Digital Power for Local Innovation
growth in internet use occurred since the start of the pandemic.
Source: International Telecommunication Union: 2022
billion
more in trade would result from digitalizing key shipping documents.
Source: McKinsey, 2023
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Digital technologies make economies more resilient
Small businesses in developing countries that leverage digital tools increased sales (85%) and cut costs (81%). Digital connectivity can also increase resilience along with profitability. Access to wider customer bases and better market information maximizes reach and planning. Enabling telecommuting means a flexible and adaptable workforce, and efficient digital transactions mean lower costs. (ITC Working Group Report on Connectivity for MSMEs, 2023)
“If you have a delivery system that you can use, a marketplace with a social network, and a digital payment system, with mobile money, you can do any kind of business.”
“The single window trade facilitation platform, which I have run since 2004, made Senegal one of the first countries using digital to facilitate trade. Regional cooperation has brought improvements in payment systems with a central bank for all West African countries… In parallel, mobile applications and mobile money have increased.”
Ibrahima Nour Eddine Diagne, Managing Director, Gainde 2000, Senegal
“Digital payment is being encouraged by our central bank. There was not much trust in digital payments before, but the pandemic changed all that. Its use grew by 66%.”
Celeste Ilagan, Chief Policy and Regulatory Affairs Officer, IT & Business Process Association of the Philippines
“In China, your telephone number is more like an ID. You can do everything with your telephone number.”
Yi Wu, General Director, HICOOL China
Digital literacy powers local innovation and economic growth
Investment in equipping people with digital skills is key. It keeps the workforce employable, improves government efficiency and widens access to its services, making the economy competitive.
“For setting up a technology business, connectivity infrastructure is like nutrition. But it's not only because technology keeps advancing faster and faster that we succeed. We need to deliver digital literacy, including to remote areas….As 60% of Mongolia’s population is under 35, people are tech savvy and adaptable to new technologies. The younger generations are moving digital transformation along.”
Byambajargal Ayushjav, Chairwoman, Faro Group, Mongolia; Director, ICT & Digital Economy Committee, American Chamber of Commerce, Mongolia
“I represent the IT and business process outsourcing association…Now 1.6 million people are working in the industry, worth $32.5 billion… Our industry is really contributing to the digital transformation of the country. Our employees are trained to use these technologies and are therefore able to spread the benefits of digitalization in their own families and in the workplaces.”
Celeste Ilagan, Chief Policy and Regulatory Affairs Officer, IT & Business Process Association of the Philippines
“Startups are working in digital areas, including e-commerce, e-health, and agri-tech. Government, donors or other organizations promote an ecosystem that allows any young entrepreneur to try to do business, thanks to digital.”
Ibrahima Nour Eddine Diagne, Managing Director, Gainde 2000, Senegal
trillion
the value that artificial intelligence could add to the global economy each year.
McKinsey & Company, 2023
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AI: Advocacy and reskilling
In 2023, artificial intelligence exploded into the public discourse with ChatGPT. With the release of generative AI tools capable of writing original text, developing code or even composing music, conversations about the impact of artificial intelligence on economies, labour and societies are everywhere.
“We see AI developments especially in three sectors: fintech, e-commerce and healthcare... One example: nurses in the Philippines do real-time monitoring of patients who are mostly based in the U.S. With AI-enabled digital tools, we do more complex, higher value things, and we are projecting to grow export revenue for our country to $60 billion over the next six years.”
“We can adjust, upskill and reskill so that the next 1.1 million jobs are not in transactional or repetitive tasks. Jobs of the future will use AI (and) a lot of other technologies such as robotic process automation, machine learning.”
“Business outsourcing was dismissed as a sunset industry by a government agency that said that AI would take over. It took a lot of lobbying to explain how our industry is adapting to improvements in technology. There is no way that we were going to allow the sun to go down on our industry. Instead, we added 600,000 jobs. The government developed a national AI and ICT strategy roadmap, launched in 2020, to maximize the transformative potential of AI.”
Celeste Ilagan Celeste Ilagan, Chief Policy and Regulatory Affairs Officer, IT & Business Process Association of the Philippines
“For HICOOL’s annual competition, AI is one of eight categories, and it was the most popular this year. We have received 5500 applications from across the world and 24% were in AI, a 45% increase compared to last year…. We see AI advancements especially in finance, retail and high tech.”
Ms. Yi Wu, General Director, HICOOL China
“Realistically, we will need humans to be gradually migrating to do jobs that are further up the chain… Education is very important. How do we envision the gradual merging of human intelligence, human cognitive abilities with artificial intelligence?”
“When we displace human labour, there has to be a way that the gains in productivity and revenue come back to the human workers. And that's a question that I think different societies, different cultures in different parts of the world will find different answers to.”
“AIs are already able to write code by themselves. You tell them in plain human language, and the AIs write the code. This is an opportunity for a lot of regions in the developing world to leapfrog expensive development costs.”
Professor De Kai, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; International Computer Science Institute, University of California at Berkeley
Managing ethics
As AI evolves, societies need to manage its pros and cons. As AI evolves, societies need to manage its pros and cons. With incredible potential for growth and efficiency come potential risks to labour, intellectual property, and societal health. Rules and regulations must evolve alongside a cultural mindset shift to make sustainable and inclusive use of this transformative technology.
“Digital technologies today are similar to natural resources such as air and water. …As much as we are adapting our stewardship of energy and water in the climate crisis, we must collectively address the risk of digital harms and maximize the potential for common good.”
A Global Digital Compact, United Nations, 2023
“As AI evolves, societies need to manage its pros and cons. With incredible potential for growth and efficiency come potential risks to labour, intellectual property, and societal health. Rules and regulations must evolve alongside a cultural mindset shift to make sustainable and inclusive use of this transformative technology. We will have the opportunity to create a regulatory mechanism to de-risk threats like the downsides of AI or changes in equity. How do we regulate cyberspace more effectively so that the benefits come to pass? The key is making sure we use human intellect, the human mind and human aspiration to move forward.”
Tapan Mishra, United Nations Resident Coordinator, Mongolia
“We’re giving AI algorithms the power to determine what we don't see. It's what I call an algorithmic censor, and that is quite dangerous for polarization. It is very seductive, plays to our unconscious cognitive biases, and it causes us to fall into traps very easily. The population as a whole has to recognize the danger. Governments, regulators and institutions have to work with the public to form guidelines. Tech companies have to implement things to prevent this kind of tunnel vision in users of AI systems”.
Professor De Kai, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; International Computer Science Institute, University of California at Berkeley
“Ethics is important now. Governments, private companies, tech companies... are focusing on ethics. There has to be factchecking… Bringing us together here (at WEDF) is also one of the key points to impact this issue.”
Byambajargal Ayushjav, Chairwoman, Faro Group, Mongolia; Director, ICT & Digital Economy Committee, American Chamber of Commerce, Mongolia
“Rules and regulations only catch the most extreme cases. Society is not only held together by the letter of the law. It's all the unwritten rules, the unspoken social norms, the willingness to understand each other. That's what actually holds societies together. The emergence of AI in our society has to be coupled with laws and regulations, but more importantly with a cultural mindset shift.”
Pamela Coke-Hamilton, Executive Director, International Trade Centre
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Powering Digital Transformation
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Powering Digital Transformation
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Trade Trends and Artificial Intelligence
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