G20 Digital Economy Ministerial Meeting to Bridge Digital Divide

“Digitalization changes all parts of our economy, politics and society and brings the world closer together”, said Christian Hirte, German Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy, in support of G20 Digital Economy Ministerial Meeting in Salta, in the north-west of Argentina, held on August 23 & 24, 2018 with an agenda focused on digital transformations and attended by 33 heads of delegation: Ministers, senior officials and representatives from invited countries and international organizations, like EU, UNCTAD, ITU etc. India was represented by Ravi Shankar Prasad Union Minister for Electronics and IT & Law and Justice.

Joint Declaration issued after the Meeting reflects the G20’s commitment towards promoting “policies and actions that catalyse digital transformations”, and includes proposals to reduce the digital gender divide, transform the government, measure the digital economy and accelerate digital infrastructure. The G20 confirms importance of the digital economy for global development:

“We note that, in order to advance human-centric policies, a fair, predictable, transparent and competitive business environment, and inclusive growth in the digital era, it is essential to continue our dialogue and work towards improving digital market access for consumers and businesses, particularly in developing countries, as well as our understanding of the market impact of emerging technologies and new business models, like online platforms.”

Joint Declaration, built upon the consensus achieved under the Chinese and German presidencies, acknowledges that digitalization is a powerful enabler of inclusive economic growth and sustainable development.  It encourages G20 countries to better understand new business models to accelerate the digital economy in an inclusive, transparent and competitive manner.

Joint Declaration:

• Lists requirements for a thriving digital economy, which include:
  • An effective and high-quality infrastructure system,
  • An environment that supports innovation and enabling legal frameworks, &
  • Promoting the free flow of information, knowledge and ideas.
• Seeks to help reduce the digital gender divide, accelerate digital infrastructure, transform the government and measure the new economy.
• As regards digital inclusion, the declaration reads that, “in many countries the digital gender divide remains large.” “G20 countries have an extraordinary opportunity to implement policies and actions that accelerate the full integration of women into the digital economy.”
• It included setting specific goals, eliminating stereotypes and promoting female digital entrepreneurship.
• In terms of infrastructure, the declaration alludes to “the G20 common goal of promoting universal and affordable access to the internet by all people by 2025”.
• It considers digital government as well, calling for “an agile, innovative, integrated and data-driven public sector,” one that makes a crucial contribution towards developing the digital economy.
• Declaration addresses emerging digital technologies and the challenge of capturing the benefits of digitalization to improve productivity.
• It highlights “the importance of supporting entrepreneurs and MSMEs.”

India’s Union Minister for Electronics and IT & Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad, while addressing plenary session of the G-20 Digital Economy Ministerial meeting, said that India’s digital story is a story of hope and growth; of opportunities and profits. But above all it is a story of digital inclusion and empowerment. Digital India is a mass movement today touching the lives of a billion people.

Highlighting the enormous scale of India’s digital infrastructure that included 1.21 billion mobile phones, of which 450 million are smartphones, nearly 500 million internet subscriber and an ever increasing broadband availability being supported by optical fibre connectivity in 250000 village clusters; he added that the success of Digital India programme lay in the conscious efforts to bridge the digital divide and promote digital inclusion, based upon technology which is low cost, affordable, developmental and which fosters empowerment and inclusion.

The Minister highlighted the important role played by India’s home grown technologies for promoting digital payment, in addition to the stellar role played by India’s IT companies, which have left their mark in 200 cities of 80 countries, enabling India to emerge as a profound digital power, with India’s digital economy likely to become 1 trillion $ economy in the next 3-5 years.

He said that India believed in internet access for all, adding that the Internet is one of the finest creations of the human mind. He stated that while Cyber-space is truly global, it must be linked with local ideas, local culture and local views.

He articulated India’s concerns about data protection and individual privacy and informed the meeting that India had already put in place stringent measures backed by laws passed by the parliament. He said that privacy cannot prohibit innovation nor can privacy become the shield for the corrupt or terrorists. We need data to improve business but the data must be anonymous, objective, and taken with consent.

The G20 Digital Economy Ministerial Meeting in Salta saw great interest in India’s JAM trinity of more than 300 million bank accounts of the poor along with Aadhar and mobiles which is empowering the poor by direct benefit transfer of their welfare entitlement into their bank account.