#DigitalSingleMarket, innovation and ICT: A European opportunity

Interview with Yves de Beauregard, head of Fujitsu Benelux and Marco Canton, senior European affairs executive.

-The European Commission adopted the Digital Single Market Strategy this year . What do you think about that and what opportunities does it represent for business in Europe?

The Digital Single Market is a comprehensive framework strategy that the European Commission recently adopted to support the development of IT market and technologies in Europe in order to guarantee better life conditions and opportunities to European citizens. This is exactly in line with our vision and mission in Europe. Our slogan is “shaping tomorrow with you” because we are convinced we need to keep people and our customers at the center of everything we do. The Digital Single Market Strategy focuses on facilitating cross-border digital business, creating better market conditions for SMEs and big Industry, protect “IT consumers’ rights”, increase digital skills to create more jobs opportunities and assuring the growth of Digital Economy. This is a reason more for Fujitsu to keep on growing and investing in Europe that represents our second market (after Japan). Fujitsu manufactures in Europe, invests in Research and Innovation and employs more than 23.000 people with establishments in almost all European Countries. We are closely following the work and collaborating with the European Commission with our presence in Brussels and we will keep on investing on these crucial actions in the years to come.   

-Investing in innovation is a key point for the new European Commission and crucial for Europe. What do you think about innovation in Europe. Where do we stand compared to other big players? How are you investing in Europe?

We recognize the European Commission is putting lot of effort into pushing innovation in Europe. Horizon 2020 Programme is the largest Public Programme funding R&D investments. It’s also an open programme, promoting joint collaboration with third countries and collaborations between public and private sectors. We believe it’s important to keep on investing in pure research by funding new research projects developed in our best European universities, but we appreciate the new emphasis the European Commission is putting on more applied research and on projects that are able to develop new ideas and solutions ready to go to market and create real economic value. This is key if we want the European economy to grow and create job opportunities. At the same time, we need to recognize Europeans are often averse to change and innovation. We need to work on this and invest more in educating our young students and prepare them to have a more open approach, where the culture of entrepreneurship is enhanced and the acceptance of failure is more recognized. Schools, universities and also programmes in which industry and big companies have a key role should be promoted in order to have more start-ups and consequently more new ideas in the market. Fujitsu is currently spending $2.2 billion annually on research and development. After Fujitsu Laboratories in Japan, Germany is the second-largest centre for research and development. Our laboratories in Europe connect with some of Europe’s highest-profile initiatives, including the 5G Innovation Center and Horizon 2020. Europe is crucial as an innovation hub for us, to advance new technologies that can tackle societal challenges such as the ageing population, resource shortages and urbanization.    

-The ICT sector is probably one of the most promising for us to grow and improve life conditions. Do you think Europe is still a place to invest? What kind of answers we should expect from ICT industries? What kind of contribution you could give to a better life for European citizens?  

The ICT sector represents one of the main opportunities to facilitate the lives of young and elderly people, create more opportunities for SMEs, better share the advantages of a technological society, create more inclusive social processes and respect our planet with “greener” solutions. These are our objectives as well and we are happy to see that all of them are being taken on by the new actions of the European Commission. Europe is a mature market for the ICT sector, with great unexplored potential and good margins for improvement. Opportunities are there for all of us, young students and entrepreneurs, innovative business but there are also opportunities for people living in rural areas, for elderly people or to support Associations or NGOs working on social inclusion, difficult areas or fighting poverty and climate change.

It’s up to us to take on board all these challenges and the role of big Industry is to collaborate with and support our technologies and find solutions. Fujitsu is doing that in Europe and at a global level, with solutions for a smarter use of energy, applications in agriculture, climate change, disaster prevention the health sector and of course the digital transformation of every type of business. Our strategy is working locally with a global perspective, helping our customers with personalized solutions adapted to each different need.

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