A Digital Journey – from Zero to Three G20 Policy Recommendations in Seven Months


08/06/2017

A Digital Journey – from Zero to Three G20 Policy Recommendations in Seven Months


Digital Solutions for Sustainability

A Digital Journey – from Zero to Three G20 Policy Recommendations in Seven Months


As part of its Policy Initiative on the Digital Economy, which was formally launched during the EPF Think Week 2016, the Economic Policy Forum (EPF) has been able to feed three policy briefs facilitated by it and authored by its members into the G20:

Two of these policy briefs also feature in the “20 Solution Proposals for the G20“, the outcome document of the T20, which was handed over to Minister Peter Altmaier, Chief of Staff of the German Chancellery, on the occasion of the T20 Summit in Berlin, May 29-30.

Given the importance of the topic, the T20 Summit featured a vast variety of inputs on digitalisation, such as the panels on “Digitalisation: Enabler of Inclusive Global Growth and Development” and “Dealing with Labour Market Challenges in the Digital Economy”.

This was complemented by an EPF back-to-back roundtable on “T20 Germany and beyond: digital economy”, which brought together a selected group of international experts and representatives of the T20 Task Force on Digital Economy. Participants reflected on the policy briefs and agreed on next steps such as dissemination strategies for the policy recommendations made, and future modes of engagement beyond the German G20 Presidency. Potential future topics discussed included for instance the role of block chain for re-financing in inter-BRICS markets, the role of digitalisation for labour markets in developing and emerging countries, and how big data analysis could help achieve the SDGs.

Further documentation of the roundtable can be found below.

During the T20 Summit, Argentina’s G20 Sherpa, acknowledged digitalisation as a very relevant topic, especially with regards to effects on the labour force. EPF and its member think tanks will continue to work on the topic within the G20 and beyond, and will aim to feed in relevant policy recommendations in international processes to reflect sustainability and emerging countries’ perspectives.

Documentation of the roundtable:

  1. Agenda
  2. Participants list
  3. Presentation on digital skills
  4. Presentation on digital literacy
  5. Presentation on digital infrastructure
  6. Overview of international processes regarding digitalisation