Digitisation forum launched ahead of Norway’s online strategy

By creating a National Digitisation Forum ( NDF), which will serve as an advisory hub for future government policy in the areas of digital transformation and artificial intelligence ( AI), Norway has expanded the scope of an already ambitious multi-branched technology expansion plan.

The NDF will serve as a meeting space for technology experts, ministers with technology briefs, top civil servants, and trade union and business leaders. The NDF will look at ways to combine trust, readily available data, strong privacy, and effective regulations with advances in AI, among other things. &nbsp,

The major framework for the NDF’s mission is intended to promote digitalization in Norway while providing the tools to enable the government to better prepare for the impacts and difficulties that new technologies provide for society, climate, energy, and the green transition. &nbsp,

The Norwegian government’s launch of the NDF coincides with a sea of anticipation and the expectation that it will release a new National Digitization Strategy ( NDS ) by the year 2024. &nbsp, &nbsp,

Norway needs to become together more aggressive in the digitisation domain and a critical user of technology, said Karianne Tung, Norway’s minister for digitisation and public administration. &nbsp,

She argued that” we must ratchet up the use of AI and the digitalization of Norway.”

” This strategic direction will free-up labour, create new jobs and contribute to solving serious societal challenges. The digitisation forum serves as a crucial tool for our work in this field, in our opinion.

Overseeing digitisation

An offshoot of the NDS, the NDF’s profile was raised in October 2023, when Norway’s Labour-led government appointed a devoted minister to oversee digitisation. The establishment of a Ministry of Digitization and Public Administration ( MDPA ) followed this action in January 2024.

The NDF will both examine and evaluate particular AI and digitisation tools under the direction of the MDPA, which may help to strengthen government efforts to manage issues affecting main economic sectors, such as security, demographics, climate, and the country’s ability to maintain energy independence. &nbsp, &nbsp,

Meetings with both invited experts and representatives from public and private organizations will be held by the NDF. The forum will serve as a gathering place to exchange informed viewpoints and concerns about how modern and developing technologies can both influence and influence how business and industry may operate in the future. &nbsp,

Additionally, the forum will look into how changes in consumer behavior and how citizens might interact with government officials and the people who live there are likely to be affected. &nbsp,

According to Tung, adapting to change will become a recurring trait in societies that are constantly in need of new technologies and advancements in AI and digitisation. &nbsp,

” We accept digitisation will need limits”, she added. The new forum gives the government, the business community, and other participants the special opportunity to discuss, debate, and come up with ideas for solutions to pressing issues that can be resolved using technology.

Chaired by the MDPA, the NDF’s broad-ranging mission to guide government initiatives, and propel possible future congressional development, provides the Norwegian government with a valuable new resource to boost policy development in the central areas of AI and digitisation.

Using innovative technologies to support fresh ones

To ensure Norway does n’t fall behind other countries in utilizing the new opportunities presented by AI and digitisation, a significant part of the NDF’s role will be to adopt supportive positions on new technology uses. &nbsp,

For its part, the MDPA will use the NDF as a forum to promote, anchor and develop government policies on technology, and in certain proposals that help to accelerate the government’s clean and modern transition initiatives. &nbsp,

According to Tung, the NDF will aid in fostering good and binding relationships with significant social actors. The forum’s efforts will also help to ensure that the government’s digitisation policy is grounded in actual needs of society. It will help deliver stronger coordination of the government’s digitisation work, and provide improved links to the work on administrative development, business-oriented digitisation and initiatives around achieving sustainability goals” .&nbsp,

The NDF’s establishment was welcomed by business and industry leaders, as well as key interest groups such as IKT-Norge, Norway’s largest official body for the ICT sector. &nbsp,

IKT-Norge has frequently criticised the government for failing to act more quickly in the policy and legislative formation areas to help structure and regulate the future development and advancements in AI and digitisation, reflecting the general mood of business leaders across Norway’s business and industry spectrum. &nbsp, &nbsp,

Norway’s ICT sector has urged the government to promote dialogue and interactions with technology leaders in order to ensure greater social clarity regarding policy direction, particularly in the case of AI, and to establish what limitations might be placed on the technology in the future. &nbsp,

Government’s role

In terms of the government’s role in the technology space, business and citizens want AI to be used to deliver better services in their daily lives, said Øyvind Husby, CEO of IKT-Norge. &nbsp, &nbsp,

” We must respond to the public optimism of society as a complete”, he said. ” We initially need three things to happen. In interactive cloud solutions, we need more high-quality data. Next, to boost innovation, we need better framework conditions and more government funding. Thirdly, if Norway wants to lead the European Union in AI and digitization, we need more democratic direction from the top.

A collaborative framework supported by the MDPA, the national Digitalisation Agency ( DigDir ), the Digitalisation Council, and the IT advisory group Skate is currently having a significant influence on Norway’s journey along the path of digital governance. &nbsp,

This public-private alliance is creating new structures to promote online initiatives in the public sector. The collaboration aims to provide a more uniform approach to the approval and decision-making processes for online investments. The government wants to produce more clear strategies and make better use of resources. &nbsp,

The need to innovate new and more powerful instruments in the management, harmonisation and coordination of AI and digitisation in Norway’s public sector has always been greater, said Guri Lande, DigDir’s director of online strategy and interaction. &nbsp, &nbsp,

We must organize Norway’s people sector in a totally different way than what is now the case, she said, if we are to succeed in utilizing artificial intelligence’s full potential and solving significant societal issues. We must learn from the mistakes we’ve made in the past with regard to digitisation and develop a little clearer, integrated strategy to help us make the most of AI’s potential as we advance.