B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

B20 ITALY

Digital Transformation

Policy Paper 2021

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B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONTABLEOF CONTENTS
Foreword by the Task Force Chair

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Task Force Composition

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Recommendations: Executive Summary

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Introduction

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Recommendation 1

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Recommendation 2

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Recommendation 3

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Recommendation 4

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Annex

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Foreword by the Taskforce Chair
Task Force Chair – Digital Transformation
We named our task Force “Digital Transformation” as we truly believe we are in
for a new challenge, which is to re-imagine the way we design, think, and shape
our lives, economies, and work.
Technology is here to offer us an incredible opportunity: finding new solutions
to old problems, giving new answers to old questions. Technology is enhancing
our hardware, our platforms, our networks, and our infrastructures, but theoperating system remains our culture. That is why we are here, to facilitate operating in a very innovative and creative environment.
Digital Transformation is increasingly becoming a global engine of sustainableeconomic growth, with over 60% of GDP expected to depend on digital technologies by 2022 . To enable this growth, connectivity must be considered anessential service for all.
Digital population is on the rise, growing connection quality and outreach areunlocking more valuable use cases, and new trends such as Big Data, Artificial
Intelligence, Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 are boosting business effectiveness and efficiency.
Nevertheless, the full potential of Digital Transformation is yet to be realized: (i)scattered infrastructure quality still leaves many people unconnected, (ii), lackof trust in the overall digital ecosystem is adversely impacting the adoption ofdigital technologies, (iii) companies’ interest towards investments and deployment of new digital technologies is not always at par, and (iv) significant gaps inthe level of digital literacy in both individuals and companies hinder the adoption of innovative solutions.
The COVID-19 pandemic has also thrown a spotlight on the role of Digital
Transformation for sustainable and inclusive economic development. Network
capacity, coverage, and security have grown in importance. Individuals, both ascustomers and citizens, with no or limited access to digital technologies are left
behind. Data consumption has risen exponentially exerting pressure on networks, with stability and cybersecurity becoming top-of-mind priorities.
The commitment of the B20 Italy is to unleash the full potential of the Digital Transformation, also as a driver for recovery, with a rigorous, tangible, andactionable plan acting on three vectors:• Consolidating digital and technological foundations: ensuring increased
network capacity and reach, improving world-wide connection quality, and promoting a fair competition throughout the digital value chain;• Enhancing the offering: facilitating the development of new products and services from private and public sector for all stakeholders of the digital economy;• Stimulating the demand: fostering the request for digital products and services
from both customers and companies by addressing digital skills gaps and lack ofawareness on their benefits.
Sincerely,
Maximo Ibarra
Chair of the 2021 B20 Digital Transformation Task Force

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World Economic Forum, Our Shared Digital Future: Responsible Digital Transformation - Board Briefing, 20195

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Task Force Composition
Why Digital Transformation Matters

Amrote Abdella
Co-ChairRegional Director,
Microsoft 4Afrika

Dan Bryant

Co-ChairSVP Global Public Policy,
WalmartHans-Paul Buerkner
Co-ChairGlobal Chair, Boston
Consulting Group

6“Digital Transformation has never been
more critical than today, in our post
Covid-19 reality, where the power oftechnology gap is widening between developed and developing countries. As theB20, it is our duty to ensure that accessibility to all, inclusive of all countries isbrought to the forefront of our business
communities. Collectively, we can build
a tomorrow that we can all be a part of”“Faced with a pandemic that caused unprecedented disruption, this Policy Paper charts a path towards an inclusive
recovery through Digital Transformation. Success will require a cross-sectoralcommitment to blend digital tools into
our economy and create on-ramps forthe digitally excluded. These recommendations are the first step”“Digital Transformation will create amore sustainable world by supporting
economic growth, while limiting emissions and resource exploitation, andpromoting inclusion. Unleashing the potential of digital technologies should beat the core of companies' business strategies and at the top of public agendas”

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Why Digital Transformation Matters

Börje Ekholm
Co-ChairCEO, Ericsson

Klaus Rosenfeld

Co-ChairCEO, Schaeffler Group

Diane Wang

Co-ChairFounder, Chairperson& CEO, DHgate.com“Digital infrastructure, innovation and inclusion need to be delivered at scale withhigh-performance, security and energy
efficiency. For governments, this means
catalyzing investments, such as 5G, facilitating open innovation with markets deciding the best technologies, and digital
opportunities made equal to all”

“Digitalization and sustainability are
two sides of the same coin. They servea common goal: to guarantee better
opportunities to all inhabitants of ourplanet and to the generations to come.
It’s up to us to shape the digital transformation in our respective areas of responsibility, and to take timely action in
the interest of everyone.”“Accelerating e-commerce development
and digital inclusion, women and MSMEs, in particular, can be empowered toparticipate in international trade. Digital Transformation creates a more fair,diverse, and inclusive society with more
opportunities, and in return, it further
releases the potential of digitalization
to boost global economic recovery”

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Task Force Coordination Group
Knowledge Partner

Scientific Partners

Valentina Carlini
Task Force Manager
Confindustria

Network Partners

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Recommendations: Executive Summary
Recommendation 1 – Reduce Connection Inequalities:
Speed up the roll-out of high-capacity future-proof digital infrastructures, enhance technology accessibility, and create on-ramps to the digital
economy for the excluded to foster innovation, competition, cooperation, as well as inclusion and sustainability
Policy action 1.1: Enable and support the deployment and take-up of high-capacity and robust Fixed, Mobile and Satellite Broadband Connectivity acrossareas to expand worldwide network coverage and increase connection capacity, also leveraging most advanced technologies
Policy action 1.2: Promote technology accessibility by endorsing public - private partnerships and supporting private efforts to foster meaningful and inclusive connectivity for all, especially, but not limited to, developing countries

Recommendation 2 – Promote Trust in the Digital Ecosystem:
Harmonize regulatory principles to ensure fair competition and efficient
markets; promote trust in the digital ecosystem by enhancing cybersecurity and privacy protection, and encourage the adoption of interoperable
policy frameworks and common standards to facilitate cross-border data
flows
Policy action 2.1: Harmonize regulatory principles and simplify rules for allparticipants in the digital economy to ensure fair competition and enableefficient markets; foster responsible use and free flow of data with trust leveraging the work of international working groups
Policy action 2.2: Incentivize multilateral dialogue between Governments, International Organizations, in consultation with Businesses and all other stakeholders of digital society to grant responsible state behavior in cyberspaceand get broad buy-in for the use of a solid framework on security tools, protocols, and procedures across industries, reflecting their exposure to cyber risk
Policy action 2.3: Support technological innovation with policies that promote interconnection, interoperability, and the adoption of market driven,global, open, and voluntary standards and codes of conduct with the aim of
fostering usage of cross-domain solutions and data porting

Recommendation 3 – Support Public and Private Digital Advantage:
Foster Governments' and companies' responsible development and deployment of digital technologies, by leveraging public and private cooperation in R&D, promoting investments and effective use cases sharing
Policy action 3.1: Strengthen long-term public involvement to stimulate R&D
in new technologies, while ensuring a fruitful cooperation with the private
sector and promoting responsible, sustainable, human-centered, and market-driven development

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Policy action 3.2: Facilitate investments in digital technologies (HW, SW) andreorganization processes that enhance companies' and Governments' technological development and cyber protection, by leveraging effective andnon-market distorting funding schemes, providing technical advisory services, and stimulating use case sharing, especially for MSMEs

Recommendation 4 – Foster a Digital Ready and Inclusive Society:
Address the existing digital skills gap in the private and public sector by
mapping current shortages, up/re-skilling individuals, updating education curricula and encouraging a mindful usage of technologies
Policy action 4.1: Define national strategies to address digital skills gap in private and public sectors, also ensuring that efforts and investments are channeled towards top priorities to grant new job opportunities in all sectors
Policy action 4.2: Improve provision of digital skills at schools and universities to promote the creation of a digital-ready workforce, able to harness thepower of digital technologies while recognizing the associated risk

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Introduction
Digital Transformation is a key driver of economic development, a fundamental lever in fighting climate change, and a powerful enabler of social
inclusion. Four main trends contribute to expanding the potential and theopportunities related to digital technologies:• Increasing digital and connected population;• Improving connection quality worldwide;• Rising adoption of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence technologies;• Growing Internet of Things and Machine-to-Machine use cases.
Global digital population has nearly doubled over the last nine years and internet users are expected to grow even more – reaching ca. 5.3 Bn in 2023, a
36% increase vs 20182 – with the share of connected people rising across allcontinents, empowering citizens with new opportunities.
Connection quality is rapidly improving worldwide, unlocking more valuable
use cases. Evidence shows that a 10% increase in broadband penetration results in a +0.36-1.38% direct impact on GDP growth, with mobile broadband
having higher impact than fixed broadband3.
Big Data and Artificial Intelligence enable significant improvements in companies’ efficacy and efficiency through machine learning techniques and advanced analytics to better serve customers. AI market, which grew four times
in the last three years and reached USD 2.3 Tn in 2020, is expected to double
by 2025 up to USD 4.5 Tn4.
Internet of Things is projected to unlock value for USD 15 Tn of global GDP by2025. Share of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) devices is also expected to growsignificantly in the upcoming years, accounting for almost 50% of total devices in 2023 based on estimates5.
Moreover, connectivity infrastructures, as enablers of new products and services, innovative solutions such as cloud and edge computing, and digital technologies are considered to be powerful tools to address climate change
and accelerate action to stabilize the earth’s temperature, also setting thefoundation for a greener recovery.
Indeed, Digital Transformation could help reduce global carbon emissions by
up to 15%, contributing decisively to achieve the overall 40% reduction target
within 2030 (vs 1990 levels)6 set by many countries in reference with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and theParis Agreement. Estimates highlight how Artificial Intelligence is a promising
ally to accelerate sustainable transformation, able to reduce GHG emission
by between 2.6 and 5.3 gigatons of CO2-equivalent (equally to 5-10% of yearly global volume)7.
Halving emissions requires significant investments and unprecedent technological development. The digital sector can take a strong lead in driving thiseffort: cloud computing, industrial automation, fixed and mobile networks, among other technologies, already serve as a foundation for more productive and efficient societies. Moreover, frontier technologies such as 5G,
Artificial Intelligence, Industry-of-Things and advanced robotics will provide
further opportunities to build exponential momentum and make decarbonization and carbon neutrality achievable.
Cisco Annual Internet Report, 2018-2023
ITU Publications, The Economic contribution of Broadband, 20204
Gartner, Statista, 2019
5
BCG, Reduce Carbon and Costs with the Power of AI, 2021
6World economic forum, Digital technology can cut global emissions by 15%. Here’s how, 2019, Exponential
Roadmap Initiative, 20207
Nielsen, COVID-19 Tracking the Impact on Media Consumption, 2020
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B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONWith the right policy framework and strong leadership, those technologies
will be instrumental to move the society towards a more sustainable and inclusive economy, focused on growing the value of products and services while at the same time reducing waste, pollution and resource consumption8.
COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the pivotal role of digital as a pillar of
global resilience. In this context, three factors have emerged to be critical:• Worldwide network capacity, reach and security growing in importance;• Unconnected population risking to be left behind, with digital skills also proving to be a critical driver of digital divide in an increasingly connected world;• Companies’ and Public Administrations’ resilience being tested like never before, and digital technologies resulting key to ensure operational continuity.
In 2020, imposed lockdowns and smart working practices replaced the traditional physical ways of social connection and entertainment. Digital media
and online communication became the only option for working and participating to social activities. Compared to 2019, media and streaming usage rose by up to 100% in many countries9, further exacerbating the needof well-sized and stable networks to process a rapidly increasing volume ofdata. The rise of home-based data traffic, driven by teleworking, educationand entertainment, further boosted connectivity demand, ultimately highlighting the need for a faster broadband roll-out.
During the pandemic, people with poor or no access to digital means were
uncapable to contribute to the society, further aggravating the impact of thealready existing digital divide, both within countries and between developedand emerging economies. A particularly relevant statistics regards young
students which, from pre-primary to upper secondary school, in 31% of thecases have not been reached by remote learning solutions10.
Finally, most companies had to face a twofold disruption: evolving people’s
habits and changing employees' needs. The private sector had to rely mostly
on remote digital access to keep productivity at par and e-commerce hasturned into the only possible vector of sales. Internally, challenges comprised
evolving working habits with remote working becoming the new normal. Similarly, Public Administrations were forced to migrate most of their services
to digital applications to ensure continuity of services and support citizens
during the pandemic.
However, the potential of Digital Transformation is yet to be fully realized
and is still limited by five structural factors• Heterogenous network capacity, reach and quality across different regions;• Gaps and inconsistencies among regulatory principles leading to potential
competitive imbalances;• Lack of trust in digital technologies due to cybersecurity and privacy concerns, as well as issues related to respect for human rights, national security,and digital sovereignty;• Limited digital offering due to uneven awareness of technology use cases;• Low digital readiness among companies, citizens, and workers further impacting the take-up of digital solutions.

