- The Innovate Switzerland Community has released a position paper, the first of its kind, proposing key actions to achieve Swiss digital sovereignty
- Members call for clear actions to accelerate a balanced control over Switzerland’s digital infrastructure enabling collaboration with other countries and organizations in the digital realm
- The paper highlights preconditions that are needed to ensure Switzerland remains one of the most competitive and innovative countries also in a digital world
Zurich, 10th May 2023. The Innovate Switzerland Community has released a first of its kind position paper proposing six action areas to achieve digital sovereignty. The community, which comprises private and public organizations, aims to promote the responsible use of data and public cloud technology in Switzerland and strengthen the country’s innovative power in the digital age. The members call for clear actions to create a balance between regulation, interconnectivity, and international cooperation, which are essential to maintain Switzerland’s position as a leading digital nation.
The community defined the following six action areas:
- Establish governance model for data sovereignty: Switzerland can leverage its strong data protection standards and diverse ecosystem of institutions to become a leader in data innovation and arbitration.
- Strengthen international reach and cooperation: Switzerland can use its data infrastructure expertise to shape global digitalization standards and practices in collaboration with other actors.
- Set up a forward-looking regulation: A public strategic foresight system is a way to identify and assess new digital technologies and their impacts in a timely and unbiased manner, avoiding harmful or restrictive regulations and enabling their safe and beneficial use.
- Prioritize the digitalization of public authorities: Switzerland must train its public actors in key technologies and link them with existing processes to become an expert in digitalizing administration and enhance its legal framework and competence level. This ensures trust and credibility.
- Build up a digital democracy: To build a better digital society, technology needs to be used creatively and responsibly to engage and educate people in policymaking and science, and to ensure transparency and accountability.
- Ensure the resilience of critical operating systems: Switzerland must ensure the reliability and resilience of its critical system components, such as digital infrastructure, energy-grid, workforce, and legal and policy framework, to cope with various challenges like cyberattacks, public health crises or energy transition.
You can find the full release and the position paper on Innovate Switzerland’s page.
