4 Objectives Facing adverse economic conditions and global, increasingly competitive rivals, Europe sees the speedy development of a digital society and the ICT sector as one of the key opportunities for escaping the crisis and preserving competitiveness and the standard of living. The indicators for Slovenia show, on the contrary, that numerous structural changes related to exploiting development opportunities, including the potential of ICT and the internet, are insufficiently radical and fast; thus Slovenia is losing touch with the average of the European Union in terms of the digital society, which also means that it is losing its competitive advantages. This situation is a result of significantly insufficient investments in the development of a digital society, the unsuitable positioning of development and a lack of coordination among stakeholders. The awareness of the importance of ICT for the development of a contemporary digital society is much too low among the broader public in Slovenia. According to DAE, long-term sustainable changes in Europe will be based on the digitisation of the society and economy with the innovative and intense use of information and communication technologies. The Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe additionally stresses the importance of eliminating the barriers for a prompt establishment of a single digital market that will give a new impetus to the European economy.In order to eliminate the lag in the development of a digital society, Slovenia will radically alter development approaches, accelerate development activities, set up the coordination of stakeholders in the development of the digital society, and earmark development funds for the area in order to reduce the development gap behind the most developed countries. In accordance with the mentioned guidelines and in order to enable Slovenian stakeholders to equally participate in the single European digital environment, Slovenia will invest in the digitisation of society and entrepreneurship, in digital growth, and education on digital societies, as well as implement the strategic orientation of the innovative and intensive use of ICT and the internet in all fields of development. Slovenia’s vision is to use, through the accelerated development of a digital society, the development opportunities of ICT and the internet and thus become an advanced digital society and a reference environment for introducing innovative approaches in the use of digital technologies. The objectives of the strategy to achieve the development vision are the following:  raising of general awareness as to the importance of ICT and the internet for society’s development,  sustainable, systematic and focused investments in the development of the digital society,  general digitisation according to the 'digital by default' principle,  competitive digital entrepreneurship and digitised private sector for digital growth,  intense and innovative use of ICT and the internet in all social segments,  high-speed access to the open internet for all,  inclusive digital society,  safe cyberspace,  trust in cyber space and protection of human rights, DIGITAL SLOVENIA 2020 - DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY FOR THE INFORMATION SOCIETY UNTIL 2020 12

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