UNICEF, COVID-19: Are children able to continue learning during school closures?, 2020
ITU, More urgent than ever: Universal connectivity to bring 3.7 billion people online, 202010
Nokia: Redoing the math–the impact of Covid-19 on broadband networks, 2020
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Infrastructure reach, digital skills, and access to connectivity are still limited,
especially in lower-income countries, resulting in 3.7 Bn people living without
any internet connection11. Differences occur also in terms of connection quality, with 20-30% of online population experiencing connection speed lower
than 50 MB/s12. Even for most advanced technologies, such as 5G, enormous
variability emerges across countries13. Gaps in connectivity do not just exist
between rural and urban communities, but also within larger cities.
Uneven regulatory principles still slow down the development of new products and innovation. Lack of global standards also prevents technology
interoperability and exacerbates platform lock-ins, resulting in a significant
limitation of use cases.
Cyberattacks and data breaches are increasing in number year by year . Withrising amounts of data transacted and essential activities performed throughdigital channels, it becomes essential to effectively protect users and networks. Lack of trust in the digital ecosystem is resulting in the fragmentation of
the digital economy with many governments establishing protectionist measures hampering cross-border data flows.
Offering and development of technological products and services have notfully realized their potential due to uneven public support to R&D and private investments, as well as limited awareness on technology benefits. At thesame time, ethical and trust concerns on the potentially harmful use of technology (e.g., those resulting in personal, organizational, and societal adverse
effects), increase fears among users.
Moreover, many people still lack basic digital skills and are not ready to navigate online safely and mindfully.
Digital Transformation will reshape jobs and working environment: 14% of
total jobs in OECD countries will be impacted by automation and 32% areexpected to face significant change in the next two decades14. However, during the last ten years, digital-intensive sectors created four out of ten newjobs15. It is calculated that investments in information and communications
technology infrastructure induce 1.4 to 3.6 indirect jobs for every direct job
created16.
As also stated by the OECD , digital technologies and data are transformational. People, firms and governments live, interact, work and produce differently than in the past, and these changes are accelerating rapidly. Withskill mismatches rising among employees, individuals, companies and Public
Administrations, it is essential to invest in learning and re-skilling to ensure
jobs and equal opportunities for all, while adapting to a fast-changing world.
Digital Transformation can speed up the economic recovery and empower
people at all levels of society only if the policy environment is oriented
towards global cooperation and focused to promote priority-based andactionable strategies. Hence, we call on the G20 to act on the following four
Policy Recommendations:

iDATE Digiworld, 2021
IBM X-force Security index survey, 201913
OECD, Going Digital: Shaping Policies, Improving Lives, 2020
14
World Bank ICT, Broadband and job creation: Policies promoting broadband deployment and use will enable
sustainable ICT-based job creation., 201215
OECD, Going Digital: Shaping Policies, Improving Lives, 2020
16
GeSi, Global SMARTer20301 study, 2020
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1. Speed up the roll-out of high-capacity future-proof digital infrastructures,enhance technology accessibility, and create on-ramps to the digital economy for the excluded to foster innovation, competition, cooperation, as wellas inclusion and sustainability;
2. Harmonize regulatory principles to ensure fair competition and efficient
markets; promote trust in the digital ecosystem by enhancing cybersecurity
and privacy protection, and encourage the adoption of interoperable policy
frameworks and common standards to facilitate cross-border data flows;
3. Foster Governments' and companies' responsible development and deployment of digital technologies, by leveraging public and private cooperation in R&D, promoting investments and effective use cases sharing;
4. Address the existing digital skills gap in the private and public sector by
mapping current shortages, up/re-skilling individuals, updating education
curricula and encouraging a mindful usage of technologies.

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Recommendation 1 – Reduce Connection
Inequalities:
Speed up the roll-out of high-capacity future-proof digital infrastructures,enhance technology accessibility, and create on-ramps to the digital economy for the excluded to foster innovation, competition, cooperation, as wellas inclusion and sustainability

Policy Actions
1.1 Enable and support the deployment and take-up of high-capacity androbust Fixed, Mobile and Satellite Broadband Connectivity across areas
to expand worldwide network coverage and increase connection capacity, also leveraging most advanced technologies
1.2 Promote technology accessibility by endorsing public - private partnerships and supporting private efforts to foster meaningful and inclusive connectivity for all, especially, but not limited to, developing countries

Leading Monitoring KPI - Owner: G20 Countries

Baseline

Target% of People Connected to the Internet
Source: International Telecommunication
Union (ITU)51%(2019)

70%(2024)SDG impacted:
Recommendation 1 contributes to the achievement of UN’s SDG 8: Decent
Work and Economic Growth, 9: Industry Innovation and Infrastructure,
10: Reduced Inequalities and 17: Partnership for the Goals.
Policy Action 1.1 contributes to better work standards and economic growthby solving connectivity issues across geographies. Increasing connection
quality has a positive impact on GDP contributing to target 8.1 and 8.2 in sustaining per-capita-GDP and technological upgrading and innovation. Increasing connection reach would benefit indicator 17.6.2 “Fixed internet broadband subscriptions over 100 Inhabitants by speed” as well as indicator 17.8.1“Proportion of individuals using internet”.
Policy Action 1.2, fostering technological empowerment and connectivity infrastructure development, supports the accomplishment of SDG 9, inparticular of target 9.c.1 “proportion of the population covered by a mobile
network”. By granting the same level of connectivity in urbanized and rural
areas, reducing inequalities in technology access, it would also benefit target
10.1, sustaining income growth of the bottom 40 per cent of the population.

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G20 Italy Priorities:
Recommendation 1 commits towards the achievement of all three principlesof the G20 Italian Presidency: People, Planet and Prosperity.
Policy Action 1.1 aims at granting higher reach of networks, promoting the connection for all, enhancing businesses’ and People’s capabilities and potential
for recovery, development, and growth, also impacting global Prosperity.
A broader expansion of connectivity would also benefit the Planet and atransition towards digital means would result in more sustainable businesses:
ICT solutions will play a pivotal role in detaching economic growth from CO2
production, with every 5% increase in access to digital technology dwindlingemissions by around 1.6% .
Finally, Policy Action 1.2, focused on increasing accessibility of device and service at all level of societies, would reduce inequalities granting a more equal
condition for People.

Context
Exhibit 1 | Rising global population

Connectivity, as a core enabler of Digital Transformation, has been a pillar of
economic growth in recent years. Connected population is rising, with internet usage growing across areas and regions of the world.

Source: Cisco Annual Internet Report 2018-2023

The higher penetration of internet users has also been facilitated by 3GPP
connectivity. Mobile internet is, indeed, the primary mean of internet accessfor most of the world’s population, and it also incentivizes new waves of innovation, including the App economy17.
3GPP created a thriving global ecosystem with 8 Bn mobile connections in
2020, set to rise to 8.8 Bn by 2026. Nevertheless, many of those who are notconnected to the internet live within the coverage of a mobile network, indeed 95% of global population in 2020 is covered by 3G technology and 80% iscovered by LTE18.
The ever-faster connection speed on both fixed and mobile broadband infrastructures is unlocking more valuable use cases, resulting in additional
GDP growth. It has been demonstrated19 that there is a statistically relevantcorrelation between broadband penetration and countries’ GDP growth: forevery 10 percentage point increase in broadband penetration - either fixed
or mobile - GDP increases by respectively 0.77% and 1.50%.

The App Economy refers to the smartphone and tablet revolution whereby a mobile application is available
for just about everything.
18
Ericsson, Ericsson Mobility Report, 2020
19
International Telecommunication Union (ITU), The Economic Contribution Of Broadband, 201917

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Source: ITU publications on the Economic Contribution of Broadband 2020, Digitalization and ICT Regulation
regional studies, includes 34 African countries, 18 American countries, 14 Arab States, 18 Asia Pacific Countries, 8Commonwealth Independent States and 38 European Countries

In the future, significant economic contribution is expected to be also provided by 5G development, with related use cases predicted to add USD 3.8 Tnof gross output by 2035 and supporting 22.8 Mn new jobs20.
COVID-19 crisis has impacted people in many countries, significantly influencing their daily lives. Consumers saw resilient networks as a vital factor: according to Ericsson Mobility Report 2020, 83% of surveyed people stated ICT
as a key resource to cope with the crisis21. Indeed, connectivity has provento be a major driver in enabling global response to the COVID-19 epidemic.
With many activities forced to move to digital channels, internet access has
played a pivotal role in work, education, and social life.
During lockdowns, internet data traffic surged up to 60%22, the use of virtual
communication tools rose 10 times, and online streaming increased by morethan 50% all around the globe23.
Unfortunately, as the world “moves” online, the impact of a digital divide
between people with and without internet access becomes more pronounced with progressively evident implications. Many students, required to attend schools from home without a reliable connection or an appropriate
device, have been cut off from educational opportunities. Worldwide connectivity gaps are not limited only to rural areas, even within the same cities,
certain zones are less served than others.
Besides the recognized importance of accelerating the deployment of connectivity infrastructure, worldwide network coverage is still heterogeneous,with poor access to devices and services as well as lack of digital skills, among
others, representing relevant barriers for internet adoption24, resulting in thefact that nearly 50% of the world is still unconnected25, especially in developing countries.

World Economic Forum, 5G Outlook Series: Enabling Inclusive Long-term Opportunities, 2021
Ericsson Mobility Report, 2020
22
OECD, Keeping the Internet Up and Running in times of crisis, 202023
Nielsen COVID-19 Tracking the Impact on Media Consumption, 2020
24
ITU, Measuring digital development: Facts and figures, 2020
25
UNESCO, New report on global broadband access underscores need to reach the half of the world still unconnected, 2019
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Policy action 1.1: Enable and support the deployment and take-up of high-capacity and robust Fixed, Mobile and Satellite Broadband Connectivity across areas to expand worldwide network coverage and increaseconnection capacity, also leveraging most advanced technologies
High-capacity and robust connectivity networks, intended as infrastructures
and technologies capable of delivering gigabit speeds, allow businesses andcommunities to grow their competitiveness, quality of life, education level,
and economic prosperity.
The enhancement of new generation broadband networks, in particularexpanding their reach and upgrading their performances, is crucial to accomplish economic recovery and growth. Moreover, existing social imbalances risk to further widen if technologies and connectivity continue to spread
heterogeneously.
Granting future-proof networks requires adequate public and private cooperation to stimulate innovation and create financial conditions for new
investments. This could be achieved by ensuring an investment-friendly environment, free of unnecessary barriers to network deployment, where technology or vendor neutrality prevails and where markets, rather than governments, decide which technologies will succeed through fair and transparent
competition.
In this context, we identified two vectors of action to shape and frame thedecades to come:
The G20 should stimulate high-capacity network investments to benefit individuals, companies, and the economy at large by encouraging new business models,promoting technology neutrality, fostering transparent and efficient permit granting procedures, and facilitating broadband network deployment
The G20 should support operational flexibility and encourage markets toinnovate by fostering fair competition to boost innovation and cooperation
and by promoting policy measures to support network investments, leveraging both new and already existing business models (which expand network
coverage and speed-up roll-out).
In addition, reasonable taxation, pricing policies, and long-term technology-neutral licenses have a major impact on network coverage unlocking greater investments. In certain instances, regulations are already in place (e.g., atEuropean Union level26) but need to be enforced and implemented properly
to ensure overall financial sustainability.
The G20, when facilitating private investments in high-capacity and future-proof digital infrastructures, should restrict the use of direct public interventions only in case of market failures. Moreover, it is essential to facilitate
the overall network deployment process. It means, for example, overcoming
barriers such as permitting delays or harmonizing radio frequency exposure
values which might result in an uneven network deployment. This would streamline and lower barriers to entry and promote competition.
In this regard, the Council Conclusions on Shaping Europe's Digital Future
held on 9 June 2020 stressed that the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated
the need for fast and ubiquitous connectivity. This situation further calls todevelop a set of best practices to reduce the cost of network deployment27.
To further increase network reach, G20 members should promote measures aimed at providing operators with access to global or regional harmo18

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European Commission, A Connectivity Toolbox to foster EU-wide advanced connectivity, 2020
Ericsson, Digitalization with 5G enables further acceleration of climate action, 2021

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nized pioneer spectrum for 5G. The early assignment of sufficient amountsof spectrum have a major impact on networks’ coverage since they would
lead to greater network investment. In Europe, for instance, only 25.5% of 5G
spectrum has been released to Member States28. The slow pace is, in largepart, due to a focus on short-term profitability, rather than long-term benefits. Finally, G20 governments should also promote information campaigns
highlighting the benefits of 5G for citizens and companies, recalling that 5G
networks deployment is compliant with international regulations on electromagnetic emissions.
The G20 should ensure connectivity for the unconnected and enhance
network coverage and connection quality for the underserved by encouraging private sector network expansion and by leveraging mechanisms suchas public-private partnerships, also ensuring their neutrality with respect totechnologies and business models
Because of existing limitations of network coverage and shortfalls of infrastructure, significant capital investments are required to meaningfully connect more people to the internet29.
This is particularly true if we consider the targets set by many countries interms of connectivity reach and performance: the European Commission
has the objectives of ensuring 30 Mbps connection or more for all citizens,providing access to 1 Gbps for all schools, transport hubs, main providers of
public services and digitally intensive enterprises, granting download speedof at least 100 Mbps (to be upgraded to 1Gbps) for all European household by2025 and uninterrupted 5G wireless broadband coverage for all urban areas
and major roads and railways30. Indeed, by 2030, all EU households shouldhave gigabit connectivity and all populated areas should be covered by 5G31.
Policy makers should put broadband access at the forefront of economic
development efforts, with a reconsideration of policies, including fiscal measures, spectrum pricing, technologies, and business models to expand connectivity reach to historically unconnected or underserved populations.
As recommended by the OECD, it is fundamental to take timely measures
to close gaps in unserved and underserved demographics, while striving to
avoid distorting competition, such as through the promotion of demand aggregation in rural and remote areas32.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) estimates that USD 428 Bnof additional investment will be required over ten years to deliver high-quality broadband to the world’s unconnected population33. Specific policy measures could be dedicated to the areas that are more challenging to cover:approaches such as offering discounted spectrum in return for obligations tocover rural and remote areas, public - private partnerships and community
networks could be explored.
Private sector expansion should be the top priority for network development.
In areas where no self-sustaining interventions are possible, high-speed
networks should be promoted in a technology- and provider-neutral manner. If instruments to promote private sector efforts do not work, Universal
Service Funds (USFs) could be considered. USFs are a system of subsidies andfees intended to promote universal access to telecommunications services34.
Broadband commission for sustainable development, State of Broadband, 2019
European Commission, Connectivity for a European Gigabit Society, 2020
30
European Commission, Connectivity for a European Gigabit Society, 202031
European Commission, Europe's Digital Decade: Commission sets the course towards a digitally empowered
Europe by 2030, 2021
32
OECD, Recommendation of the Council on OECD Legal Instruments Broadband Connectivity, amended 2021
33
Alliance for affordable internet, Affordability Report, 202034
US Federal Communication Commission, accessed 2020
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When adopting this solution, it is important to secure that USFs are used forthe objective of expanding connectivity coverage and adoption, ensure that
USFs are efficiently and effectively used for the intended aim, do not favor
any particular technology or business models, and work in a complementarymanner with already existing business models to expand the reach of broadband service in locations where operators have been unable or unwilling toinvest so far.
Public involvement in fostering the take-up of high-capacity and robust
fixed, mobile and satellite broadband connectivity, capable of delivering gigabit speeds, can also comprise the provision of demand-side measures suchas voucher schemes without distorting competition dynamics, private investments and existing business models.
The European Commission WiFi4EU initiative, for example, grants free Wi-Fi
access in public spaces. The initiative, providing municipalities with the opportunity to apply for EUR 15 K vouchers, has invested EUR 133 Mn reaching a
total of eight thousand different municipalities35.
Exhibit 3 | 8000+ vouchers usedby different countries benefitingfrom WiFi4EU initiative

Source: WiFi4EU, Adherence Data updated on third public tender, 2020

In addition, public involvement should also entail the provision of social andconnectivity vouchers to underserved households and businesses. While respecting the principle of technological neutrality, vouchers should be granted to the best available high-capacity and robust fixed mobile and satellite
broadband networks capable of delivering gigabit speeds with a view to foster their take-up.
Policy action 1.2: Promote technology accessibility by endorsing public private partnerships and supporting private efforts to foster meaningful
and inclusive connectivity for all, especially, but not limited to, developing
countries
The COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated the critical importance of devices36
and services in driving robust, resilient and well-functioning societies andeconomies.
Nevertheless, today 3.7 Bn people remain offline37. Constrained access toservices and devices is one of the main aspects making individuals unable tobenefit from the opportunities arising from the ongoing Digital Transformation38.

