THE ROLE OF THE ICT SECTOR IN ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Sustainable development requires the merge of objectives for economic growth, quality of life and environmental protection. If in the 70’s the need to shift towards sustainable development has been made on the basis of environmental concerns, with the Brundtland Report the concept gains economic and social dimensions. Challenges such as technology, globalization, competition, efficiency, competitiveness, determine the businesses need to adapt to the new economy. Support information to doing business in these conditions is given by IT. The transition to the information society is considered a step to achieve sustainable development. Information, which became resource both in the business and in everyday environment, is the challenge that economic and social pillars of sustainable development must potency. Based on the review of interest for the concept "information society" in Europe, this article discusses the impact of the ICT sector on economic and social pillars of sustainable development. Information and Communication Technology, identified as the fifth wave of technological innovation, is the support of information society. It is playing a supporting role for the activities of all areas with a significant impact on the economy and quality of life. Quantification of any process can be achieved through indicators, created to reflect the progression or regression of the proposed targets. Indicators are tools for measuring any process, so their importance is essential for making decision. Using the scheme of interactions between the pillars of sustainable development proposed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, I have emphasized the role of the ICT sector on the social and economic pillar. Based on the relations established, I analyzed the results of the information society indicators at european level. Although in Europe plans and strategies on the transition to a knowledge economy were developed in the last 15 years, there are indicators of disappointing results. Both in the economic indicators, as well as in the social indicators regarding the impact of ICT on sustainable development, efforts are needed in order to achieve goals by the end of 2015.Although equity is a goal of sustainable development, there are discrepancies in terms of standard of living and schooling level. An objective of smart growth is Internet access in the european households. There are 20% of europeans people who have never accessed the Internet, while another 250 million use it daily. In an information society, electronic commerce, both business to consumer and business to bussines, is the reflection of the impact of information technology on the economy. 41% of europeans citizens aged 16-74 years old ordered on the internet in 2014. The target for 2015 is 50%. Achieving a highest level of the indicator regarding digital literacy is required. 90% of europeans jobs offered by 2020 will required to have basic skills in IT. The european average online sales turnover was 15% for 2014. The highest result was in Ireland, 52%, the lowest in Bulgaria, 3%. In Romania, turnover from sales online was 6%. Another indicator is the poor results concerning the contribution of ICT in European GDP, which develops the idea of the need for increased investment in this sector.