Off the wire
• Huawei partners with UAE universities for innovation challenge  • Oil prices extend gains on OPEC deal  • Nigeria's ruling party candidate wins governorship election  • Spotlight: Parties sign final agreements on Hinkley Point nuclear project  • Post-Brexit Britain to carry free trade as badge of honor: official  • Spanish stock market rises 0.64 pct  • Ghana's president cleared of bribery allegations  • U.S. dollar rises against most major currencies  • Morocco, Germany hail cooperation in handling illegal migration  • Malta sees record number of tourist visits in August  
You are here: 　 Home

Roundup: Europe must think digitally: Slovak PM

Xinhua, September 30, 2016 Adjust font size:

Slovakia is no longer only a champion in car producing, but it has a number of innovative companies and entrepreneurs that have achieved a breakthrough abroad, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico stated Thursday.

Addressing the opening of the Digital Assembly conference here, Fico said: "The small size of our domestic market has led our companies to open themselves to foreign business opportunities. At the same time, it forces our people to acquire the skills required on global labor markets. It inspires our startups to think big."

Fico underlined the fact that people must be offered a positive agenda with results, where digitization tops the list.

"Every person should have such skills in order to feel good in the digital world. Entrepreneurs must have the opportunity to grow in the digital environment. Each public administration institution has to provide electronic services," said Fico.

The 6th annual conference, organized by the European Commission with the help of Slovak Vice-premier for Investments and Informatisation Peter Pellegrini, has been taking as part of the Slovak Presidency of the EU Council.

Pellegrini on Thursday announced Slovakia is planning to create a test track for motorways linking the country with neighboring countries and to analyze computer-connected vehicles on it.

"We'll try to create a virtual test track at least on two stretches of the motorway so that we can test the computer-connected cars," he said, "These cars will be interactive in that their drivers will be able to inform each other about current traffic accidents or dangerous changes on road surfaces."

The vice-premier added that the project is likely to be carried out on motorways between Slovakia and Hungary, Austria or the Czech Republic.

"It can work wonderfully within one country," said Pellegrini, adding that the technology has to be tested also on cars crossing the borders of the neighboring countries to ensure that the system will be functional at the cross-border level. Endit