European Commission, WiFi4EU | Free Wi-Fi for Europeans, 2020
in Europe and in Italy in particular, several Telco operators have tackled the digital accessibility issue offering
devices to hospitals, schools, and Public Administrations to help overcome the pandemic impact
37
ITU, Measuring digital development: Facts and figures 2020, 2020
38
Broadband commission for sustainable development - Global Goal of Universal Connectivity Manifesto,
accessed 2020
35

36

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B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Given that only five years remain to achieve the Broadband Commission for
Sustainable Development39 target of reaching 75% of worldwide internet
user penetration40, it is important for G20 countries to focus on concrete
and actionable proposals:
The G20 should increase technology accessibility for individuals by using public
levers such as promoting clear and transparent National Broadband Plans withrigorous advocacy frameworks and lowering market entry barriers for companies
The UN Broadband Commission defines internet accessibility as ‘one for two’:accessible internet is where 1GB of mobile broadband data is priced at 2% orless of the average monthly income. Internet connections in low- and middle-income countries have become more accessible, moving from 7.0% of average monthly income in 2015 down to 3.1% in 201941, but numerous countries
are still facing challenges to reach this goal.
The G20 should promote the development of National Broadband Plans(NBPs) as policy documents crucial in defining the goals and aspiration of ICT
sectors over the medium and long term. Furthermore, NBPs have positive impact on increasing countries’ meaningful access, representing the actual condition in which people can access the internet every day using an appropriate
device with sufficient data and a fast connection.
NBPs should also be designed to set effective accessibility targets and track
their progress periodically, stimulate positive public - private relationships,
provide stability for a competitive market to grow, and increase private sector
confidence when committing to longer-term structural investment.
The importance of drafting up-to-date and tangible National Broadband
Plans has been also stressed by the European Commission, which underlined
the importance of ensuring that National Digital Agendas and Broadband
Plans include concrete measures to reach the EU’s 2025 connectivity objectives with the appropriate state aid rules42.
Ensuring that technology is equally accessible does not have to be limited only
to unserved, remote or in-need population. The World Health Organization
estimates that 1 Bn people live with disability43, and the International Telecommunication Union highlighted the importance of improving their accessto ICTs44, especially considering that assistive technology can be life-changing
for disabled individuals45. Access to technology should not be restricted by our
vision, hearing, mobility, mental health, learning disabilities or cognitive differences; hence, information communication technologies and devices should
be designed to be accessible to all. In particular, highly specialized and assistive
technologies such as screen readers and magnification for blind and visually
impaired people as well as text-to-speech software for individuals with neurodivergent conditions go well beyond standard features built into technology
today, but should be offered as well to grant true inclusion for everyone.
Finally, Governments should ensure that information and communication
campaigns held at national level on available digital means (devices, services,and networks) are homogeneous and synchronous to ensure the same level ofawareness, understanding, and support across every layer of the population.
On this topic, it is important to build on the existing work, such as the guidelines provided by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)46.
The commission has been established in May 2010 with the aim of boosting the importance of broadband on the international policy agenda, and expanding broadband access in every country as key to accelerating progress towards
national and international development targets, Broadband commission for sustainable development, accessed 2020
40
International telecommunication union (ITU), 201841
Alliance for affordable internet, Affordability report, 2020
42European Commission Services, Recovery and Resilience Plans, example of component reforms and investments, 2020
43
World Health Organization, Disability and Health Report, 2020
44
ITU, Accessibility study group, 202045
Forbes, For Disabled People, Access To Assistive Tech Is A Human Right Not An Employment Perk, 2020
46
ITU Guidelines on how to ensure that digital information, services and products are accessible by all people,
including Persons with Disabilities during COVID-19, 2020
39

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B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

G20 should promote the development of policies to bridge physical and digital infrastructures, create an entry-point for the excluded to access the digital economy, and mitigate social imbalances by granting meaningful internet
access to everyone
The G20 should accelerate the digital development of rural areas and improve its governance by enhancing digital infrastructure and capacity building tobridge the digital gap with urban areas, thereby reducing inequalities.
Even though the internet and technologies’ penetration rates in rural zones
have been rising in recent years, there is still a gap compared to urban areas.
According to ITU 2019 data, about 72% of households living in urban areas
globally have access to the Internet at home, almost twice as much as in rural
areas (38%)47.
To bridge the digital divide, it is important to strengthen the infrastructure
and improve network coverage and penetration. Digital technologies can sustain rural population also by enhancing agricultural production, supporting
public services (including healthcare and education) and their governance.

22

International Telecommunication Union, Household Internet access in urban areas twice as high as in rural
areas, 2020
47

B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Recommendation 2 – Promote Trust in the
Digital Ecosystem:
Harmonize regulatory principles to ensure fair competition and efficient
markets; promote trust in the digital ecosystem by enhancing cybersecurity
and privacy protection, and encourage the adoption of interoperable policy
frameworks and common standards to facilitate cross-border data flows

Policy Actions
2.1 Harmonize regulatory principles and simplify rules for all participants in the digital economy to ensure fair competition and enable efficient
markets; foster responsible use and free flow of data with trust leveraging the work of international working groups
2.2 Incentivize multilateral dialogue between Governments, International
Organizations, in consultation with Businesses and all other stakeholders
of digital society to grant responsible state behavior in cyberspace andget broad buy-in for the use of a solid framework on security tools, protocols, and procedures across industries, reflecting their exposure to cyberrisk
2.3 Support technological innovation with policies that promote interconnection, interoperability, and the adoption of market driven, global,
open, and voluntary standards and codes of conduct with the aim of fostering usage of cross-domain solutions and data porting

Leading Monitoring KPI - Owner: G20 Countries

Baseline

Target% of Countries with Data Protection andPrivacy Legislation
Source: United Nations Conference on Tradeand Development (UNCTAD)

66%(2020)

100%(2024)SDG impacted:
Recommendation 2 contributes to the achievement of UN’s SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy, 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, 9: Industry Innovation and Infrastructure, 13: Climate Action 16: Peace, Justiceand Strong Institutions and 17: Partnership for the goals.
Policy Action 2.1, by promoting common regulatory principles and a fair competitive landscape, assists target 8.3 “Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growthof micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises”. It ultimately enhances theglobal industrial network in line with target 9.2 by setting harmonized global
standards for technology and developing more efficient interoperability mechanisms. Moreover, the ability to derive value from data would take resource efficiency and production flexibility to the next level, sustaining target 7.3
in improving energy efficiency and target 13.3 focused on improving capacity
on climate change mitigation.

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B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Moreover, it contributes to the achievement of target 16.3 by promoting therule of law at national and international level, and target 17.16 by enhancing
the global partnership for sustainable development, ensuring harmonizedperspectives on technological development, while promoting cohesivenessand cooperation within and between countries.
Policy Action 2.2, ensuring multilateral dialogue and common regulatory
principles on cybersecurity among nations, supports target 16.3 in “promoting the rule of law at national and international level”. Furthermore, by ensuring the implementation of risk-based technical and procedural requirements across sectors, it safeguards each and every layer of the value chain,
granting more resilient infrastructures (target 8.2), while at the same timeensuring industries’ sustainable growth (target 9.1).
Policy Action 2.3 further commits to the realization of target 9.2 by fosteringinteroperable standards. Such measures would mitigate platform lock-ins
and promote fairer competitive environment, thus building towards a more
inclusive environment.

G20 Italy Priorities:
Recommendation 2 commits towards the achievement of Italy G20’s principles of People, Planet and Prosperity, by promoting harmonization ofprinciples, fostering fair competition, and granting trust in the technologicalecosystem.
Policy action 2.1, ensuring that consistent regulatory principles are alignedwith sustainability priorities, will eventually benefit the Planet, as well as harmonizing approaches will stimulate competition and innovation, thus benefitting Prosperity and international growth. Finally, acting on users’ trust in
the ecosystem by promoting data flow while protecting data privacy would
benefit People guaranteeing an appropriate balance between data accessibility and data security.
Policy Action 2.2, calling for a framework on cybersecurity tools, protocols,and procedures would eventually shield People from cyberattacks and data
breaches. Moreover, it will prevent unnecessary losses and waste of capitalby raising awareness on data protection at corporate level, thus ensuring all
resources are effectively conveyed towards growth and innovation, and ultimately contributing to global Prosperity.
Policy action 2.3 by defining common standards for technology interoperability across sectors and industries where required, would foster the usage ofcross-platform and cross-domain solutions and avoid use case limitation andplatform-specific lock-in, stimulating the usage of open-source hardware
and software and contributing to global technology development and Prosperity.

24

B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Context
The evolution of digital technology is reaching new heights, enabling new
business models, supporting innovation, and redefining industry’s traditionalboundaries. Digital Transformation is solving complex challenges providing
solutions to businesses and communities during the pandemic in a broad
range of sectors including healthcare, education, energy, finance, and transportation.
For markets to work and interact effectively, a fair, transparent, and predictable regulatory environment must be guaranteed. Nonetheless, global
coordination on rules and regulatory principles is not keeping the pace withtechnological evolution, thus creating imbalances and distortions acrosscountries, legislations, industries, and companies, ultimately impacting theoverall trust in the digital ecosystem as well as the market efficiency.
Moreover, with new digital business models growing in importance, there
is an increasing need to ensure that regulatory approaches, fostering faircompetition through the whole digital value chain, remain open and flexible
enough to capture the ever-changing evolution of technology as well as address its most critical challenges.
Harmonization of principles, adopted through multi-stakeholder consultations, should not encompass only international regulatory principles, butshould also address national and industry-specific technological standards
given their significant importance in growing digital applications such as Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication alsoenabled by networks and cloud technologies.
The global IoT end-user spending is expected to grow significantly from 2019
to 2025 from USD 212 Bn to USD 1,567 Bn48. Similarly, as the main pillar of IoTdevelopment, M2M communication is predicted to grow as well. Incidenceof M2M devices over total is projected to reach 50% in 2023, up from 36%
in 2019.
Exhibit 4 | M2M incidence overtotal devices and global forecasted
IoT end-user spending

Source: Cisco Annual Internet Report 2018-2023

48

Statista, Finch Capital, 202025

B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONThe rise of M2M communication and connected industrial sensors for Industry 4.0 involves an unparalleled need of data flows and systems interoperability across borders and technological domains. On this, the presence ofgaps and overlaps in technology standards, intended as “missing or duplicate
elements in the IoT standardization landscape”49, may hinder the development of open platforms and open-source communities.
Indeed, the lack of interoperability in IoT systems represents one of the mostsignificant barriers to the widespread of IoT adoption. If IoT devices cannot
communicate with each other or with different protocols, their potential getssignificantly reduced. From an end-user perspective, for example, having interoperable devices would improve customer experience and promote technology adoption. At the same time, from a business perspective, interoperability enables richer data collection, allowing corporations to have better
visibility on potential improvements on processes, products, and services.
However, system interoperability does not have to be limited to IoT devices
and industrial applications. Offering seamless interfaces would also enhance
the way citizens use digital products and services. Examples are Door-to-Door mobility or logistics applications expected to be fully deployed in the future. With smart mobility on the rise, autonomous vehicles as well as sharedand public mobility services are expected to become connected in the coming years, benefitting users with smoother customer journeys, also contributing to the reduction of global emissions50.
Promoting data free flow with trust (DFFT), which have to rely on effective
legal frameworks for privacy and data protection (with the consent of consumers), requires a global agreement on regulatory principles and standards aswell as promoting cyber trust and protection. Having efficient and harmonized data sharing principles will be pivotal to boost the data economy and toachieve UN’s SDGs targets51.
With internet usage and data exchanges on the rise, concerns in the digital
security environment are growing significantly. The number of Distributed
Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, for example, are expected to nearly double,
from 7.9 Mn in 2018 to 15.4 Mn in 2023, with a CAGR of +14%52.
Network infrastructures are not the only assets to protect. Wrong procedures
and behaviors should be addressed as well: 43% of company data breaches
are driven by human errors. Moreover, cyberattacks may also impact companies’ long-term competitive advantage: indeed, cyberattacks are often amean to get access to companies’ industrial secrets and Intellectual Property.
Exhibit 5 | Cybersecurity growing
in importance as internet usage
spread

