Regions

ITIF’s submission focuses on the ITC’s interest in recent developments in the digital economy for key SSA markets, including national and regional regulatory and policy measures and market conditions that affect digital trade.

When attempting to evaluate the effect that a policy intervention can have on development or innovation, researchers and policymakers routinely look to short-term impacts, both out of urgency and because of the difficulty in maintaining contact with participants over several years.

Over the last decade, mobile money services have brought banking to populations that have lacked formal financial services by allowing users to manage money on their mobile phones. First launched in Kenya in 2007, 96 percent of Kenyan households now use mobile money and can withdraw funds in physical currency from 110,000 agents across the country.

Meet Arthur Zang, a 29 year-old Cameroonian engineer who invented the handheld Cardio-Pad, the world’s first medical tablet facilitating heart examinations and remote diagnosis. The Cardio-Pad is a touch-screen tablet device for conducting cardiac tests such as electrocardiograms in remote locations, and then sending the results to cardiologists in city centers often hundreds of miles away.

Rwanda’s government, which has declared a vision of making the country a technology and innovation hub for Africa, has partnered with the startup Zipline to facilitate the real-time delivery of urgent medical supplies, such as blood or vaccines, to patients in remote locations via drones.

The world’s leading creative countries still have a long way to go before they can say they’ve significantly reduced digital piracy, but many are finally taking steps in the right direction toward this goal. Australia has adopted many of the best policies to better target copyright infringement, but there are a few missing that policymakers should consider.

Starting with a 2016 amendment to Korea’s Telecommunications Business Act, ISPs of comparable size have had to compensate each other based on the volume of traffic they exchange under a sending-party-network-pays policy. But consumers are the ones who ultimately pay in this arrangement.

With misguided localisation policies, Bangladesh's early progress and future promise are at risk. What path will Bangladesh's policymakers take as they conduct a final review of the country's Data Protection Act? The path to a false and costly promise of digital protectionism and control, or will they choose one that's based on targeted and balanced laws that reflect global data-policy norms that keep Bangladesh integrated with the global digital economy?

Crafting and implementing well-funded U.S. government policies that advance U.S. international competitiveness, especially in technology-driven industries and in relationship to China, requires a modicum of corporate political support or, at minimum, limited opposition.

In the last few years, a growing movement has advocated “responsible” technology development and use, particularly for artificial intelligence. The problem is that many of these efforts go beyond statements of generally agreed-upon principles and attempt to impose specific, elitist values and agendas on technology development.

Defending Digital Series, No. 16: The recent congressional hearing about TikTok was a missed opportunity to insist that U.S. and Chinese companies be treated equally in both nations.

Based on key indicators of innovation and advanced-industry performance, China has surpassed the United States in total innovation output and is getting close on a proportional basis. To regain its leadership, the United States must respond more strategically and forcefully.

China’s aspiration to become the new global hegemon calls into question the “Washington Consensus” that free markets and unfettered globalization maximize U.S. and global welfare. But for true believers, that is unacceptable. So, the idea China is a threat must be destroyed intellectually.

ITIF’s Rob Atkinson appears on the podcast What China Wants by Sam Olsen to talk through the realities of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s proposal to create a “NATO for Tech” to counter Chinese influence.

The first step is calling the economic war with China what it is. Then Washington needs to commit to preventing Beijing from achieving global leadership in most advanced industries—and ensuring a significantly greater rate of Chinese economic dependence on the United States (and close allies) than vice versa.

The EU’s new cloud cybersecurity regime should focus on good security practices, as the U.S. FedRAMP regime does. Emulating China’s protectionist focus on firm nationality is a bad security practice that weakens transatlantic influence over cybersecurity issues globally.

The Biden administration (and other major trading partners) should push the EU to live up to its statements, abide by its WTO commitments, and support the development and use of international standards for new and emerging technologies.

The AI Act’s broad definition of AI penalizes technologies that do not pose novel risks. To resolve this, policymakers should revise the definition of AI to only apply to specific AI approaches that create significant challenges.

When Europe gets around to fixing its own trade and procurement imbalances and with the United States and discriminatory policies, then the Biden administration should talk. In the meantime, the Biden administration needs to stop being defensive against the EU attacks and counter with its own narrative that demonstrates the EU’s protectionist performance.

The European Union wants it all—access to the U.S. market without fully reciprocal access to the EU, U.S. action against China while it free rides by exporting to China, and the freedom to restrict U.S. firms in Europe under the banner of “digital sovereignty.” It’s time for the U.S. government to say, “No more.”

China and other countries with poor human rights records are trying to influence international standards mainly through the International Telecommunications Union. So, the Office of the High Commissioner should focus attention there to address the most problematic proposals for technical standards with clear and troubling human rights implications.

International mergers, international cartels, and multinationals engaging with customers across borders underscore the need for greater legal certainty when it comes to antitrust enforcement and policy.

In September, ministers will gather in Pittsburgh to consider how their governments should respond to the energy and climate innovation imperative. Building on Glasgow, the meeting should strive to fill critical gaps in areas such as capital-intensive demonstration projects and innovation-friendly trade in carbon-intensive goods.

The WTO’s approval of a TRIPS waiver for IP related to COVID-19 vaccines is essentially a shotgun blast completely missing the broadside of a barn.

Putin’s attack should galvanize real foreign policy, defense policy, and industrial policy cooperation among democratic, allied nations.

If Latin America wants to avoid this fate, it needs to make a key decision: does it want to look east to China or north to the United States. The United States is leading the world in efforts to get China to roll back its unfair, mercantilist trade and economic policies. But that task will be much harder if the region sides with China or avoids the fight altogether and sits on the sidelines.

Before policymakers can act, there needs to be a consensus that there is a problem, and a role for policy in solving it. When it comes to competitiveness, too many in Washington don’t recognize this.

Colombia faces significant political, social, and economic hurdles in building its digital economy, yet its progress toward developing a robust strategy deserves recognition. It has an opportunity to be a trailblazer and regional role model.

Citizens and businesses rely on government websites to access important information and services. Unfortunately, many Colombian government websites fail to meet basic website standards for security, speed, mobile friendliness, and accessibility.

Colombian citizens and businesses use government websites every day to find important information and access public services, and so it is important for those websites to meet basic standards for security, speed, mobile friendliness, or accessibility. According to a new report[RC1] released jointly today by two leading think tanks, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) and TicTac, Colombian government agencies have opportunities to modernize their sites by further investing in cybersecurity, mobile-friendly web design, and cloud-based hosting.