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Why is this important?

Digitalization is changing our economy and society at a rapid pace. It offers many opportunities to reduce manual operations and simplify processes, just think of online shopping and online banking. The Internet and the wide availability of APIs (application programming interfaces) and components have virtually eliminated distribution and production barriers worldwide, so that a Belgian software company can now easily sell products and services to, say, an Australian customer. Top universities can offer students worldwide the opportunity to take certain courses. Online banking is possible in places in Africa where physical banks do not yet exist. 

Over the past decade, digital technologies have also become much more affordable, putting them within reach of every business. 5G will further accelerate the digital transformation of service and manufacturing companies, providing, for example, new opportunities to improve the customer experience, increase connectivity between machines or optimize inventory and supply chain management through continuous monitoring. 

In order to maintain and strengthen their competitive position, it is important that our companies are at the forefront of digitalization and take full advantage of it. But digitalization brings many challenges, especially for our manufacturing companies. Digitalization has made the market much more mobile and competition can suddenly come from unexpected quarters. Classic car dealers, for example, no longer compete only with other brands, but also with car-sharing systems. 

The increasing digitalization also increases the need for digital talent and technological profiles. People on the shop floor need to be trained to keep up with the latest digital developments. And there is a need for new profiles with strong technological skills, such as data engineering and cybersecurity. The labour shortage in digital areas is limiting the ability of Belgian companies to innovate and to profit from innovation. In 2020, 58.8% of companies recruiting or trying to recruit ICT specialists reported difficulties in filling ICT vacancies, according to the Be The Change study. Finally, inclusiveness must be at the heart of digital transformation: digital innovations must be accessible to all.

• During the coronavirus pandemic, technology and connectivity made it possible to continue working and going to school while containing the virus. Digital technologies helped to monitor the spread of the virus and speed up the development of vaccines. The digital sector also plays a key role in the recovery of the economy after the pandemic.
• Digital technologies help to reduce CO₂ emissions and thus play an important role in tackling global warming and in achieving the objectives of the European Green Deal. According to a German study, digital technologies can contribute between 39 and 58% of the German CO₂ reduction targets by 2030, depending on the degree of digitalization. The reduction potential technologies such as AI and the cloud appears to be particularly high in the manufacturing, mobility, buildings and energy sectors. Agoria is also currently mapping out the contribution of digitalization to reducing the Belgian carbon footprint with the 'Digital4Climate' study. With this study, we want to make the business opportunities of the 'twin transition' (sustainability and digitalization) concrete. The results will be published in the spring of 2022. 
• Sensors and smart traffic lights can make our mobility more sustainable, while smart water meters allow us to detect water leaks. Smart grids, on the other hand, make it possible to collect energy in a decentralized manner, for example with solar panels, and to manage consumption intelligently. The evolution towards a superfast 5G network offers even more possibilities. For example, it allows self-driving cars to read traffic signs in real time or to communicate with other cars.
• Digital technology enables companies to optimise their production processes, innovate and develop new services. Increasing digitalization also facilitates the shift to a service economy, in which companies offer (online) services instead of products. Well-known examples are digital banking or Mobility as a Service (MaaS), where a private car is replaced by a mobility subscription. Such service models only exist by the grace of digital technology. For example, it allows for the reservation of vehicles, but also for the monitoring of devices and predicting when they will need to be serviced.
• Digital technologies are essential to improve healthcare, whether it is telehealth, primary care, diagnostics or determining therapies. In healthcare, we are seeing a shift towards 'disease management' through apps and other digital gadgets. Whereas doctors used to be able to cure a patient or not, today they can remotely monitor and control chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer or diabetes. This reduces the pressure on doctors and caregivers. More than 200 of our members are developing health tech and making a real difference. 

Commitments

• We aim to be third in the EU in terms of the integration of digital technologies in companies by 2025 (DESI index).
• The contribution of digital technologies to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in Belgian companies will be at the European average by 2025 (DESI index).

Indicators

• DESI index: integration of digital technologies
• DESI index: Belgian position based on the survey on the contribution of digital technologies to the environmental sustainability actions of EU companies

Where are we today?

Why is this important?

Mobility is essential for businesses and for society. It makes our economic and social world go round. But with the increasing demand for goods and passenger transport, traffic jams have become a growing problem. As well as wasting time, traffic jams have an impact on our well-being, health, safety and work-life balance. They also cause a deterioration in air quality and make an additional contribution to global warming. Time is money: traffic congestion also means additional economic costs for companies. 

In this section of the report, we discuss the impact of commuter traffic and service trips on traffic flow. The impact of traffic on the environment and the climate is discussed in Ambition 3: Protect the environment and the planet.

Both employers and employees are asking for more sustainable commuting. As an employer, we want to assume our responsibility. By making timetables and working hours more flexible, the morning and evening rush hours are flattened and people are less stuck in traffic jams. We avoid unnecessary travel by working digitally and conferring online more often. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, many service companies in our sector were already teleworking. Since the pandemic, the share of teleworking has further increased; in most companies, the pandemic has accelerated the development of a clear teleworking policy.

Not every trip can be avoided. That is why we are committed to a modal shift, whereby motorized road transport is replaced as much as possible by other, sustainable means of transport, such as the (electric) bicycle, the train, car sharing and collective transport. All kinds of technological tools, such as multimodal mobility apps, can identify the most suitable transport options (public transport, shared bikes, scooters, cars and steps, etc.). The introduction of a mobility plan in our companies and an adapted policy can help give employees flexibility and incentives to move around more sustainably.