1. United States; Identity Theft Resource Center; 2005 to H1 2020; 2.United States; Ponemon Institute; IBM; 3. IBM X-force Security index survey 2019; Gemalto
survey, BCG "A Great Digital Identity Solution Is One You Can’t See" 2019
Source: Cisco Annual Internet Report 2018-2023; Cyber Security Ventures 2020
Alliance for Internet Of Things Innovation, High Priority IoT Standardization Gaps and Relevant SDOs, 2018
BCG, Shaping the Future of Mobility, 2020
BCG, Sharing Data to Address Our Biggest Societal Challenges, 2021
52
Cisco annual internet report 2018-2023, 2020
49

26

50
51

B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONThe state of the art in cybersecurity legislation comprises a heterogenous
landscape of different laws, regulations, and policies. This fragmentation does
not allow for an effective international cooperation on cybersecurity issues.
Addressing these concerns will require global collaboration across different
stakeholders asking both companies and governments to think more expansively about their roles in digital safety and trust. In particular, it is of fundamental importance to ensure protection of critical infrastructures, including
hospitals, government data centers and all others indicated by the United
Nations’ Group of Governmental Experts and Open-Ended Working Group53.
In order to create a coordinated regulatory framework that addresses theneeds of a global digital economy – promoting fair competition, ensuring
free flow of data, granting interoperability and trust in the digital ecosystem
as well as addressing grey areas of jurisdiction within the cyber space –international policy makers should examine firstly which existing laws and rules
apply to new technologies.
Where appropriate, governments should define which technology-neutral
measures promote innovation, while stimulating private investments andencouraging inclusion and multi-stakeholder collaboration. Regulatory frameworks need to be open and flexible enough to capture the ever-changing
evolution of technology, while at the same time making sure rigorous principles are adopted among all stakeholders.
With the objective of providing tangible, impactful, and pragmatic actions,
we urge the G20 to act along three main policy actions:• Harmonize regulatory principles and simplify rules for all participants in thedigital economy to ensure fair competition and enable efficient markets; foster responsible use and free flow of data with trust leveraging the work ofinternational working groups;• Incentivize multilateral dialogue between Governments, International Organizations, in consultation with Businesses and all other stakeholders of digital society to grant responsible state behavior in cyberspace and get broad
buy-in for the use of a solid framework on security tools, protocols, and procedures across industries, reflecting their exposure to cyber risk;• Support technological innovation with policies that promote interconnection, interoperability, and the adoption of market driven, global, open,
and voluntary standards and codes of conduct with the aim of fostering usage of cross-domain solutions and data porting.

United Nations, official site, accessed June 2021

53

27

B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Policy action 2.1: Harmonize regulatory principles and simplify rules for allparticipants in the digital economy to ensure fair competition and enableefficient markets; foster responsible use and free flow of data with trust
leveraging the work of international working groups
Competitive neutrality within markets54 is essential for well-functioning regulatory regimes and for the diffusion of the Digital Transformation in a fairand competitive manner. Regarding the harmonization of the current regulatory principles, we propose three priority areas to focus on:
The G20 should harmonize regulatory principles and simplify rules for allparticipants in the digital economy to promote competitive and efficient
markets building on the frameworks already developed by international fora
Promoting fair competition and granting international alignment on regulatory principles is critical to ensure the right environment for digital players,
belonging to different stages of the value chain, to innovate. Regulatory differences between established and new digital players must be removed, andoutdated regulations revised, when appropriate, to foster competitive markets and promote innovation.
To do so, the G20 should consider cooperating with international working
groups and fora to identify strategies and approaches for actions acrosscountries and industries.
In the Digital Economy, one of the most relevant topics is represented by theinvestigation on where value is created, given its direct implications on fiscal
treatment. While countries agree that the profit of a multinational company
should be taxed in the jurisdictions in which it creates value, there are different
interpretations on how to define value (e.g., users’ location, company’s HQ).
At present, digital service taxes differ significantly in their structure fromcountry to country, also having different scope, thresholds, and maturity55.
Recently, the Group of Seven (G7) advanced economies reached an agreement to back a minimum global corporate tax rate of at least 15%, setting thestage for a global consensus towards international digital taxation guidelines.
Such consensus must be achieved in all geographies and must consider countries’ specific economic, social and demographic conditions.
We call on G20 countries to garner their collective efforts and act as a medium of discussion through a coherent and coordinated approach to moveswiftly towards a global consensus-based and comprehensive digital taxation framework that can be applied equally to all segments of the digitalized
economy and does not discriminate or create competitive distortions.
The G20 should promote the development of a trustworthy digital ecosystems, enacting comprehensive and coherent international and national
privacy regulatory principles based on the consensus reached by member
states, anchored to transparency, consumer empowerment, corporate responsibility, and enforcement
With increasing usage and sharing of personal data, it is essential to protect
individual privacy. Therefore, it becomes a priority to harmonize international regulatory approaches on data protection and privacy with the goal of increasing mutual trust on how personal data is treated, used and monetized.

For example between firms of different parent nationality, various technologies, or existing firms and newentrants
55
Tax Foundation, “What European OECD Countries Are Doing about Digital Services Taxes”, 2021
54

28

B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

To do so, it is pivotal to establish a set of principles and an action plan ensuring the development of national privacy regulatory principles that include
a globally harmonized framework for effective and comprehensive privacy
and data protection while ensuring innovation, also putting concrete mechanisms in place to facilitate cross-border data flows with trust. To avoid
fragmentation of the data economy it is also essential to prevent domestic
limitations to cross-national data flows.
The G20 should therefore encourage a consistent and balanced adoption ofnational and international regulatory principles on critical and most innovative areas, such as personal data and Intellectual Property.
Moreover, a trustworthy digital environment for citizens, customers andcompanies can only be achieved if they safely interact with each other. In thedigital space, people need to know the identity of who they are dealing with.
Whether it is an individual trying to get a passport or a merchant needing toconfirm that a client is who they claim to be, proving trusted digital identities
today takes intensive effort and significant cost.
The G20 should support the design of policies aimed at promoting digital
identities as a building block for data privacy and digital trust, ensuring theright incentives to enhance their interoperability across borders and sectors,
public and private environments.
Digital Identities encompass a wide range of electronically captured andstored information ranging from legal digital identities and credentials to alternative data such as social media behaviors, digital payment patterns andmobile usage statistics. Digital Identities are also a lever for Governments,
financial institutions, digital platforms, and international organizations to foster inclusion in the digital economy while also protecting data privacy.
The G20 should foster responsible access and sharing of data and enable
Data Free Flow with Trust (DFFT) across borders by adopting consistent high-level guidelines, also supporting their implementation across individuals,
firms and governments
Data access and sharing is estimated to generate social and economic benefits worth between 0.1% and 1.5% of GDP in case of public sector relateddata, and between 1% and 2.5% of GDP when accounting for private sector data56. The OECD estimates that the effective usage of data can boost
productivity and improve products, processes, organizational methods, andmarkets. OECD also suggests that firms leveraging data, exhibit faster laborproductivity growth by 5% to 10%57.
However, despite a rising need for data and evidence of its economic and social
benefits, data access and sharing have not achieved their full potential yet.
Individuals, businesses, and governments often face barriers to data access.
From a 2018 study, out of 129 companies surveyed, 60% did not share data at
all with other players and 58% did not reuse data obtained from other companies. When this type of gridlock occurs, data ecosystems fail to thrive, and value
creation is limited58. Furthermore, existing regulatory differences, are present
not only across borders but also across different sectors, and risk to skew thecompetition ground, limiting the capacity of all companies to innovate.

OECD, Enhancing Access to and Sharing of Data: Reconciling Risks and Benefits for Data Re-use across Societies, 2019
OECD, Mapping approaches to data and data flows, 2020
BCG, Simple Governance for Data Ecosystems, 2020

56
57

58

29

B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONTo encourage and enhance data free flows for the benefit of all, also ensuring equal approaches to different sectors, a coherent data policy framework
is needed. Major challenges need to be addressed in continuity with the effort of international working groups as well as the one of International forstandard setting such as the ASEAN Data Management Framework59, the
WTO’s JSI on E-Commerce60, or the OECD Initiative on Data Governance for
Growth and Well-Being61. The following actions should be undertaken:• The G20 should promote a coherent approach to data policy including partnership with industries and international organizations to consider how todevelop data classification frameworks that could help organizations and institutions categorize anonymized and pseudonymized data with the goal of
creating an agreed language on data flows;• The G20 should facilitate the free flow of data in ways that align with therule of law and the protection of individual rights and freedom (including privacy). In doing so, the G20 should avoid data protectionism without undermining states’ rights to regulatory autonomy on data protection and privacy;• The G20 should encourage the development of guidelines to ensure thatdata portability requirements are consistent, where appropriate and relevant, and provide sufficient guidance for their implementation.
Policy Action 2.2: Incentivize multilateral dialogue between Governments, International Organizations, in consultation with Businesses and allother stakeholders of digital society to grant responsible state behavior
in cyberspace and get broad buy-in for the use of a solid framework on
security tools, protocols, and procedures across industries, reflecting
their exposure to cyber risk
As B20, we believe that the ambitious goal of having a cybersecure ecosystem will only be achievable through international cooperation and mutualcommitment. Given the pivotal role that cybersecurity progressively plays in
our everyday life - both as citizens and as workforce members - we identified
two core areas for the G20 to focus on:
The G20 should promote multilateral and multi-stakeholder discussions, leveraging global fora and working groups on cybersecurity-related topics andensure the establishment of national cybersecurity agencies with clear agendas, effective governance mechanisms and enforcement rights
To define common guidelines and procedures to regulate the cyber domain
in a manner commensurate with its underlying risks, G20 countries should
promote existing treaties and foster dialogue across governments, institutions, working groups, industries, and firms.
Launched in 2014 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers(IEEE) Computer Society and Future Directions Committee, the Cybersecurity Initiative (CYBSI) could serve as a starting point to build upon.
We believe that multi-stakeholder cooperation stands out as a crucial success factor in this area, as it enables learning from other countries’ results andchallenges and allows to replicate policies that already proved to be effective
elsewhere. For this reason, the G20 could leverage on other cross-country
multi-stakeholder dialogues that have already been launched.

ASEAN Digital Senior Officials, ASEAN Data Management Framework and Model Contractual Clauses for
Cross-Border Data Flows, 2021
60
World Trade Organization, Joint Statement Initiative on E-commerce
61
OECD, Initiative on Data-driven innovation for growth and well-being official site, accessed 2020
5930

B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONFirst, on the OECD “Global Forum on Digital Security for Prosperity”, bringing together experts and policy makers to foster the sharing of good practices on digital security risks prevention. International debates lead to mutual
learning and convergence of views, also influencing public policy discussions
contributing to the development of widely agreed principles62.
Second, on the Global Forum for Cyber Expertise (GFCE), supporting the
adoption of a cyber Programme of Action (PoA) in the context of the General
Assembly of the United Nations (UNGA)’s First Committee to promote accelerated adoption of norms, rules, and principles of responsible state behavior
within the cyber space.
Also some cutting-edge policies developed at national level have formed
the basis of emerging international norms: for example, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)’s cybersecurity Framework has
established a baseline dialogue around the globe on risk-based approaches
to cybersecurity and the UK Government Code of Practice paved the way for
European Telecommunications Standards Institute’s (ETSI) technical specification for consumer IoT security63.
In this context, we further stress the need for national cybersecurity agencies(NCAs) to align at international level, to ensure their action plans are coherent with each other. Agencies should oversee the nation-wide cybersecurity
strategy agenda, covering every aspect including prevention, detection, andresponse. At the same time, the G20 should ensure that NCAs have the correct governance, mandate and execution/enforcement rights enabling themto effectively act on the whole spectrum of their tasks.
NCAs should also enhance companies understanding on cybersecurity issues
and prevention methods with dedicated programs such as Singaporean SG
Cyber Safe Program, a concerted effort by the Government to help enterprises better protect themselves in the digital domain and raise their cybersecurity posture64.
Furthermore, to ensure prompt coordination and faster responses to cyberattacks, the G20 should consider more effective data sharing both withinregional organizations and at international level.
Finally, the G20 should champion the implementation of shared norms, rules,
and principles of responsible state behavior in cyberspace as adopted by consensus in the March 2021 UN General Assembly First Committee65 to promote
cybersecurity and reduce cyber risk for all stakeholders. UN’s Member Statesagreed that the existing acquis for responsible state behavior in cyberspace
fully apply. They also endorsed recognition of further obligations for countries
to promote international peace and security in the online environment.
The implementation of these norms however remains rather incomplete.
The result is an increase in both costs and risks for businesses and other stakeholders. The G20 should lead by example and commit to fully implementing rules and principles resulting in responsible state behavior and periodically review progess, also calling on non-G20 countries to do the same.

