Industry 4.0 Initiatives in the COSME Countries

The digitisation of industry plays a vital role in the economic development strategies of some of the countries participating in the COSME programme.

While national Industry 4.0 initiatives are put in place in the majority of EU countries, the EU neighbourhood countries participating in the COSME programme have yet to adopt overarching I4.0 initiatives of national scale.

However, the governments of Turkey, Iceland and Serbia have made efforts to encourage and drive forward the digitisation of their industries through targeted measures. Instead of creating a centralised national initiative, these efforts tend to be rather scattered across various programmes lowering the initiatives’ visibility.

Given the vital role of I4.0 for productivity growth, accelerating the digitisation of industry in the European neighbourhood is a necessity in order to remain competitive and become high value added products suppliers.