At the working meeting organized by the North-West Regional Development Agency, which took place in Bistrita-Năsăud county on January 10, 2023, the foundations of the partnership agreement were laid for the creation of the Data Cloud related to the North Development Region -West. The data cloud is an IT product intended to interconnect the digital systems of the public sector in the 6 counties of the North-West Development Region (Bistrita-Năsăud, Bihor, Cluj, Maramureș, Sălaj, Satu Mare), this being a fundamental element for digital transformation.

The meeting hosted in the Great Hall of the Bistrita-Năsăud County Council was attended by the Minister of Investments and European Projects, Mr. Marcel Ioan Boloș, the President of the North-West Regional Development Council, Mr. Emil Radu Moldovan, the President of the Bihor County Council, Mr. Ilie Bolojan, the President of the Council Satu Mare County, Mr. Csaba Pataki, the President of the Maramureș County Council, Mr. Ionel Bogdan, the Vice-President of the Sălaj County Council, Mr. Szilagy Robert Istvan, representatives of the Cluj County Council and experts from the Special Telecommunications Service and the Authority for Digitization of Romania.

The main purpose of the cloud is to ensure the interoperability of databases (communication between the databases of each individual institution). Thus, costs will be reduced and the quality of public sector activities will increase in terms of the provision of public services and the accessibility of e-government services.

The cloud will facilitate the transformation of the region into a data-driven economy, secure and synchronized with the strategic directions of action of the European Union in terms of data governance.

Concrete benefits for citizens: 

• direct access to all local public services, without the need for the citizen to travel to the institution;
• reduces the bureaucratic burden and facilitates interoperability with the relevant institutions – basically achieving the minimum technical requirements/specifications necessary to launch the acquisition for the development of software solutions;
• history of its interactions with the local administration;
• transparency in data processing, at the level of the IT systems of the beneficiary public institutions, so that citizens have the opportunity to visualize their access.

The regional cloud will be complementary to the governmental cloud, the fundamental deliverable of the investments in Romania's digital transformation from the National Plan for Recovery and Resilience (PNRR) Component 7 – Digital Transformation, which will bring together the institutions of the administration in a secure and consolidated IT architecture central public.

"It is the beginning of the road for what digital transformation means at the regional level. This cloud will be the beating heart of digitization. True digitization can be achieved if we succeed in the interoperability of databases, being a measure by which we come to the support of local public authorities to develop infrastructure and software services. The creation of this regional cloud is the natural step that will ensure complementarity with the government cloud, which I worked on when I was the Minister of Digitization. Finally, in the relationship with local institutions, citizens will have a simple, de-bureaucratized process, they will no longer stand in queues and no longer travel to institutions to obtain documents. If you want, it is still a clear way through European funds to simplify and improve people's lives. I appreciate and welcome the involvement and openness of all County Councils at the level of the North-West Development Region, so that this wish becomes a reality." – Marcel Ioan Boloș, Minister of Investments and European Projects

"We are adapting to the evolution of society, and projects for people are also moving into the sphere of digitization. This Regional Cloud is a joint effort, dedicated to the communities of the 6 counties and will bring the administration one click away from the 2.7 million citizens. I am glad that we gathered at this digitalization round table, because the approach is one of national interest and here we are discussing better services for the population. Let's not forget that we are talking about an investment of over 30 million euros, to prepare the future of the region." – Emil Radu Moldovan, President of the North-West Regional Development Council

The Regional Cloud will be financed through the North-West Regional Program 2021-2027 – Priority 2 – A region with SMART localities, for which the North-West Regional Development Agency is the management authority.

The priority has a financial allocation of 60.332 million euros and has as its specific objective the exploitation of the advantages of digitization for the benefit of citizens, companies, research organizations and public authorities. Of the total value, 31,450 million euros is the budget allocated to the construction of the data center.

Also, during the working session, it was decided to take steps to establish a Regional Investment and Innovation Agency.