ŠAVŠ/TAČR Digital Czechia in a Digital Europe

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training centers/associations. 9 Germany thus significantly maximizes the digital reach and coverage and at the same time very effectively connects the various actors in this field. The Czech Republic should similarly follow such an example and continue its efforts to involve and connect as many local actors as possible (state and public institutions, non-profit sector, chambers of commerce, private sector) in the field of digitalization, as such an effort serves as a significant innovation multiplier. An essential aspect of Germany’s efforts to digitalize SMEs is the emphasis on uniformity and the maximum possible standardization across digitalized sectors. According to the German Platform Industrie 4.0 – a platform that focuses relatively closely on supporting the digitalization of German industry and aims to maintain and further strengthen Germany’s role as a global leader in manufacturing – standardization is one of the main means of achieving such a goal. 10 However, SMEs are very often reluctant to implement standardized data work/standardized software. There is a lack of templates for standardization, and the potential financial return, from the point of view of an individual company, is relatively difficult to estimate. For this reason, Germany has launched the E-Standard Initiative, which has prepared or is still preparing easily transferable templates for different sectors in 21 funded projects. These include the construction sector, the chemical industry, the automotive industry, the manufacturing industry, logistics, etc. 11 The result is an easily portable e-standardization template that is tailored to different companies according to their focus. In this way, Germany is creating a very easy way to link digitalization processes efficiently and continuously across different segments of the economy, while at the same time connecting these segments through uniform standardization. The Czech Republic should therefore strive for the highest possible degree of involvement in the creation of digitalization standards at the international and European level. Similarly, however, it should support Czech SMEs by trying to create similar templates, which Czech companies, with regard to their industry, could easily adopt. Sweden in many respects serves as another good example of building the background for digitalization processes, and, like Germany, is actively seeking to support domestic SMEs. However, in addition to the above objectives, Sweden also emphasizes the ability to commercialize, i.e. the ability to transform the innovations created by Swedish SMEs into a viable product. This process is largely provided and supported by the Swedish Government Agency for 9 SMEs Digital Strategies for the Digital Transformation, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. 10 What is Industrie 4.0?, Platform Industrie 4.0, see https://www.plattform-i40.de/I40/Navigation/ EN/ Industrie40/WhatIsIndustrie40/what-is-industrie40.html. 11 Mittelstand-Digital, Strategies for the Digital Transformation of Business Processes, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.