ŠAVŠ/TAČR Digital Czechia in a Digital Europe

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• Hand in hand with the previous measure, the government, ideally as a whole and not only through individual ministries, should start to promote and support the introduction of ICT and the digitalization of focused fields of study and plans at universities actively and assertively. In this respect, the Czech Republic is not keeping pace with digitally developed countries such as Ireland, the Netherlands and Denmark. • An accommodative visa policy appears to be a temporary but functional measure to compensate the shortage of ICT professionals. In this respect, the Czech Republic is often lax and unnecessarily bound by “ideological” prejudices discouraging many perspective professionals from abroad, who rather prefer to work in other EU countries. • Follow the example of Denmark and establish a central digital liaison center (e.g. Czech Digital Hub) bringing together private companies operating in the Czech Republic, scientists, entrepreneurs in the field of digital technologies, university students and teachers, etc., in order to develop new digital products, services, models of entrepreneurship, support for fields focused on the study of digital technologies and skills, attracting top ICT experts and companies. This step would significantly help to present the Czech Republic as a traditionally technologically and culturally developed country. In this respect, it would be possible to look for inspiration or, in national terms, build on the Smart Factory Hub project platform supported by European Union funds (ERDF and IPA). Although the project focuses on digital support for small and medium- sized enterprises operating in the Danube region, its philosophy is essentially identical to the ideas of the “Danish Digital Hub”.