Pushed by pandemic, Germany seeks to boost technology use

German government on Wednesday agreed on a strategy to boost use of data for commercial purposes and signed a deal with state education authorities to fund laptops for teachers who have to work from home because of virus lockdown.

measures are part of a drive to boost digitalization in a country that has fallen behind many of its peers due in part to concerns about privacy and data protection.

Officials in country often refuse to communicate with citizens by email, but Germans were neverless surprised to learn last year that many labs were still transmitting coronavirus test results by fax.

Hesitant about accessing ir personal data, some authorities in Lower Saxony state recently sent vouchers for free masks for elderly to people based on how old-fashioned ir names were — prompting amusement from parents of toddlers called Fritz or Helga who h received vouchers.

Chancellor Angela Merkel acknowledged country's digital shortcomings this week, telling participants in a virtual meeting of annual World Economic Forum that Germany “didn't look good” when it came to linking up country's over 400 regional health agencies, or in use of IT for distance learning.

“We need to get better and faster here,” she said Tuesday. “We know we have to catch up.”

Education Minister Anja Karliczek announced that government is providing 500 million euros (over $600 million) to help pay for purchase of laptops for teachers in country's 16 states. Many teachers have been forced to use ir own computers to conduct online lessons after schools were largely closed down before Christmas to help curb spre of COVID.

federal government has alrey agreed to spend a furr 1 billion euros on laptops for poor students and to fund hiring of IT staff to minister school networks.

Separately, German Cabinet on Wednesday approved a package of more than 240 measures to promote use of data as a resource for new business models.

measures include creation of a nationwide cancer database and funding for supercomputing networks. government said it also wants to set a good example by making available more data held by public institutions.

(Image Credit: AP)