Digitization of the administration: BDI calls for the digital ministry

After the general election, the German economy now sees the opportunity to overcome the digitization gap. “The new federal government must modernize the public administration at full speed,” said the President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Siegfried Russwurm, the Handelsblatt.

The state of digitization is “still inadequate” for companies and citizens. The corona pandemic has made the urgency with which the digitization of the administration must progress much faster than before.

The BDI does not stop at criticizing the status quo. In a position paper known as the “modernization agenda”, the association presents a list of measures that the future government should tackle first. This includes in particular a central political control of digitization and other cross-cutting issues in a new Federal Ministry. The implementation of the proposals must be a matter for the boss, according to the 36-page paper that is available to the Handelsblatt.

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At the same time, the association offers its help – with a “Modern State” expert council, which was in charge of drafting the reform paper. The eleven-person committee with experts from the field – including the former head of the Federal Employment Agency Frank-Jürgen Weise, Siemens Healthineers CFO Jochen Schmitz or the CFO of Software AG Matthias Heiden – should help policy and administration deal with the upcoming issues BDI has announced that it will support “transformation challenges” in an advisory capacity.

The experts agree that all proposals can be implemented “promptly”, some of them as early as the first 100 days of office of a new federal government. The “modernization agenda” pursues the primary goal of maintaining the efficiency of the public administration. To do this, however, it must become “more cooperative, more agile and more digital”, for which “tremendous effort immediately” is necessary.

Plea for the establishment of a digital ministry

For the economy, it is high time that administrative digitization began to move. “A modern state is an indispensable prerequisite for international competitiveness and a decisive location factor,” emphasizes BDI President Russwurm. After all, he points out, companies with over 200 contacts per year are “the power users of our authorities”.

A comparison with other countries, for example in the “Digital Economy and Society Index”, shows how slow the digitization of the authorities is progressing in this country. The EU Commission annually analyzes the digital performance of all EU member states. In the index published in 2020, Germany only ranks 21st among the 28 EU countries in the field of e-government.

From the point of view of the BDI experts, the pivotal point for the state modernization should be a new “Federal Ministry for the digitization of administration and law as well as for digital infrastructure”. This department, which has its own budget, was recommended to be set up in the first 100 days of the new government. Russwurm sees this as a “decisive lever for modern administration”. “The ministry must then also be equipped with extensive coordination skills.”

According to the paper, the digital ministry should be given clear powers over other ministries. All larger digital projects of the individual departments should therefore be subject to a “digital reservation” by the new ministry. In addition, the department is to take on the “central coordination” of projects such as the Online Access Act (OZG).

Denmark as a role model

According to the OZG, all administrative services in Germany should be offered online by the end of next year. In practice this means: Over 6,000 services, summarized in 575 so-called OZG service bundles, have to be digitized and the administration’s own databases have to be networked with each other, from the registration to the inland shipping register. However, it is questionable whether this mammoth project will succeed in time.

The BDI is therefore calling on the new government to provide impetus in the first 100 days to ensure timely implementation. It is also important that administrative services are digitized according to the same standards. A deadline should be set after which data and evidence can only be exchanged digitally between federal ministries and their subordinate authorities. “The aim must be that offices at all federal levels and administrative units work together more smoothly with companies,” said BDI President Russwurm.

The BDI wants even more: In the future, visits to the authorities should be superfluous. The federal government should therefore promote the development of a “user-friendly ecosystem for digital identities”, says the paper. It must be possible for everyone to identify themselves to the administration with just their smartphone. It should also be possible to make documents such as driving licenses, school leaving certificates from schools or universities and administrative notices available digitally on such an infrastructure.

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The BDI sees Denmark as a role model. Citizens there have long been able to use an electronic identification number, the “NemID”, to notify the digital citizens’ office of a new address or to register a company.

Will Germany be able to get rid of its image as an IT latecomer in the foreseeable future? For BDI President Russwurm, there is no question that the next federal government will have to accelerate significantly. “Complex transformations such as digitization and climate protection can only be mastered with a powerful administration,” he says. All federal levels in German administration must therefore “finally pull together”.

More: The Germany Plan: 21 tasks that the next government urgently needs to tackle

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