Agoria and the technology industry are strong advocates of intelligent road pricing for cars and vans, as long as it is introduced in a budget-neutral way. Such a levy makes it possible, via a variable traffic tax, to discourage travel during peak hours and thus to spread the traffic better over time. An introduction over the entire territory also offers possibilities to avoid shortcuts and to direct cars to motorways and regional roads sooner. The type of vehicle can also be taken into account: polluting cars then pay a higher tax than more environmentally friendly types. In this way, the measure also becomes an incentive to use vehicles with a lower environmental impact.

• Belgian manufacturing companies build passenger cars, buses, trucks, trains, trams, bicycles and electric bikes, but also all kinds of parts and components that are used in all kinds of vehicles worldwide.
• Belgian technology companies develop components that are used in intelligent traffic infrastructure or that are needed to implement a smart mileage charge, such as new components for vehicles or systems to exchange data. 
• Digital applications that enable teleworking and support flexible working are being marketed by tech companies.
• Software companies are creating digital MaaS platforms that enable people to book train tickets, shared bicycles or cars, for example, according to their needs. 
• Dynamic traffic signalling, for example with digital signs are used to direct traffic flows better along different routes. The technology industry is working on intelligent systems to monitor traffic flows and make the best possible use of the available infrastructure. Intelligent traffic lights can also contribute to more sustainable mobility, for example by allowing emergency services and vulnerable road users to pass more smoothly. Studies show that they reduce time loss by 27% at conflict-free intersections and by 44% at other intersections.
• By maximizing vehicle connectivity, we can make better use of our roads. Many vehicles today already have systems that warn drivers when they are getting too close to an object, or that brake automatically to avoid a collision. Our companies are also working on systems that enable autonomous driving or that can detect when a driver is no longer concentrated. In this way, traffic jams and accidents caused by human error are avoided as much as possible.

Commitments

• At least half of the member companies will have developed a mobility plan that leads to modal shift by 2025.

Indicators

• Number of member companies that have a mobility plan

Where are we today?

Why is this important?

Companies and private individuals alike are increasingly connected to the Internet. As a result, we are all generating a huge amount of data, which is doubling every two years. Currently, data are valuable mainly to big players such as Google or Facebook, who use them for commercial applications. By evolving from a data economy to a data-sharing economy, in which companies and governments share their data with others, an enormous potential for innovation is created. 

The idea is that consumers and companies that generate data through a device, whether mobile phone, a car or a device that connects to other devices via the Internet of Things, should have free access to said generated data. This data-sharing economy offers the technology industry a range of new opportunities that we want to exploit to the full. If companies - including smaller companies and start-ups - gain access to large amounts of data, they can implement innovations with a high social added value. For instance, if all European hospitals shared their data sets, companies could create much more accurate algorithms to detect e.g. COVID-19 on an X-ray using AI.  

The free flow of data needed to do this still faces many hurdles at present. For example, there is a lack of open data from government organizations such as transport companies. To enable data-driven innovations, the EU is working towards a single market by 2030, where data from governments, businesses and individuals are used smoothly, safely and correctly for the public good. 

From the technology industry, we are, for example, a partner in the international cooperation project Gaia-X, in which business, science and government work together on the data infrastructure of the future. The goal: an open, transparent and secure digital ecosystem in which data and services can be made available, collected and shared. We are also working on the European Data Spaces for sectors such as environment, energy and agriculture. With these data spaces, the EU wants to make better use of public data for research for the public good, support the exchange of data by individuals and create structures for key organizations to exchange data. 

• Technology applications from our sector enable companies and governments to use data on an unprecedented scale so as to improve and develop their operations. Instances include the use of data to train AI algorithms, but also of the huge increase in Internet of Things applications. Data are at the heart of making all these innovations possible. 
• Data software developed by the technology industry lead to optimizations and cost savings in just about every industry. Innovative data applications and software, for example, enable a better understanding of industrial processes, better adjustment of installations to production requirements and the targeted detection of defects in process installations. Industrial installations can be preventively screened and repaired by collecting and properly managing data. This results in a longer life span of an installation. 
• Many Belgian companies, including in the manufacturing industry, are working on data-related business models. They currently use their data mainly internally to improve their own products and services. Companies can also share that data externally, provided they have a usable revenue model. Suppliers of heat pumps, such as Daikin, for example, can share their temperature measurements and thus contribute to a detailed heat map of Belgium. 
• A technological development with a great deal of potential is the digital twin, a virtual representation of a physical object or environment. Data from different sources are needed to create a digital twin. Currently, two or three sources are often sufficient, because digital twins are only created to solve very specific problems, for example to see what shadows a building will cast. In an extended data economy, it will be possible to create much better digital twins, which will offer many more possibilities. 
• Privacy and data protection are thus an integral part of today's business. And their importance will only increase. In this area, too, the digital industry facilitates companies: we provide technological solutions to protect data better. We are also working on applications to facilitate the free movement of personal data within the EU and the transfer to third countries.

Commitments

• 60% of member companies will be working with data analytics by 2025.
• Belgium's local data economy will be worth €21 billion  by 2025.

Indicators

• Number of member companies applying data analytics
• Value of the data economy

Where are we today?