get our systems in place, if someone wants to see what steps to take to renew an ID, they can at some point type in the ChatGPT model, “how do I update my ticket?” and then very clearly perceive steps from him.
• I’m still waiting from the team that created this at ION how this chatbot concept can work in the Romanian state.”, – said Minister Ivan.

After the press conference held by the two government officials, the government’s press office sent a press release stating that the meeting, chaired by Marcel Čolaku, aimed to prepare the portfolio of projects of public institutions for e-Government calls.

“Until October 30, the ministries must present the projects that will be included in the financing dedicated to the development of digital public services. I want a consistent, concrete plan that we can adopt transparently and implement without delay. Romania cannot progress without digitalization, said the premier Prime Minister Marcel Cholaku at the CERB meeting, the government press release said.

• Read more: “Father” ION admits that the dialogue with Ciucă was staged and that the robot is not finished / What Nick Sebe said during the “launch”