3 Analysis of the National Context 3.1 General Awareness of the Importance of the Information Society Compared with other EU member states, Slovenia has been recording about a fifteen-year long downward trend in its information society development level, which has reflected negatively in other development areas. This situation is a result of significantly too low investments in the development of information society, and insufficient general awareness of the importance of ICT and the internet for the development of the economy, state and the society in general. European competitors have made higher and more systematic investments all this time, which reflects in faster development progress than Slovenia was able to implement. By inappropriate placement of ICT and the internet in its development efforts, Slovenia as a society forgoes the development potentials enabled by ICT and the internet. If such practice does not stop, the development lag behind the countries that place the highest priorities on these areas will continue. The latest data on the indicators of development and comparisons in the EU framework are alarming. The development lag grows from year to year, so Slovenia needs to change the social attitude towards ICT and the internet at the threshold of the new development period until 2020 and create a more stimulating environment for the faster and more harmonised development of an information society and the ICT sector. To this end, Slovenia needs to provide considerably higher development funds in order to reduce the development gap with the most developed countries in the following development period until 2020 as much as possible. The progress in higher competitiveness of the ICT sector, development of digital society, digital economy and, last but not least, digital growth will not be possible without thorough changes in the awareness of the importance of ICT and the internet in Slovenia. In view of highly limited development funds from the core budget, the funding of the implementation of measures under the DIGITAL SLOVENIA 2020 initiative will require funding from EU structural funds. Measures must be implemented to eliminate the largest development lags in the information society and set up an appropriate infrastructure for the equal participation of Slovenian stakeholders in the single European and global digital space. Above all, promoting the importance of ICT and the internet in public requires the implementation of measures for the promotion and stimulation of demand for ICT and use of the internet, and a stronger dialogue with the broader public. Positive effects of these measures are a precondition for changing the general attitude towards digitisation and the use of development opportunities of ICT and the internet, and for the development of a contemporary digital society. 3.2 Indicators of Development of Information and Digital Society To monitor progress in achieving the objectives of the DAE and the development of the information society, a conceptual framework was adopted for the collection of statistical data on the information society as a benchmarking framework for the period 2011-20155, including a list of core indicators monitored by national statistical offices in unified surveys on the extent of the use of ICT in households, by individuals and enterprises. These are especially quantitative indicators divided in three main 5 Benchmarking Digital Europe 2011-2015. DIGITAL SLOVENIA 2020 - Development strategy for the information society until 2020 7