The Romanian State has sincerely begun to look in the mirror over the past six months, and Romania has all ingredients to make the most of this moment and it has European obligations which, for the first time in history, force it to move forward, not backward, Acting Deputy PM Oana Gheorghiu told a specialist event on Tuesday.

'As you know the Government has been demitted. In a few days' time or in a few weeks' time we shall leave. And yet I wanted to come here today, not because we have a spectacular success story... Precisely because we do no have a spectacular success story, and I believe honesty is worth more than any triumphal speech. I would have liked to come here today and tell you that in these six months we transformed digital Romania. In fact, I would have liked there to be no need for me to say it, but for you to feel it yourselves in your interaction with the Romanian state, that things had fundamentally changed. But we have not reached that point. I do believe, however, that this is the first time in a long while that the Romanian state has begun to sincerely look in the mirror. And do you know what I have learned in these six months? That real change does not look like a revolution. It looks like the flap of a butterfly's wings, imperceptible at the moment it happens, but visible after some time. That somewhere far away waves begin to form. I hope that we have made a few wingbeats. Before anything else, I must tell you that I did not carry the weight of this digitalisation project myself, I am merely the interface (...) As you know, during this period I was somewhat busy selling the country and that is why I could not focus on digitalisation. I am joking, although I admit the subject consumed a great deal of my energy, energy that could have gone into other areas,' Gheorghiu said.

She also argued that digitalisation must represent an infrastructure of trust between citizen and state.

'When I took over the mandate, I found a state that did not know exactly what software it had, what platforms it owned, there was no clear record of these things and today we have a beginning. We have not completed the process. Starting next week, a project under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan will go live, this application which will provide a daily update of all software acquired by a public authority, whether local, central or any other public institution, so that Romania knows where it stands. (...) digitalisation is an infrastructure of trust between citizen and state. That is why we launched farahartie.gov.ro. In two months, more than 4,000 people sent us their frustrations, their difficulties in dealing with the state. We have begun to listen. It is not much, but it is the beginning of a conversation that the Romanian state had never had with its citizens before,' the government representative explained.

According to the source, public administrations are not transformed through a speech or an application, but when they begin to change the reflexes and habits of an entire system.

'From this moment on, you no longer need a birth certificate for every interaction with the state or every renewal of your identity card. I believe only the first time, unless I am mistaken. The first time you obtain the new electronic identity card you will need the birth certificate so the authorities can ensure they have the correct data. From this point onwards, it is no longer necessary. There is no longer any need for the marriage certificate, nor for the death certificate of a spouse. Changes to the data on the identity card are made automatically and from 1 July the National Pension House will become an entirely different institution. There is a broad digitalisation project there and we had very good cooperation. Small steps, I know, but for the person who no longer has to make these journeys to the counter for a document the state already possesses, I believe it is an important step. Administrations are not transformed through a speech or an application, but when you begin to change the reflexes and habits of an entire system,' Oana Gheorghiu pointed out.

In the acting deputy prime minister's view, technology has reached the point where a state can do what it failed to do in 30 years, 'a state in which the citizen can interact with the administration from anywhere.'

'Romania has all the ingredients to make the most of this moment. It has the most valuable software industry in the region, it has a young generation that knows what normality looks like. It has European obligations which, for the first time in history, force it to move forward, not backward and it has in this room people who can make a difference. We have a roadmap, the documents are public, the directions are clear. Public data can no longer be withdrawn through a vote in Parliament and the pressure created by transparency, this slow, constant, irresistible pressure, will ultimately produce turning points. Not tomorrow, perhaps not even in a year, but it will happen... Because today's politicians are fighting the inevitable and the inevitable always has more patience than any politician. Romania has finally begun to see more clearly. There are people who have grown tired of waiting and have created their own platforms through which they analyse the data of state-owned companies and local or central institutions. This cannot be stopped. A people trying to see more clearly can no longer be pushed entirely back into darkness,' Gheorghiu said.

The Employers' Association of the Software and Services Industry (ANIS) organised on Tuesday the third edition of the ANIS International Summit 2026, during which discussions focused on the critical point at which Romania's economy and IT&C industry currently stand in the transition towards a model based on innovation, products and added value. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Daniel Badea; EN - writing by: Adina Panaitescu)