Digital Switzerland Strategy 2023

January 2023

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Strategies and Action Plans

The Digital Switzerland Strategy 2023 outlines the roadmap for Switzerland’s digital transformation, guided by the Federal Administration and intended to benefit the entire population through sustainable and responsible digitalisation. Key elements of the strategy include:

Purpose

The strategy aims to:

  • Serve as a guideline for digital transformation across various levels of government, civil society, business, academia, and politics.
  • Launch and drive forward annual digital transformation themes.
  • Provide an action plan for public awareness and engagement.

Vision

Switzerland prioritises digital offerings to benefit its people and strives to remain one of Europe’s most digitally competitive and innovative countries.

Domains and Indicators

The strategy is structured around five long-term domains, aligned with the EU’s Digital Compass. Progress in these domains is measured using specific indicators:

  1. Education and Skills
    • Ensuring people, businesses, and public authorities have the skills to leverage and question new technologies.
    • Indicators: Share of ICT specialists, cybercrime statistics, population with advanced digital skills, and digital competitiveness ranking.
  2. Security and Trust
    • Providing a safe digital environment with protected privacy.
    • Indicators: Number of cyber incidents and crimes with cyber elements.
  3. Framework
    • Establishing a reliable and advantageous digital framework for businesses and society.
    • Indicators: ICT sector start-up percentage, international benchmarks.
  4. Infrastructure
    • Promoting reliable and resilient digital and physical infrastructure.
    • Indicators: 5G coverage, availability of online services and open government data.
  5. Digital Public Services
    • Offering digital services as standard (digital first) while also providing non-digital options if necessary.
    • Indicators: Availability of digital public services for the public and businesses.

Focus Themes for 2023

Each year, the Federal Council selects priority themes to drive digital transformation. For 2023, the focus themes are:

  1. Digitalisation in Healthcare
    • Led by the Federal Office of Public Health, aims to improve data interoperability and develop a transparent data ecosystem.
  2. Digitalisation-friendly Legislation
    • Led by the Federal Office of Justice, focuses on laws that encourage digitalisation.
  3. Digital Sovereignty
    • Led by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, aims to reduce political, legal, economic, and individual dependencies in the digital world.

Action Plan

The action plan outlines specific measures, projects, and initiatives for digital transformation, updated continuously by lead actors and published on www.digital.swiss.

Responsibilities and Implementation

The Digital Transformation and ICT Steering Division (DTI) is responsible for:

  • Ongoing development, coordination, communication, and monitoring of the strategy.
  • Reporting annually to the Federal Council.
  • Proposing new focus themes in collaboration with departments.

The implementation of individual measures is managed by respective lead actors, who report their progress regularly to the DTI Division.

This comprehensive strategy ensures a coordinated and inclusive approach to digital transformation in Switzerland, aiming for long-term benefits for the entire population.