OECD, Global Forum on Digital Security for Prosperity, 2021
OECD, Enhancing the Digital Security of Products: A Policy Discussion, 2021
Singapore Ministry of Communications and Information, keeping our digital spaces safe, 2020
65
Foley Hoag, United Nations Working Group Approves Cybersecurity Report: what is it and what are the
Implications?, 2021
62

63

64

31

B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONThe G20 should promote the adoption of risk-based technical and procedural security approaches to safeguard critical activities, services, and infrastructures on a sector-by-sector basis; protection should also be set for
consumer-facing technologies, also considering the imperative protection ofminors and least skilled users
G20 countries should engage in developing a comprehensive international
approach to map national critical infrastructure and essential services, withthe goal of assigning them specific priorities in terms of cyber protection.
Critical assets and infrastructures should be defined accordingly to theircontribution and importance regarding national wealth creation and individual safety preservation. In this regard, The Network and Information Security (NIS) Directive (EU 2016/1148)66, which is currently67 under update by
the European Commission, provides a preliminary definition of the criteria
to be used to identify critical and essential services at the national level: (i)the entity provides a service which is essential for the maintenance of critical societal/economic activities; (ii) the provision of that service depends on
network and information systems; and (iii) a security incident has significant
disruptive effects on the provision of the related essential services.
The consequent process of setting up a comprehensive framework would require68 Governments to:(i) Identify critical activities working with other public and relevant private
stakeholders;(ii) Provide a list of operators of the identified critical activities;(iii) Encourage cyclical enterprise risk management assessments to identify
the functions that prove essential for operations to run;(iv) Promote the mapping of the entire “digital ecosystem”;(v) Suggest cyclical digital security risk assessments of critical functions, todetermine the level of digital security risk to be reduced, transferred, avoided, and accepted (“risk treatment”)
Based on the assessment of the critical activities and associated risks, Governments should establish the adoption of risk-based technical and procedural
security approaches on a sector-by-sector basis.
In particular, to ensure cyber protection for every citizen, Governments
should set coordinated rules for consumers facing hardware and software’s
protection, where each layer of the value chain should be accountable forthe cybersecurity of its products, services and processes, also taking into
consideration the most vulnerable categories such as minors and less-skilled individuals. Those categories are likely to spend hours connected, lacking
a complete set of competences to support their online presence. Especiallychildren are dramatically increasing their daily screen time usage: with local
lockdowns and sport and activities restrictions, time spent online for children
aged under 12 surged between 50% and 60%, with most of them spending
more than 5 hours per day on smartphones and tablets (excluding homeschooling time)69.
The G20 should therefore focus on implementing harmonized cybersecurity principles and safety measures for private uses, considering the different capabilities of users to understand threats and concerns. Private efforts
should focus primarily on common tools such as social networks, e-mails, ande-commerce websites. Spreading of awareness and sharing of good practices could also significantly improve private users’ online protection.

Directive (EU) 2016/1148 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2016 concerning measures
for a high common level of security of network and information systems across the Union
67
European Commission, Proposal for directive on measures for high common level of cybersecurity across the Union, 2021
68
Further guidance on mapping procedures could be found at OECD, Recommendation of the Council on Digital
Security of Critical Activities, 201969
Forbes, As Kids’ Screen Time Surges During the Pandemic, Here’s What Research Suggests, 2020
66

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B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Policy Action 2.3: Support technological innovation with policies that promote interconnection, interoperability, and the adoption of market-driven, global, open, and voluntary standards and codes of conduct with theaim of fostering usage of cross-domain solutions and data porting
As Digital Transformation accelerates, countries should create policies that
not only address issues at domestic level, but also look towards a coherent
set of standards for interoperability that can enable companies to operate
efficiently in international markets. Countries should promote cross-borderbusiness by adopting global standards, especially when voluntary, multi-stakeholder, consensus-based and transparent guidelines exist. We suggest for
the G20 to focus on the following vector of action:
The G20 should promote the adoption of common technological standards
to foster interoperability and improve companies’ innovation potential andconsumers’ experience, building on the work of international standard-setting bodies and industry consortia in line with WTO’s Technical Barriers To
Trade
The latest advancements in technology have driven the evolution of manufacturing architectures into integrated networks of automation devices, services, and enterprises. One of the resulting challenges is the increased needfor interoperability of different sensors and systems across all the levels of
the industrial ecosystem.
Successful implementation of interoperability in smart manufacturing would
result in effective communication and error-free data-exchange across technologies and platforms. A significant challenge is harmonizing architectures and systems that are used by machines and software packages70.
The G20 should therefore promote the development of the industrial internet by supporting the adoption of global standards for technologies, such as
3GPP, to ensure interoperability.
Voluntary consensus-based global standards can be developed starting fromalready-established and market-driven initiatives including frameworks developed through public-private partnerships convened by recognized international and national institutes of standardization such as the US National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) frameworks, Open Platform
Communications (OPC) foundation approaches, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards, industrial consortium led programs or relevant European standardization organizations.
By fostering collaboration between existing initiatives both from private andpublic sector, G20 countries should ensure that standardization approaches
are based on actual business necessities, avoid creating stricter bureaucracy
and are oriented towards facilitating access to technologies. To do so, theG20 should build on the work of international standard-setting bodies andindustry consortia, in line with the WTO’s TBT71 Agreement.
Finally, policy makers should continue to ensure technology-neutral regulations. It is crucial to promote market-based competition, where merits oftechnical performance and the competitiveness of different solutions andnetwork architectures drive market outcomes, and companies maintain theability to make their own unrestricted investment choices.

Interoperability in Smart Manufacturing: Research Challenges, MDPI, 2019
World Trade Organization, Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement, 1995

70
71

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Recommendation 3 – Support Public and Private Digital Advantage:
Foster Governments' and companies' responsible development and deployment of digital technologies, by leveraging public and private cooperation in
R&D, promoting investments and effective use cases sharing

Policy Actions
3.1 Strengthen long-term public involvement to stimulate R&D in newtechnologies, while ensuring a fruitful cooperation with the private sector and promoting responsible, sustainable, human-centered, and market-driven development
3.2 Facilitate investments in digital technologies (HW, SW) and reorganization processes that enhance companies' and Governments' technological development and cyber protection, by leveraging effective andnon-market distorting funding schemes, providing technical advisory
services, and stimulating use case sharing, especially for MSMEs
Leading Monitoring KPI - Owner: G20 Countries

Baseline

Target% ICT Investments on GDP
Source: World Bank

5.2%
(2019)

6.5%(2024)SDG impacted:
Recommendation 3 contributes to the achievement of UN’s SDG for the goals 8: Decent Work and Economic growth, 9: Industry Innovation and Infrastructure, 14: Life Below Water, 15: Life on Land, 17: Partnership for the Goals.
Policy Action 3.1, strengthening long-term public involvement to stimulate
R&D and ensuring a continuous and fruitful cooperation with the private sector would benefit target 9.5 “Enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities of industrial sectors in all countries”. Moreover, fostering advancements in digital technologies and applications such as Big Data,
would contribute to target 17.18 calling for an increase in the availability ofdata for monitoring the SDGs.
Policy Action 3.2, conveying incentives to companies’ technology and cybersecurity development efforts, would increase countries’ digital advantage acting on targets 8.2, focused on achieving higher levels of productivity
through technological innovation.
Policy Action 3.2 would additionally act on targets 9.1 and 9.4, oriented
towards building resilient and sustainable infrastructures. Nurturing use
cases sharing within relevant industries would support new technology development, knowledge acquisition and best practices accessibility, even for
MSMEs, thus, supporting a more inclusive innovation and ultimately benefitting target 9.2 aimed at promoting inclusive industrialization. Finally, developing more sustainable digital solutions would further contribute to targets
14.1 and 14.2 aimed at preventing and reducing marine and coastal pollution,
also impacting targets 15.1, 15.2, 15.3 and 15.4 oriented towards ensuring landpreservation and biodiversity conservation.
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G20 Italy Priorities:
Recommendation 3 commits towards the realization of all three pillars of theG20 Italian Presidency, namely People, Prosperity and Planet.
First, Policy Action 3.1 would insist on granting a supportive environment for
R&D to flourish, leading to the production of sustainable products and services which will reduce harmful effects on the Planet.
Second, Policy Action 3.2, by increasing public and private entities’ technological advantage would lead to higher productivity and efficiency acrosssectors benefitting Prosperity. Finally, fostering use cases and best practices
sharing, it would enable better market inclusivity for MSMEs but also more
distributed knowledge across and within industries, leading to the development and industrialization of advanced products and services which will better serve People needs.

Context
New digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Internet ofThings, Cloud, Edge and Quantum Computing, are rising globally at an unprecedented pace, creating exciting opportunities for services and businessmodels that lead innovation.
The Artificial Intelligence market is expected to grow nearly 8 times from2017 to 2025, reaching a size of USD 4.5 Tn72. A larger adoption of Artificial
Intelligence will not be bound to a single sector but will promote efficiency
and effectiveness across industries.
Exhibit 6 | A.I. will enable the development of different use cases
across industries (illustrative)

1. Market defined as global revenue for artificial intelligence systems in healthcare; Frost and Sullivan (6.7 B USD by 2021), Markets and Markets (8 B USD by2022), Global Market Insights (10 B USD by 2024)
2. Microsoft 2019 Manufacturing Trends Report
3. Prescient and Strategic Intelligence Report "Artificial Intelligence in Transportation Market", March 2018
Source: Gartner; Statista

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Gartner, Statista, 201935

B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONAs the collection and analysis of personal and corporate data grows, ethical and trust concerns emerge too. On this regard, regulators have endorsed
ethical and trust-orienting AI principles in the past years, as also pointed out
in the 2019 G20 Osaka’s Leaders’ Declaration. The declaration suggests thata responsible development and use of AI can be a driving force to help advance the SDGs and to realize a sustainable and inclusive society. Moreover,the statement commits to human-centered approach to AI and welcomes
non-binding G20 AI Principles73.
Governments are now facing new complex challenges: translating AI principles into clear and actionable regulatory principles, favoring customer
protection and data privacy, while preserving innovation and technologicaladvancement, also leveraging on existing national plans, strategies, and roadmaps for AI proposed by the OECD74.
While the overall objective is clear and shared, as of today there is no common regulatory approach on AI development, and countries are approaching
the subject differently.
Exhibit 7 | Countries approachon regulatory principles
example: Artificial Intelligence

Source: Press Releases 2017-2020

Digital readiness of firms and Public Administrations is not always homogenous between and within countries, markets and competitive fields. Furthermore, many firms struggled to keep pace with global technological advancements even before the pandemic. COVID-19 has only exacerbated theurgency of firms to embrace Digital Transformation in the short-term, andfurther widened the digital divide.
On the one hand, 75% of executives76 of large corporations perceive Digital Transformation as more urgent considering the current crisis, with 65%
saying they would prioritize their spending on it as a critical response to thepandemic. On the other, in smaller and less international realities such as
MSMEs, the situation is different. Companies still lack understanding of andawareness on Digital Transformation’s advantages, and thus struggle to effectively deploy emerging technologies. For example, 43% of European SMEs
are still unsure about the benefits arising from technological advancements76.

G20 2019 Japan, G20 Osaka Leaders' Declaration
OECD, Examples of AI National Policies, Report for the G20 Digital Economy Taskforce Saudi Arabia, 2020
BCG, The Evolving State of Digital Transformation, 202076
European Digital SME, European SME survey, 2019
73

36

74

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Exhibit 8 | 43% of SMEs surveyed
remains unsure on the impact ofdigital on businessNote: Share of SMEs which disagree or agree with the statement "All in all, digitalization will have a positive impact on our company's business"
Source: European SME survey 2019, conducted on 500 companies by country belonging to France, Germany, Poland, Spain, and United Kingdom having 20-249 employers; Future of Jobs Survey 2020, World Economic Forum

For all companies, regardless of their size, keeping the pace with technological advancements also implies ensuring cyber protection for all of their employees and clients.
Cybercrime is predicted to cost the world USD 6 Tn in 2021, nearly doubling
the USD 3 Tn observed in 201577. Companies, especially MSMEs, often lackthe necessary skills to keep up with the latest security standards and procedures, risking leaving consumers and value chains unguarded.
The limited availability of cybersecurity resources can also be attributed to
the worldwide deficit in cybersecurity competences and skills, resulting in 4
Mn cybersecurity jobs gap in 2019. Data suggests that the global cybersecurity workforce needs to grow 89% to effectively defend organizations’ criticalassets78.
Finally, countries are tackling post-COVID-19 recovery plans with different
approaches, but the importance of Digital Transformation to face futurechallenges is widely considered a top priority.
As a reference, The Korean Digital New Deal promotes Digital Transformation with four main objectives: (i) Stronger integration of data, network andArtificial Intelligence throughout the economy; (ii) Digitalization of the education infrastructure; (iii) Enhanced “untact”79 industry including supporting
online activities of micro-businesses and promoting remote working among
SMEs; (iv) Digitalization of Social Overhead Capital (SOC) which includes
adding digital innovations to urban spaces and building smart logistics anddistribution systems80.
In this context, to assist the G20 in enhancing business resilience and foster
technological investments, we recommend the following two policy actions:• Strengthen long-term public involvement to stimulate R&D in new technologies, while ensuring a fruitful cooperation with the private sector and promoting responsible, sustainable, human-centered, and market-driven development;

Cybersecurity Ventures, Cybercrime To Cost The World $10.5 Trillion Annually By 2025, 2020
ISC cybersecurity workforce study, 2020
79
The term describes doing things without direct contact with others, such as using self-service kiosks, shopping
online or making contactless payments, BBC, The South Koreans left behind in a contact-free society, 2020
80
UNDP Seoul Policy Centre for Knowledge Exchange through SDG Partnerships, Korean New Deal for the
post-COVID-19 era, 2020
77

78

37

B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION• Facilitate investments in digital technologies (HW, SW) and reorganization
processes that enhance companies' and Governments' technological development and cyber protection, by leveraging effective and non-market distorting funding schemes, providing technical advisory services, and stimulating use case sharing, especially for MSMEs.
Policy Action 3.1: Strengthen long-term public involvement to stimulate
R&D in new technologies, while ensuring a fruitful cooperation with theprivate sector and promoting responsible, sustainable, human-centered,and market-driven development
Efforts in R&D are essential to stimulate innovation and represent the foundation to design and develop new products and services. To properly recoverfrom the pandemic, R&D must thrive in the global landscape, but countries
still have widely different levels of R&D intensity (intended as the percentage
of country GDP allocated to R&D)81. Therefore, it appears critical that G20
members drive R&D forward by leveraging two main dimensions:
The G20 should endorse digital R&D efforts and focus on fostering public- private cooperation aimed at promoting business-relevant technologicaladvancements that enhance productivity and add social value
G20 members must develop and / or formalize consistent and effective
R&D national agendas with the goal of improving the conditions to innovate in each country. Agendas should include specific targets for R&D intensity, clear policies on how to promote and support private R&D investments (e.g., procurement programs, grants, R&D tax credits), and rigorous
accountability and governance mechanisms.
The G20 must focus on increasing countries’ R&D intensity by spending higher percentages of GDP in a conscious manner with the aim of funding
research, innovation and supporting Digital Transformation. Governments should also guarantee that R&D spending grows equally across all fourmain institutional sectors, namely business enterprise, government, higher
education, and non-profit sector. Globally, over the past five years, only business enterprise recorded a positive trend82.
Governments should also ensure that R&D efforts effectively translate into
tangible impacts, are close to market technologies and contribute to generate market-ready products and services.
To promote a business-driven approach to R&D, G20 members should create platforms, contests, events, to foster public-private cooperation andleverage public-owned competence centers. Governments must also take
into account how innovation happens in the modern economy, providing
incentives also to facilitate purchases of intangible assets and services suchas data sets, data analytics and cloud computing tools.
To further foster innovation, it is important to provide the correct development ground for start-ups and to include them as important actors in the
R&D national agendas. Indeed, they cover 20% of the employment acrossOECD countries83, and represent a strong catalyst for innovation and new
products or services development.

