Joining forces for digital Switzerland: ICTswitzerland and digitalswitzerland merge
The general meetings of digitalswitzerland and ICTswitzerland have decided to merge. Under the name digitalswitzerland, the new umbrella organization combines the forces of 220 members from business, the public sector, non-governmental organizations and associations, as well as research and education.
Following the signing in July of the declaration of intent to merge the umbrella organization ICTswitzerland and the location initiative digitalswitzerland, the members of both organizations have now also confirmed the merger project at their respective association meetings. As a location initiative, digitalswitzerland has so far worked to establish Switzerland as the leading international digital innovation hub. ICTswitzerland represented selected and overarching topics of digitization to society, politics and business and placed a special focus on cybersecurity and the education and training of ICT professionals.
Joint commitment to digital Switzerland
With the merger, the two thrusts will be bundled and the two organizations will merge under the name digitalswitzerland to form the most relevant umbrella organization in digital Switzerland with a new membership of 220. The merger will enable holistic networking in the digital ecosystem of all industries and public administration. This will strengthen Switzerland's positioning as a digital and innovation location both at home and abroad. President of digitalswitzerland remains Ivo Furrer, Vice President will be the current ICTswitzerland President, National Councillor Marcel Dobler.
Digital advancement on all fronts
The umbrella organization aims to deepen selected skills and topics with which Switzerland can be credibly positioned and strengthened as a leading digital research and innovation location. Among other things, the focus is on developing and implementing measures to increase the number of STEM professionals trained at all levels of the education system, with the aim of meeting the demand for skilled workers. The expansion of the digital ecosystem will also be advanced through cross-sector collaboration to continuously enable innovation. In addition, there will be a stronger commitment to increasing the cyber resilience of the state, the economy and society and to upholding ethical standards in the digital world. Public dialog with the Swiss population is to be intensified thanks to the nationwide Swiss Digitaltage events. The startup ecosystem will also continue to be promoted so that young entrepreneurs receive optimum support in terms of growth and scaling. In the political arena, the digital topics and concerns of digitalswitzerland members will be championed. One initial joint commitment is the rapid introduction of the state-recognized and certified e-ID.
Three offices
The merger was decided on October 1 and should be completed by the end of 2020. In the future, the umbrella organization will have three offices in Lausanne, Bern and Zurich. Nicolas Bürer will assume overall responsibility for digitalswitzerland. Andreas W. Kaelin is deputy managing director and head of the Bern site. He is responsible for political advocacy as well as for the cybersecurity and ICT vocational training dossiers. Sébastien Kulling will continue to head the Lausanne site as deputy managing director. He is responsible for all activities and members in Suisse Romande.
Source: www.ictswitzerland.ch and www.digitalswitzerland.com
