EIU’s “Tech for Change” annual conference this year, consisted of a series of panel discussion across a 2 day period, and somehow the organisers recognise that for tech to bring about true change impact, a discussion also had to be had about enabling environments.
A lot was discussed, from tech innovation needing to be open, scalable, simple, to funding having to be multi-sourced, to even how strong leadership is imperative for the various parties in the innovation space to trust and allow themselves to be coordinated for cohesive action.
Public-private
Everyone had experience to contribute and many insightful perspectives were shared. But, I found I kept turning to UNCTAD’s narrative around the private and public sector.
UNCTAD’s Shamika Sirimane was able to give an interesting bird’s eye view due to her role as director of technology and logistics. She observed that many public investments actually go into the wrong areas, and that trust is a much needed currency sorely lacking in the digital economy.
She shared, “We work with over 40 countries to assess their readiness for the digital economy.” This is a multi-stakeholder endeavour and Shamika is privy to feedback from the private sector that they wish to be free from government regulation.
However, as economies become increasingly digital with more cross border e-commerce, she finds the private sector actually need certain government regulations to be put in place, for example around digital payments.
“You need trust in online transactions and if you want to do cross-border e-commerce,” she pointed out alluding to the “virtuous cycle of connections” that need to happen and which she first mentioned here.
“Unless there is minimal level of regulation in the environment, you will never have trust in the digital space… and you can’t engage in digital trade and cross-border trade,” she said.
If initially the private sector says regulation is bad, it eventually comes around to asking the government to set some guard rails in place. “So, regulation is important, it is not a bad thing. It’s just how you implement it.”
Big Tech
With regards to Big Tech, Shamika thinks that accountability of the digital sector is long overdue.
Also, the biggest tech platforms of the world are owned by two countries – China and the U.S.
However, these platforms cut across many international borders which makes the idea of holding big tech accountable, an international one.
It is also a multi-faceted issue involving data governance, data privacy, sharing principles, ethics around AI and algorithms, and much more.
There needs to be increased international cooperation to govern these platforms and govern matters of their taxation, Shamika opined, and she said, “We propose the United Nations to hold the international conversation where affected countries also have a role to play.”
On the matter of technology and regulation overall, Accion Venture Lab’s Rahil observed that countries are looking to one another now. He finds this is due to faster information dissemination of how to do things. “It’s easier to replicate, because tech rails can be bolted on, if you have the right regulatory environment.”