The World Bank, Research and development expenditure (% of GDP), 2020
Eurostat, Europe Indicators on R&D and Innovation, 2020
DynEmp: Measuring Job Creation by Start-ups and young firms, 2020

81

38

82

83

B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONThe G20 should ensure an ethical and responsible development and deployment of Artificial Intelligence, building on existing national policies and encouraging international cooperation
Regulatory approaches governing the development and use of technologies
such as Artificial Intelligence need to be defined in a systematic, risk-based,
and methodical way, with contributions from all involved stakeholders.
A structured and data-driven dialogue between industrial sectors and governments would enable coordination and consistency across borders, leading
to more attractive outcomes also for consumers. Industry and governments
must also work together to effectively communicate the benefits of AI to citizens and businesses, especially MSMEs, to build trust by countering disinformation, and to promote its uptake across sectors.
Therefore, the G20 should focus on finding consensus around AI foundational concepts, management principles, and governance practices, also keeping guidelines flexible to fit a wide variety of contexts without creating unnecessary barriers to trade. Existing efforts in identifying proper guidelines,
such as Singaporean Artificial Intelligence Ethics and Governance Body ofKnowledge84, could be taken as inspiration.
On this, the G20 should build on existing international working groups suchas the OECD Network of Experts on AI (ONE AI) or UNESCO efforts85 withthe goal of enhancing collaboration practices. AI applications should also not
be limited by over-regulated environments and efforts should focus on addressing potential regulatory gaps rather than duplicating existing requirements.
Policy Action 3.2: Facilitate investments in digital technologies (HW, SW)
and reorganization processes that enhance companies' and Governments' technological development and cyber protection, by leveraging effective and non-market distorting funding schemes, providing technicaladvisory services, and stimulating use case sharing, especially for MSMEs
Business resilience has been deemed one of the core priorities after the
pandemic outbreak86. Resilience also represents a driver for value creation,
especially when companies outperform their peers during difficult times andothers lose ground or fail. During COVID-19, Digital Transformation has been
key to ensure adequate preparedness and cushion shocks87 highlighting evenmore the urgency of supporting investments in the digital field. Therefore,
we suggest the G20 to act along the following four dimensions:
The G20 should facilitate companies' and governments' Digital Transformation enhancing public - private cooperation and raising awareness on channels / criteria to access public funding, while also facilitating MSMEs digitaladvancements by exploiting competence centers and innovation hubs advisory
G20 countries should define national strategic roadmaps to support private
and public sectors’ technology adoption. Interventions should focus on polices aiming at facilitating Digital Transformation investments, also by establishing voucher schemes and easier and favorable access to loans for innovation, and by encouraging the development of innovation-favoring tax policies(especially for MSMEs, which often struggle to innovate due to lower capital
availability).

Singapore Computer Society, Artificial Intelligence Ethics and Governance Body of Knowledge, 2021
UNESCO official Site, Ethics for AI, accessed 2021
86
BCG, The Digital Path to Business Resilience, 2020
87
BCG, How Bionic Companies Translate Digital Maturity into Performance, 2020
84
85

39

B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONThe G20 should also strengthen the awareness on the opportunities available
to firms in terms of investments support, funds and grants. This would include considering developing communication strategies and building digitalplatforms aimed at clearly specifying channels, criteria, and requirements forcompanies to access specific subsidies or support.
However, countries should also offer advisory and consulting services tofirms, in particular MSMEs, on digital technologies. In this context, the G20
should promote public - private cooperation, leveraging on existing competence centers and innovation hubs.
A practical example is provided by the Singaporean “SMEs Go Digital program” offering supporting tools to facilitate SMEs’ digital transition, including a wide range of initiatives to meet the digitalization needs at different
stages of growth and maturity. The Singapore Government also introduced
the Chief Technology Officer-as-a-Service initiative to provide SMEs withquick access to a shared pool of skilled digital consultants88.
The G20 should support businesses in using technical security standards byfacilitating investments and promoting cybersecurity-related information
sharing, as well as building cybersecurity competences for private and public
stakeholders by investing in human capital and promoting ad-hoc education
Cybersecurity concerns are rising, especially for MSMEs89, and as a result,companies’ spending on this area last year grew 2.4% reaching USD 123.8 Bn.
Nevertheless, this growth rate is significantly lower compared with the 8.7%
growth between 2018 and 201990.
As organizations are more connected than ever, any exposure to cyber risk
can result in a breach with potential knock-on effects on their entire value
chain. Thus, it is critical that the G20 supports companies in their effort toachieve adequate security levels.
The G20 should promote the use of cybersecurity certifications. In this regard, the G20 should strengthen and streamline the voluntary basis of suchcertification schemes, also leveraging regulatory proposals about mutual recognition among companies and promoting harmonization among countries
to guarantee a high level of cybersecurity throughout the entire value chain.
Software and hardware manufacturers as well as service providers (both interms of support and operations) should be subject to the same regulatory
requirements, driven by clear incentives to provide end-to-end security tousers. This is necessary due to the importance of both software and hardware protection in ensuring high standards of cybersecurity at all stages of the
product and service lifecycle.
At the same time, we underline the importance for certification standards
to be mutually recognized among countries to avoid unnecessary and duplicative testing requirements. This could be done through the adoption of
a common international framework that also allows for a discretionary levelof flexibility.
The G20 should work to increase transparency and openness on the elaboration and adoption of cybersecurity schemes and standards for firms, byengaging in a meaningful dialogue with the private sector. Requirements andprocedures should be discussed and reviewed with and within the business
community, to ensure that critical concerns are covered.

Infocomm Media Development Authority, SMEs Go Digital program official website, accessed March 2021
Enisa European SMEs facing increased cyber threats in changing digital landscape, 2020
Gartner, Forecasts Worldwide Security and Risk Management Spending Growth to Slow but Remain Positive in
2020, 2020
88

40

89

90

B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONThe G20 should also promote cybersecurity to become a priority for organizations by facilitating investments and efforts in the field. Providing appropriate incentives to stakeholders to manage cybersecurity risks and increase
market transparency could encourage innovation in risk management practices. In this regard, the G20 could leverage public mechanisms such as investments subsidies, tax incentives, and vouchers.
The G20 should also support efforts to enhance network security by facilitating information sharing for private and public entities. Connecting withsimilar firms, reading about real episodes, and learning to identify vulnerabilities, would increase global awareness on best practices along the whole
spectrum of cybersecurity: prevention, detection, mitigation, and response.
This would also foster equality and fair access to knowledge and resources byless capitalized companies – mainly MSMEs – which could encounter greaterdifficulties in preventing cyberattacks.
However, focusing only on technical aspects is not enough to prevent rising
cybercrimes. Indeed, it is essential to ensure appropriate level of cybersecurity skills and risk management capabilities across all levels of society.
To promote the development of cybersecurity capabilities on a global scale, the G20 should facilitate access of firms and individuals to cybersecurity
education by developing public training portals, facilitating private-led trainings, and partnering with centers of excellence.
The G20 should also establish working groups on cybersecurity skills such theone within the ENISA initiative91 which builds a common understanding ofcybersecurity roles, competences, and knowledge used by individuals, employers and training providers across the EU Member States92.
In the business world, especially within SMEs, cybersecurity is not always considered a priority. However, its growing importance requires companies tochange their attitude. Therefore, we call on the G20 to increase cybersecurity awareness, leveraging business-oriented information campaigns.
The G20 should endorse the development of digital government tools (e.g.,
Digital Identities) and services and support their deployment
Private sector is not the only one to face digital disruption, it is fundamental
to also focus on the Digital Transformation of Public Administrations.
The pandemic is compelling Governments and societies to turn towards digital technologies to respond to the crisis and, consequently, leverage digitalcommunication channels to provide reliable information on global and national COVID-19 developments.
Digital technologies have not been used only for communication purposes:
some Member States recorded an increase in the usage of Public Administration digital services93 such as digital ID and digital signature.
This pattern unveils the trend towards a digitization of public processes andcitizen-government interactions, with positive externalities both in the speedof services and in the reduction of ineffective bureaucracy constraints.

91
92

Referring to Enisa Ad-Hoc Working Group on the European Cybersecurity Skills Framework
Enisa site Cybersecurity Education Database, accessed February 2020
UN, COVID-19 Pushing More Government Activities Online Despite Persistent Digital Divide, 2020

9341

B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

We believe that the G20 should build on this increase in citizens’ consumption of digital services to address further challenges and ensure the adoptionof advanced digital public services such as Digital Identities for citizens.
The benefits of Digital Identity solutions include94: (i) High standards for accuracy and better compliance; (ii) Enhanced security, as obsolete security
features are removed; (iii) Better customer experience, through faster turnaround times and fewer interactions.
Digital Identities, while facilitating communications between Public Administrations and citizens for typical activities such as tax monitoring and payment, access to personal medical information, and general interaction with
Public Administrations, could also serve as a critical tool to sustain e-government development on sensitive features such as digital voting.
Therefore, we call on the G20 to explore opportunities for extended implementation of this solution, while keeping into consideration the need for suchmechanisms to be implemented in a harmonized, mutually recognized framework on a global scale.
The G20 should step up the building of digital government by also speedingup the establishment of public decision-making systems assisted by digitaltechnology. Promoting public data sharing in a safe and open way and improving the capacity for early warning and emergency response, would improvethe decision-making process, increase service efficiency, and speed up thedevelopment of new technologies and e-government services.
The G20 should encourage the development of open-source platforms tofacilitate use cases sharing, also considering the appointment of an international working group responsible for creating a comprehensive and accessible digital use cases library
As already mentioned, even though Digital Transformation is considereda priority for economic and industrial development, many firms, especiallysmall and medium enterprises, have limited awareness and understanding of
possible use cases and benefits deriving from technologies implementation.
The G20 should promote use case sharing across firms and industries by providing them collaborative online platforms and fora to share Digital Transformation experiences and best practices.
We encourage the G20 to build on previous efforts. The Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy (STIP) Compass95, a web-based platform that collects quantitative and qualitative data on national trends in science, technology, and innovation policy, could serve as inspiration. The portal supports
the continuous monitoring and analysis of countries' STI policies, facilitatesknowledge exchange and can underpin fruitful collaboration across countries and regions.
Another example of valuable resource for knowledge exchange and collaboration is the OECD AI Policy Observatory96 which provides data and multidisciplinary analysis on AI, including live metrics, living repositories of policy
initiatives and deep analysis of policy issues.
In order to grant the provisions of such platforms, the G20 could appoint a
specific entity in charge of building and updating a comprehensive and accessible digital use-cases library.

Refinitiv Database, The benefits of Digital Identity Solutions, 2019
OECD Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy Compass, accessible at https://stip.oecd.org/stip.html
OECD, AI Policy Observatory available at www.oecd.ai

94

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Recommendation 4 - Foster a Digital Readyand Inclusive Society:
Address the existing digital skills gap in the private and public sector by mapping current shortages, up/re-skilling individuals, updating education curricula and encouraging a mindful usage of technologies

Policy Actions
4.1 Define national strategies to address digital skills gap in private andpublic sectors, also ensuring that efforts and investments are channeledtowards top priorities to grant new job opportunities in all sectors
4.2 Improve provision of digital skills at schools and universities to promote the creation of a digital-ready workforce, able to harness the powerof digital technologies while recognizing the associated risk

Leading Monitoring KPI - Owner: G20 Countries

Baseline

Target% STEM Graduates over Total Graduates
Source: OECD, EUROSTAT

24%(2018)

30%(2024)SDG impacted:
Recommendation 4 contributes to the achievement of UN’s SDG 4: Quality
Education; 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth; 9: Industry Innovation
and Infrastructure; and 10: Reduced Inequalities.
Policy Action 4.1 aims at reducing the current digital skill gap by training andeducating workers and individuals. Both processes will support the improvement of labor conditions across sectors, contributing to the achievement oftarget 8.3. Moreover, Policy Action 4.1 focuses on enhancing Public Administration’s digital skills to set the foundation for a comprehensive digitizationof public services, assisting the accomplishment of targets 8.3, 9.1 and 9.5.
Policy Action 4.2 calls for the reform of education curricula with the aim ofincluding the digital skills required to address the needs of the forthcoming
digital workforce, contributing to target 4.4 oriented towards increasing thenumber of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical andvocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship.
Ensuring the creation of a competent digital workforce in the future support
the achievement of targets 8.1, 8.2, 9.1, and 9.5. Finally, Policy Action 4.2 calls
for the urgency of ensuring equal access to digital and technology trainings
to all, covering target 10.2 aimed at empowering and promoting social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race,
ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status”.

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G20 Italy Priorities:
Recommendation 4 builds upon two of the three principles of the G20 ItalianPresidency: People and Prosperity.
Policy Actions 4.1 and 4.2 both aim at enhancing opportunities for the development of People on a global scale, by increasing digital readiness of private
and public entities, while also promoting fair and inclusive digital education
among communities and stakeholders. Moreover, the increased awarenesson digital opportunities, amplifying the chance to boost digital offer, fosters
growth opportunities and global Prosperity.

