Bogdan Ivan, the Minister of Digitalization, announced on Monday his intention to allocate funds for next year to establish an Institute of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Romania, in partnership with universities and the private sector. The estimated cost of this project is approximately €100 million.
“My aim is for us to be competitive not only now but also in 10-15 years, instead of attempting to imitate others who are currently more advanced,” stated Minister Bogdan Ivan during an event organized by the Competition Council on Monday.
“We have already identified what we can do in the very short term, I’m talking about days, to use AI, ERPs, and robots that automatically process and correlate data to obtain relevant financial information, particularly to increase VAT collection. In the simplest terms, estimates suggest a VAT collection increase of between 0.9% and 1% through the use of AI tools,” further added the Minister of Digitalization.
The Minister also mentioned that a national strategy for Artificial Intelligence was submitted for public discussion in September of this year, and it is expected to be adopted by the end of the year.
“By the end of November, I will prepare a draft government decision and present it to the government. Romania aims to become one of the EU countries that is legally prepared, both in terms of regulation and ethics in the use of AI, to ensure respect for human rights when using AI and to provide tangible economic benefits for both the public and private sectors,” Minister Bogdan Ivan added.