How to turn dependence into sovereignty? - around this question focused the discussion at Łukasiewicz - ITECH on Poland's growing digital deficit, the dominance of global platforms and possible ways out of this dependence.
Lukasiewicz – ITECH hosted a seminar on Poland’s digital deficit and the relationship between the Polish economy and global technology platforms. The starting point for the discussion was the report “Poland’s digital balance sheet. How to turn dependency into sovereignty?” prepared for the Lukasiewicz Research Network by Jan Oleszczuk-Zygmuntowski of the Polish Economics Network.
The data presented in the report shows that in 2016, digital product imports to Poland amounted to about PLN 9 billion, while in 2024 it is nearly PLN 48 billion a year, with exports at about PLN 3 billion. This means an increase in the digital deficit from about PLN 6 billion to about PLN 45 billion per year. Looking ahead to 2030, the digital deficit could be comparable to the energy trade deficit – which best illustrates how big a challenge we are facing.
The discussion at Lukasiewicz – ITECH was not only about numbers, but above all about answering the question of how to turn the current digital dependence into greater economic and technological sovereignty. Among the topics discussed were the need for a stronger digital industrial policy, support for domestic digital products and services, diversification of cloud providers, and conscious shaping of demand for the services of global platforms – including a debate on restrictions on the use of smartphones by children and young people.
Participants stressed that central policies alone, especially in the reality of rising populism, are not enough to effectively curb the power of big tech. That’s why grassroots initiatives were an important part of the conversation: platform cooperatives, data co-ownership models, the development of open source solutions, and the building of local ecosystems of digital content and services that can become a viable counterweight to platform monopolies.
The common denominator of the statements was the belief that innovation cannot be reduced to imitating existing big tech models. If Poland wants to reduce its digital deficit and build digital sovereignty, it must invest in its own products, standards and institutions, and in parallel have the courage to reduce demand for services that deepen both economic and social dependence on global platforms.
