Ms Suvi Lindén, Minister of Communications, Finland - ID WORLD International Congress, 4 November 2009, Milan

Signore e signori, /
Grazie mille, Sophie / Sig.ra de la Giroday, della gentile presentazione.

Vi ringrazio anche di avermi invitato ad esprimermi all’NFC Vision 2020. Mi fa piacere vedere che la Finlandia è apprezzata in tutto il mondo come pioniere nello sviluppo di nuove tecnologie e diversi pacchetti di servizi e progetti pilota. La Finlandia è uno dei precursori nell’utilizzo molteplice di tecnologia tattile NFC. Ciononostante non ci siamo sicuramente avvicinati a quelle immense opportunità offerteci dalle nuove tecnologie. Bisogna incentivare ulteriormente lo sviluppo!

The latest fantastic example of the innovative spirit in Finland is the international and multidisciplinary centre focusing on internet research, the Centre for Internet Excellence, which was established in my hometown Oulu. In a ubiquitous city of future, in a living laboratory, interactive Internet is present everywhere in people’s everyday lives easily. This is the way to obtain new information valuable to research about new Internet services and to create new business models which will, in turn, create new jobs.

The public sector faces the challenge of continuously trying to improve the operating and innovation environment for companies and the preconditions for successful business activities. A coordinated information society policy helps us improve people’s day-to-day life and promote productivity at work. Communications services for people have to be of high-quality, inexpensive and available to everyone. A major challenge in communications policy today is to create a basis for the commercial provision of good, inexpensive services.

I would like to mention some measures that the Finnish Government has taken to promote the provision of communications services in our country. These include the allocation of frequencies released from NMT 450 network to high-speed data transfer; upcoming radio spectrum auctions; allowing the use of 900-frequencies for the construction of 3G networks, as the first in the EU; and making access to a 100 Mbit broadband available to everyone by 2015. I believe it was a particularly important decision that 1 Mbit/s was defined to be the minimum rate for Internet access as a universal service from 2010. And I am proud to say that Finland was the first country in the EU to make this decision. Finland requires that the broadband network be made accessible to every citizen regardless of their place of residence. Internet services will thus become a universal basic right. This will promote the vitality of rural areas, provide a good environment for businesses, and enable electronic communications.

I would also like to mention Cognitive Radio. The development of new, smart radios may bring radical changes to the criteria for awarding spectrum. In communications policy, Cognitive Radio provides extremely interesting opportunities for increasing flexibility and efficiency in spectrum use.

In Finland, information society policy has been promoted with separate policy programmes. We drew up a national Information Society Strategy with the aim of transforming Finland into an internationally recognized, competitive competence-based service society with a human touch. The main focus today is on practical work, implementation of the action points and achieving effectiveness. And the key to this has been the development of information society infrastructure, markets and the innovation environment. Radio frequency identification and the related new technologies are one of the new directions in which the information society is being developed. And as a result, devices and services which use new technology are becoming an integral part of our everyday lives.

One of the most significant achievements in respect of information society in Finland is the review of electronic identification legislation. The Act on Strong Electronic Identification provides a basis for the development of reliable electronic services and for safe introduction of new technologies. This will give clear rules on which device can be used for reliable identification and what type of solutions the service providers should apply. In May, the European Commission submitted a recommendation on the implementation of privacy and data protection principles in applications supported by radio frequency identification. According to the recommendation, commerce and industry, competent authorities and SMEs should together improve the level of awareness of the potential, risks and impacts of the new technologies as a prerequisite for their general use. Privacy and data protection should especially be considered in the new applications already before they come into common use.

The new technologies involve huge economic opportunities. New business ideas and innovations enabled by the NFC technology encourage growth and competitiveness, cut costs, improve efficiency at work, create new jobs and thus promote national economy and increase people’s wellbeing. Constructive recovery is needed in the whole of Europe. The focus is on creating new, on productivity and on investments supporting competitiveness. It is important that all parties who are involved in the ICT sector pay close attention to the possibilities opened by new technologies at a very early stage, and try to be amongst the first ones to develop business and service models based on them. Technology applications provide endless opportunities in many sectors, for example in health care, public sector services, SMEs, and environmental protection.

In the dramatic technological progress we must absolutely not forget that we are providing services and applications to people, from their perspective, to ease the day-to-day life. In an operating environment that is becoming more and more technology-oriented, people are required to have a more diverse information technology expertise and both ability and motivation to learn new things. Interest in new technologies, new services and e-commerce depends on people’s and businesses’ ability to use them.

I believe that it is particularly important to develop IT skills in all sectors and in all age groups. This is a big challenge across Europe. How to bring the benefits of the new technologies to as many people as possible? It is vital that the services of society are available also to people who use electronic communication less frequently. And these are the people who could benefit most from ICT and its new applications.

Signore e signori,

Con queste parole vi auguro una giornata fruttuosa con l’alta tecnologia più avanzata. Abbiamo adesso la grande opportunità di condividere esperienze e punti di vista su come sfruttare al meglio le tecnologie del futuro. Il futuro è a portata di dito!