Berlin It was a small group that Volker Wissing told what he will actually be responsible for as digital minister. In the middle of the week, the Internet association Eco had invited to the VW Studio on Berlin’s magnificent Unter den Linden boulevard. About 25 guests on site and a few more in digital form followed Wissing’s explanations. Above all, they hoped to get a little more clarity about his future responsibility for digital matters in the federal government.
“I am the Minister for Digital. I am responsible for implementing the digital strategy of the entire federal government,” explained the FDP politician. Actually a matter of course, if it weren’t for the previous ambiguities.
Since the beginning of December, the new federal government has stipulated by organizational decree that digital tasks will be bundled in a Ministry for Digital Affairs and Transport. So far, however, there has been little concrete information. The 51-year-old from the Palatinate has now delivered that.
In the name of the ministry, the digital is preceded “to set an example,” explained Wissing. It is “no longer a mere appendage”. And yet he will not be responsible for introducing the digital health record, for example. “Not one minister alone can drive the digitization of a state. It is and will remain a cross-cutting issue.”
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Wissing will manage the “digital budget” vaguely mentioned in the coalition agreement. It will be in accordance with the digital strategy that he still has to develop. But he named his goal: He wants to organize a “comprehensive digital awakening”.
Contact person for digital on the international stage
Wissing explained to the digital experts present that he would be the contact person for Germany on the international stage for digital matters. He has already consulted with the EU Commission on the issue of digital identity. He also announced that he would put the topic of “digitization and sustainability” on the agenda during the German G7 Council Presidency.
As Minister for Infrastructure, Wissing wants to create “the best framework conditions for the expansion of an efficient infrastructure”. “Fiber optics to the house” and “the most modern mobile phone standard wherever people live and work or are on the move”, he named as the guiding principles for a “gigabit strategy”. This will also include data centers. They are “key elements” of digitization.
Wissing also relies on mobility data and wants to further develop the mobility data room. It is intended to provide all providers of new services with the necessary data. “We will use the opportunities of artificial intelligence,” announced Wissing.
As the ministry said, Wissing’s digital state secretary will explain to his officials the structure of the future two instead of one digital department this Friday. By mid-February, the officials expected from the Economics Department and the Chancellery should be on board and begin work.
More: “Motivate people to think” – Wissing wants to achieve climate goals together with the citizens