Despite the progress achieved in the digital transformation of the EU, additional investment of at least €200 billion is needed to achieve the 2030 Digital Decade targets, according to the European Commission's first report on the State of the Digital Decade.

Under the current 2030 targets, gigabit coverage should be available for everyone and 5G performant networks in all populated areas. The Commission called on the member states, including Croatia, to step up digitalisation and increase investment for that to be achieved.

Fibre networks reach only 56% of households, 5G covers 81% of the population

“Currently, fibre networks, which are critical for delivering gigabit connectivity, only reach 56% of households, while 5G coverage stands at 81% of the population, dropping to 51% in rural areas. However, the deployment of 5G stand-alone networks is lagging and 5G is still falling short in quality with regards to end-users’ expectations and industry needs,” the report says.

It notes that 55% of rural households are still not served by any advanced network and 9% are not yet covered by any fixed network at all.

“Member States should map their connectivity gaps and explore financing to complement private investment in areas that are not commercially viable, including rural and remote areas, benefitting from the pro-investment EU regulatory framework,” the report says.

The current 2030 target is for the EU to double its share in the value of global production of cutting-edge semiconductors, reaching from current 10% to 20% of the global market share in value. Member states should promote national policies and investments to further stimulate domestic chip design and manufacturing capabilities.

In order to foster the digitalisation of businesses, at least 75% of EU enterprises should adopt in their operations cloud computing services, big data, and/or artificial intelligence (AI), and more than 90% of SMEs should reach at least a basic level of digital intensity, the report says.

It adds that without further investment and incentives, by 2030 only 66% of businesses will use cloud, 34% big data and 20% AI, and only 69% of EU SMEs will reach a basic level of digital intensity, with uneven and insufficient progress among member states.

Croatia has achieved certain progress but there is still a lot to do

The digital transformation of Croatia’s economy and society is “advancing significantly,” the report says.

“Since 2018 Croatia has made some progress in deploying fixed-line digital Infrastructures, notably with a significant deployment of its fibre network, from 39% to 54%,” the report says. “However, improvement in take-up of broadband services is limited. Croatia’s mobile network service take up remains low despite substantial improvement in 5G coverage, from 34% to 82%.”

Croatia should “further increase its efforts on the roll-out of gigabit connectivity, especially fibre to the premises roll-out in rural areas.”

Croatia should accelerate its efforts in the area of digitalisation of businesses, providing public support for workshops and trainings, and increasing “participation in existing (funding) schemes, especially among SMEs.”

“Whilst Croatia is progressing on digital skills, with about 63% of people having at least basic digital skills and a performance above the EU average of 54%, more efforts are needed notably on increasing the number of ICT specialists. The share of ICT specialists in total employment is below the EU average (3.7% vs 4.6%).”

Croatia should increase the capacity of its education system to train more ICT specialists and take action to retain these professionals in the labour market as well as encourage more students to specialise in ICT, notably for cybersecurity.