Context
Digital skills have become crucial to properly master cutting-edge technologies. As innovative solutions are increasingly adopted among sectors, managing digital tools effectively results vital to fit the current working environment. The ability to connect and engage in digital activities is becoming
pivotal for personal life too, given that governments and other public institutions are steadily moving towards digital solutions.
The lack of technical and digital skills – especially at the basic level – could
seriously threaten the possibility to engage meaningfully in social activities,
raising concerns for social inclusion.
It is thus critical that people, supported by both businesses and governments,
act timely to strengthen their digital skills, and benefit from the opportunities generated by Digital Transformation. Nowadays, nearly 60% of workers
believe that digital will eventually impact their jobs, and already two out offive employees are affected by skills mismatches97. Furthermore, heavy imbalances among countries’ digital literacy exist, as also highlighted by the variability of the European Commission’s Human Capital and Digital Skills Index98.
Exhibit 9 | Human Capital andDigital Skills of the Digital Economy& Society Index (2020)

Note: DESI Human Capital Dimension calculated as the weighted average ofthe two sub-dimensions: 2a Internet User Skills (50%) and 2b Advanced Skills
and Development (50%)
Source: Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) 2020, European Commission

Organization for economic Co-operation and Development, the International Labor Organization, and theWorld Bank, 2020
98
European Commission, Digital Economy and Society (DESI) Index, 2020
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Digital automation, in tandem with the COVID-19 recession, is creating a‘double-disruption’ for workers: first, the current shock has increased theadoption of smart working practices (involving up to 44% of the total workforce99), and second, automation has started to transform tasks and required skills. In such a dynamic, rapidly shifting scenario, the capability of companies and individuals to up- or re-skill becomes an utmost priority.
Indeed, 84% of employers are set to rapidly digitalize business processes.
However, significant skills gaps currently limit corporate innovation and its
benefits.
Exhibit 10 | Predicted rising shareof automation and skills gaps inlocal labor market

Source: Future of Jobs Survey 2020, World Economic ForumThe workforce is not the only stakeholder affected, as significant disparities
in terms of digital literacy also involve the population at large. For example,
42% of European citizens lack basic digital skills100. To create a digital inclusive
society, it is important to address the existing gaps between genders and age
groups, which have been further widened by the COVID-19 pandemic101.
Furthermore, rethinking digital education must become a priority for policy
makers for two reasons: first, the role of education is a prerequisite for future
global competitiveness; second, only a fair education system can provide theright preconditions for social inclusion in the digital era.
Digital literacy does not have to be limited to technical and practical capabilities but should focus also on soft skills, especially for the youngest. As of today, one third of internet users is a child102. Children spend on average moretime on the internet browsing social media, playing games, and using mobile
apps, frequently without the supervision of adults. Hence, efficient responses are needed to prevent adverse effects on their cognitive, social, and emotional development.
To narrow down the digital skill gap, also to ensure the digital readiness of the
future workforce, we propose two main Policy Actions:• Define national strategies to address digital skills gap in private and public
sectors, also ensuring that efforts and investments are channeled towards
top priorities to grant new job opportunities in all sectors;• Improve provision of digital skills at schools and universities to promote theWorld Economic Forum, Future of Jobs Report, 2020
European Commission, Digital skills, and jobs coalition, 2021
The Guardian, everything has been pushed back: how Covid-19 is dampening tech's drive for gender parity, 2020
102
UNICEF, The State of the world’s children report, 2019
99

100
101

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creation of a digital-ready workforce, able to harness the power of digitaltechnologies while recognizing the associated risk;
Policy Action 4.1: Define national strategies to address digital skills gap
in private and public sectors, also ensuring that efforts and investments
are channeled towards top priorities to grant new job opportunities in all
sectors
The COVID-19 pandemic has further underlined the importance of widespread digital capabilities among the whole population. The progressive
transformation of industries will require re-skilling and up-skilling to moveworkers towards new competences and innovative professions. Empowering
people with the right set of skills to fit a rapidly changing environment is ashared responsibility of Governments and business.
Although new technologies will change some occupations, they will improve
the quality of work by allowing humans to focus more on strategic, value-creating, and personally rewarding tasks103.
Indeed, Digital Transformation will enable companies to automate non-value-adding tasks. Organizations will need to transform roles and responsibilities to reflect the new working environment.
Breaking down a job into its constituent tasks allows organizations to build adetailed and practical profile for the job role showing the tasks that can be
replaced or augmented by technologies104, and granting the opportunity for
their employees to focus on value adding activities.
G20 countries should enhance digital skills of individuals, also focusing on
reducing generational and gender gaps to eliminate inequalities and reducesocial discrepancies. Prompt action is required along two main vectors:
The G20 should map digital competences building on existing frameworks
and promote the development of national digital skills strategies defining
priorities, action plans and required investments, while considering companies, especially MSMEs, digital needs in the post COVID-19 era
G20 countries should promote the adoption of globally shared frameworks
to understand and track the current level of digital competences across industries and sectors and should create a common taxonomy on digital skills.
Governments should also engage with the private sector to develop a common directory of careers, with the goal of improving the identification of demand - supply mismatches in the digital labor-market, especially for MSMEs.
We further call on the G20 to build on existing initiatives, combining regional, national and subnational frameworks such as the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s Global Taxonomy105, the Occupational Information Network(O*NET) Taxonomy and the ESCO (European Skills, Competences and Occupations) framework.
Fruitful cooperation between Governments and the private sector was also
provided during the setup of the Singaporean Tech Skills Accelerator (TeSA):
a tripartite initiative by the Government, industry and the National Trades
Union Congress (NTUC) to build a skilled workforce and enhance employability of individuals106.

BCG, The Future of Jobs in the Era of AI, March 2021
A guide to job redesign in the age of AI, Personal Data Protection Commission Singapore, Infocomm MediaDevelopment Authority Singapore, Singapore University of Technologies
105
World Economic Forum (WEF), Building a common framework for Skills at Work: A Global Taxonomy, 2021
103

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B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

When establishing global frameworks, Governments must ensure that taxonomies, instruments, and tools, are equally implementable across different
geographies, regardless of political, socio-economic and financial conditions.
Once current digital skills gaps are identified, the G20 should build strategies aimed at defining key stakeholders, priorities, action plans and required
investments. Even in this context, the G20 could consider existing initiatives such as the ITU Digital Skills Toolkit107, which provides policymakers withpractical information, examples, and step-by-step guidance to develop national digital skills strategies.
The G20 should embrace policies to promote trainings and continuous education to enable the up/re-skilling of individuals, in private and public sector,
and ensure that everyone benefits from Digital Transformation, including
creating new job opportunities in all sectors, also addressing gender and generational gaps in technology usage / proficiency
G20 members should define national strategies for the development of digital competences, also leveraging the up- and re-skilling of individuals. Strategies should be designed in order to address domestic and international skills
gaps and mismatches. Investment plans should be defined consistently, avoiding disparities across countries.
Exhibit 11 | Public expenditureon training programs for active
workforce as % of GDP

Source: OECD Libraries, 2015

Moreover, increasing the digital literacy of Public Administrations should bea priority to enable comprehensive e-government systems. The G20 should
deploy cross-country public trainings and content-sharing platforms for Public Administrations’ employees to facilitate access to digital education, while maintaining a common direction among different countries, also appointing authoritative governance entities to periodically monitor the curriculaand effectiveness of those trainings.
In parallel, G20 members should ensure that local Public Administrations
have adequate budget to encourage the development of digital skills even inremote municipalities and promote sharing of e-government use cases.
Finally, empowering workers in both private and Public Administration is notenough to solve the digital divide. Addressing also the most marginalizedgroups - such as the elderly - is of primary importance as well.

Infocomm Media Development Authority Singapore, official website, accessed March 2020
International Telecommunication Union, Digital Skills Toolkit, 2018

106
107

47

B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

To do so, the G20 should promote knowledge diffusion with the aim of helping them to adapt to a digital society by improving their digital skills andliteracy, as well as increasing their risk awareness while navigating the cyber
space.
Policy Action 4.2: Improve provision of digital skills at schools and universities to promote the creation of a digital-ready workforce, able to harness the power of digital technologies while recognizing the associatedrisk
Digital technology penetration is growing with significant speed, but theeducation system is often unable to keep the same pace.
Digital skills, including technical capabilities such as programming, digital responsibility and practical usage of technologies and tools, have been deemedas one of the eight critical areas when defining high-quality learning108. It ispivotal that G20 countries ensure that students, from kindergarten to university, have access to proper schooling and education to sustain the impactof a changing scenario. Therefore, we suggest to the G20 three areas of intervention:
The G20 should update educational programs to include digital topics intheir curricula, considering the skills requirements of the public and private
sector, while reducing gender inequalities in technology and digital education
The G20 should ensure that school and universities curricula are updated toreflect the needs of the evolving digital age, promoting the development ofbasic ICT skills and digital competences. A stronger coordination between
education systems and the private sector should be encouraged to ensurethat school programs are aligned with business necessities and future working opportunities.
The G20 should also support the sharing of knowledge (through international fora or global debates) on digital education to improve the diffusion andadoption of success models across different countries. At the same time, at
national level, domestic Education Ministries can play a pivotal role in fostering technological skills. We encourage members to build on existing initiatives and programs, such as the Artificial Intelligence and Robots Competition
Series launched by the United Arab Emirates Education Ministry, involving
over 3,000 youth annually in national and international robotics, programming and technology competitions109.
Moreover, we call on the G20 to ensure global coordination aimed at establishing equal opportunities for all (e.g., women remain under-represented
across the digital sectors110). Effective digital education action plans should
reduce inequalities by developing policies to create equal access to skilling
opportunities for all genders, ethnicities, and socioeconomical statuses.
The G20 should promote the effective usage of digital equipment for educational purposes to improve students' learning experience, also enhancing
teachers' digital proficiency
We believe that G20 should not only reform educational programs’ curricula, but also reshape the way education is provided to students, further
boosting their capabilities in interacting with technology. This requires
sound polices and investments to boost the role of the technology as a key
learning enabler.

World Economic Forum, Schools of the Future Report, 2019
United Arab Emirates Ministry of Education, National Championship of Series of Artificial Intelligence andRobotics Competitions concludes, 2020
110
World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report, 2020
108

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B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

In order to achieve this, G20 members should not limit their effort in providing access to software and devices to students, but also promote teachers’ trainings on digital tools and learning methods.
In developing comprehensive ICT competency polices for teachers, G20
should leverage on already established frameworks such as UNESCO ICT
Competency Framework111 or The Teaching AI for K-12 working group: aone-stop repository of resources to help curriculum developers and teachers to better understand the promise and implications of Artificial Intelligence112.
Digitization and enhancement of digital capabilities should not regard
tech-related subjects only, but act as a transversal enabler to improve learning experience across subjects. To achieve this, teachers should be engaged in boosting the adoption of technological tools and devices, thus
enabling students to progressively gain competences and confidence when
dealing with digital tasks and instruments.
The G20 should endorse the development of soft digital skills to create
proficient and responsible digital citizens, in particularly children, aware ofdigital-related risks and able to safely navigate online (e.g., critical thinking
to recognize online misinformation, avoid cyberbullying and hate speech)
Digital solutions are spreading across every aspect of our daily lives andsocial interactions. The digitization of children’s skills holds tremendous potential but carries also threats. The OECD113 identifies different typologies
of risk involved for children in the digital environment: (i) Content Risk, (ii)
Conduct Risk, (iii) Contact Risk, and (iv) Consumer Risk.
Traditional concerns – such as cyberbullying or exposure to harmful content – have changed in nature but persist. New risks have also recently
emerged, such as disinformation or ‘fake news’ and peer-to-peer uncontrolled interactions. Finally, young users today may face misleading or fraudulent commercial practices and potentially harmful marketing strategies.
Therefore, G20 members should act in close cooperation with educational
institutions of all levels, to make sure those challenges are properly addressed. Tailored programs and open courses represent excellent instruments
to share knowledge and encourage a conscious and responsible usage ofdigital tools.
Finally, as global society undergoes Digital Transformation, children protection is of critical importance because, there is a risk that new technologies and approaches are put in place without properly considering theimpact on the more vulnerable members of society.
Many countries do not have sections on children’s needs and rights in their
National Broadband Plans. This increases the chance that public and private entities will create policies, platforms, and services that are not, by design, suitable and safe for children.
It is fundamental that all children are taught digital skills as part of a strategy to minimize the risks and maximize the opportunities of technology.

Unesco, ICT Competency Framework for Teachers, official site, accessed April 2021
Unesco, Ericsson, Teaching Artificial Intelligence for K-12, official site, accessed April 2021
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Children in the Digital Environment.
Revised Typology of Risks, 2021
111

112

113

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B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

The teaching of digital skills should be part of the school’s core curriculumand should include even soft skills.
To make this possible, the United Nations Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development recommends that leaders from public, private, andcivil sectors implement a digital intelligence framework, leveraging also on
the ones developed by international think-thanks114 covering all aspects ofthe digital environment115.

DQ Institute, Leading Digital Education, Culture, and Innovation for all, official site, accessed April 2021
UN Broadband Commission, Child Online Safety: Minimizing the risk of violence, Abuse and Exploitation
Online, 2019
114

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Annex
Acronyms
AI

Artificial Intelligence

B2B

Business to Business

B2C

Business to Consumer

B20

Business 20

CAGR

Compounded annual growth rate

CYBSI

Cybersecurity Initiative

DDoS

Distributed Denial of Service

ESCO

European Skills, Competences and occupation

ETSI

European Telecommunications Standards

EU

European Union

FDI

Foreign Direct Investment

GDP

Gross Domestic Product

GHG

Greenhouse gases

G20Group of 20

HW

Hardware

ICT

Information Communication Technology

IEC

International Electrotechnical Commission

IEEE

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

IoT

Internet of Things

I4.0

Industry 4.0

IPIntellectual Property

ISO

International Organization for Standardization

ITU

International Telecommunication Union

JSI

Joint Statement Initiative

MBPS

Megabit-per-second

MSMEs

Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises

M2M

Machine-to-Machine

NBPs

National Broadband Plans

NCA

National Cybersecurity Agencies

NIST

National Institute of Standards and Technology

NTUC

National Trades Union Congress

OECD

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

O*NET

Occupational Information Network

OPC

Open Platform Communication

R&D

Research & Development

SDGs

Sustainable Development Goals

SMEs

Small-Medium Enterprises

SOC

Social Overhead Capital

STIP

Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy Compass

SW

Software

TBT

Technical Barrier to Trade

TeSA

Singaporean Tech Skills Accelerator

TF

Task ForceUBB

Ultra Broad BandUN

United Nations

UNFCCC

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

USD

United States Dollar

USFs

Universal Service Funds

WEF

World Economic Forum

3GPP

3rd Generation Partnership Project51

B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

List of Impacted SDG Targets

52

SDG Target

Description

4.4

By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including
technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship7.3

By 2030, double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency

8.1

Sustain per capita economic growth in accordance with national circumstances and, in particular, at least 7 per cent gross domestic product growth per annum in the least developed countries.

8.2

Achieve higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading
and innovation, including through a focus on high-value added and labor-intensive sectors

8.3

Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation,
entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services.

9.1

Develop quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, including regional and transborder infrastructure, to support economic development and human well-being, with a focus onaffordable and equitable access for all

9.c

Significantly increase access to information and communications technology and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries by 2020

9.2

Promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and, by 2030, significantly raise industry's
share of employment and gross domestic product, in line with national circumstances, and double its share in least developed countries.

9.4

By 2030, upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased
resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies andindustrial processes, with all countries taking action in accordance with their respective capabilities

9.5

Enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities of industrial sectors in all countries, in particular developing countries, including, by 2030, encouraging innovation and substantially increasing the number of research and development workers per 1 Mn people and public andprivate research and development spending

10.1

By 2030, progressively achieve and sustain income growth of the bottom 40 per cent of the
population at a rate higher than the national average

10.2

By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective ofage, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status

13.3

Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change
mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning

14.1

By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from landbased activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution

14.2

By 2020, sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems to avoid significant
adverse impacts, including by strengthening their resilience, and take action for their restorationin order to achieve healthy and productive oceans

15.1

By 2020, ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services, in particular forests, wetlands, mountains and drylands, inline with obligations under international agreements

15.2

By 2020, promote the implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests, halt
deforestation, restore degraded forests and substantially increase afforestation and reforestation globally

15.3

By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought, and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world

B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

15.4

By 2030, ensure the conservation of mountain ecosystems, including their biodiversity, in orderto enhance their capacity to provide benefits that are essential for sustainable development

16.3

Promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justicefor all

17.6

Enhance North-South, South-South and triangular regional and international cooperation on
and access to science, technology and innovation and enhance knowledge sharing on mutuallyagreed terms, including through improved coordination among existing mechanisms, in particular at the United Nations level, and through a global technology facilitation mechanism
Fully operationalize the technology bank and science, technology and innovation capacity-building mechanism for least developed countries by 2017 and enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology

17.8

17.16

Enhance the global partnership for sustainable development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the sustainable development goals in all countries, inparticular developing countries

17.18

By 2020, enhance capacity-building support to developing countries, including for least developed countries and small island developing States, to increase significantly the availabilityof high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity,
migratory status, disability, geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national
contexts

Schedule of Taskforce Exchanges
#

Date

Event

LocationTheme1

23/02/2021

TF Videoconference 1

Virtual

Review of 1st Draft Policy Paper2

23/03/2021

TF Videoconference 2

Virtual

Review of 2nd Draft Policy Paper

3

27/04/2021

TF Videoconference 3

Virtual

Review of 3rd Draft Policy Paper

4

01/06/2021

TF Videoconference 4

Virtual

Review of 4th Draft of Policy Paper

5

06/07/2021

TF Videoconference 5

Virtual

Review of final version of Policy Paper

6

7-8 October, 2021

B20 Summit

Hybrid; Rome

Presentation of TF Policy Paper

Distribution of Members
Country#Country#Country#Country

#

Italy

47

France6

Argentina

2

Netherlands

1

Russia

9

Spain

5

Korea South

2

Poland1

USA

7

Brazil4

Singapore

2

Switzerland

1

China

7

Belgium

4

Mexico2

UAE

1

Saudi Arabia

7

Turkey3Australia

1

Hungary

1

United Kingdom 7

Japan

3

Canada1

Indonesia

1GermanySouth Africa

3

India

1

Global1

653

B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Taskforce Members

NameCompany/Organization

Country

DeputySKY Italia

Italy

Roberto Scrivo /Carmen Ruggeri

Diane Wang

DHGate.com

China

Sam HanAmrote Abdella

Microsoft 4 Africa

AfricaCarolyn Nguyen

Klaus Rosenfeld

Schaeffler Group

GermanyPeter Wittig / Eike Todsen

Borje Ekholm

EricssonSwedenErik Ekudden / Mikael Bäck

Hans Paul Buerkner

Boston Consulting Group

GlobalMarc Vos

Dan Bryant

WalmartUSA

Adam Hemphill

Chair
Maximo Ibarra

Co-Chairs

54

B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Members
Name

Company/Organization

Position

Country

Agustín Saenz

Tecnalia

Deputy General Manager

Spain

Ahmed Kouther

Mind Stream GroupCEO & Founder

Saudi Arabia

Alanoud Alqahtani

FixtagChairman, CEO

Saudi Arabia

Alban Schmutz

OVHcloud

VP Business Development & Public Affairs France

Alberto Tripi

Almaviva

Chairman

Italy

Alessandro Bulfon

Fameccanica

General Manager

Italy

Alice Pilia

Conde Nast

Senior Adviser

United Kingdom

Alistair Tebbit

RELX

Head of International Programmes

United Kingdom

Altay Kermooglu

Tofas (Fiat Chrysler Automotive Turkey)

Digital Transformation Manager

TurkeyAlvise Biffi

Secure network

CEO

Italy

Ana Carolina Da Motta Kohlitz

Amazon Web Servicez

Senior Manager Head of Public Policy Brazil

BrazilAndrea Marangione

MaiderCEO

Italy

Andrea Piero Dellorto

Dell'Orto

Executive Vice President

Italy

Antonio Ambrosio

Webuild

Head of Digital, Communication & Identity Italy

Ashley Lumsden

Huawei Technologies

Director of UK Government andPublic Affairs

United Kingdom

Asja Cortellessa

Italian Banking, Insurance and FinanceFederation (FEBAF)

Junior policy adviser

Italy

Barbara Wanner

U.S. Council for International Business

Vice President, ICT Policy

USA

Bongani Dube

Nike

Partner Director

South Africa

Carlo Bardone

NTT Data Italia

Chief Institutional Relations & Business
Development

Italy

Carlo Bozzoli

Enel

Global Chief Information Officer

Italy

Carlo Cavazzoni

Leonardo

Head of Computational R&D - Director of
Italy
the HPC Lab

Carlo Mario Caroni

Electrolux Professional

COO

Italy

Carlos Lopez-Blanco

International Chamber of Commerce

Chairman

Spain

Caterina Bortolini

TIM

Head of Relations with EU andinternational institutions

Italy

Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl

DigitalEurope

Director General

Belgium

Cedrik Neike

Siemens AG

Member of the Managing Boardof Siemens AG

Germany

Chris Wilson

AmazonSenior Manager, Public Policy USA

55

B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

56

Christoph Steck

Telefónica

Public Policy Director

Spain

Claudio Santoianni

Nokia

Marketing & Corporate Affairs - Italy

Italy

Daniel Pujazon

Banco Santander

Digital Policy Lead

Spain

Dario Pagani

Eni

Head of Digital & Information Technology

Italy

David Kovacs

APEC- ECBA Smart Industry Committee

International Director

China

Deep Kapuria

The Hi-Tech Group

ChairmanIndia

Derek O'Halloran

World Economic ForumHead of Digital Economy andTransformation

FranceDiane Wang

DHgateFounder & Chairperson

China

Domenico Favuzzi

Exprivia

Chairman & CEO

Italy

Emmanouil Raptopoulos

SAP Italy

Managing Director

Italy

Enzo Antezza

Antezza GroupCEOGermany

Ercole Botto Poala

Successori Reda

CEO

Italy

Eugenio Capasso

Menarini IFR

Innovation and Program Officer

Italy

Evgeny Melnikov

Russian Union of Industrialists
and Entrepreneurs

First Deputy Chairman of RSPP
RussiaCommittee for International Cooperation

Fabio De Felice

Protom Group

Founder & President

Italy

Fahad Alqahtani

Saudi Aramco

Senior Cybersecurity

Saudi Arabia

Filippo Ligresti

Dell

VP & General Manager

Italy

Flavia Alves

Facebook

Head of International Institutions
and Relations

USA

Francesco Garofalo

Destinazione Basilicata

President

Italy

Gabriele Ferrieri

ANGI - Associazione Nazionale Giovani
Innovatori

President

FranceGhadah Aldabbagh

Al-Dabbagh Group

Head of The Omnipreneurship Lab

Saudi Arabia

Giulio Guadalupi

Vin Service

Managing Director

Italy

Giuseppe Russello

OMER

CEO

Italy

Giuseppe Santoni

Santoni

CEO

Italy

Gustavo Oliveira

UBS

Executive Director

BrazilHana Alsyead

Wujud

Founder & CEO

Saudi Arabia

Hans Lukiman

Ascend Indonesia - Indonesian Chamber ofCommerce & Ind.

Senior Manager

Indonesia

Ilyas Gaynutdinov

Kama Tyres

Deputy Director

RussiaIris Córdoba

Global Sport Innovation Center porweredby Microsoft

General Manager

Spain

Javier Vernengo

FCA Automobiles Argentina SA

External Relations Director Argentina

B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONJean Liu

Didi Chuxing

President

China

Jihen Boutiba Mrad

Union of Mediterranean Confederationsof Enterprises – BUSINESSMED

Secretary General

Tunisia

John Malatesta

Codewise

Chief Executive Officer

PolandJulian DavidTechUKCEO

United Kingdom

Klemens Kober

Association of German Chambers ofIndustry and Commerce (DIHK)

Director Trade Policy

Belgium

Kohei Kubo

Keindaren

Senior Assistant Manager

Japan

Laura Tosto

Datacontact

President and CEO

Italy

Lauren Dawes

GSMA

Director of International Relations

United Kingdom

Lourdes Montenegro

World Benchmarking AllianceLead, Digital Sector Transformation

Netherlands

Luca Callegari

Microsoft

Stu Lead

Italy

Luigi GambardellaOpen Fiber

Head of European Affairs

Belgium

Luis RossanoBlue Quark Group

Founder & CEO

MexicoLynnette Magasa

Boniswa Corporate Solutions

CEOSouth Africa

Makoto Yokozawa

Nomura Research InstituteSenior Consultant

Japan

Marcelo Prim

SENAI

Executive Manager for Innovation andTechnology

BrazilMarco Fracassi

FAMA PLAST

CEO

Italy

Marco Gay

Digital Magics

Amministratore Delegato

Italy

Marco GiordaniMediaset

CFO Mediaset & AD RTI

Italy

María Agustina Briner

UIA - Industrial Chamber of Argentina
Going Global Ventures - Digital Pioneers

Director of Technical Departments

Argentina

Mark Minevich

Network

Chairman President

USA

Martine Allaire

OrangeDirector International Public Affairs

FranceMassimiliano Cipolletta

Gruppo SCAI

Presidente e AD

Italy

Massimiliano Garri

Terna

Chief Innovation & Information Officer

Italy

Massimiliano Santoli

StudioEsse

Managing Partner

Italy

Matteo Lucchi

Eumetra MR

CEO

Italy

Matteo Pertosa

Angel GroupCEO Sitael SpA

Italy

Matthew Devlin

Uber

Head of International Affairs USA

Mattia Macellari

C.A.T.A. Informatica

Commercial Director

Italy

Maxence Demerle

MEDEF

Digital Affaires Director

FranceMichaela Koller

Insurance Europe

Director General

Belgium
57

B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

58

Michelle Chivunga N

Global Policy HouseCEO

United Kingdom

Mikhail Mamonov

JSC Russian Post

Director

RussiaMikhail Petrosyan

Data Economy Russia

Advisor to Director

RussiaMisi Pei

4Paradigm

President

China

Natalia Kuzina

BRT Corriere Espresso

Head of Marketing & Communications

Italy

Nick Ashton-Hart

ICC United Kingdom

Special Adviser, International Internet Policy United Kingdom

Nicolas Oudinot

Guccio Gucci

EVP New Businesses

Italy

Nicole Primmer

Business at OECD (BIAC)

Senior Policy Director - Digital Policy Lead

FranceNicoletta Pia Di Cagno

Snam

Head of Ethics & Antibribery Italy

Nikolai Vinogradov

Moscow Confederation of Industrialists
and Entrepreneurs

Deputy Chairman

RussiaOliver Jacob

TÜV SÜD

CEO Western-Europe

Germany

Oliver Wieck

ICC Germany

Secretary General

Germany

Paolo Errico

Maxfone

CEO

Italy

Patrik Kovacs

Business at OECD

President of SME Committee Hungary

Pier Paolo Tamma

Pirelli

Senior Vice President & Chief
Italy
Digital Officer

Pietro Guindani

Vodafone Italia

Chairman of the Board

Italy

Polina Smaznova

Zyfra

Business Development
Manager

RussiaProvini Andrea

Bracco Imaging

Global Chief Information
OfficerItaly

Qi YinMegvii Technology Limited

Co-Founder and CEO

China

Recaredo Arias

Asociación Mexicana de Instituciones deSeguros

General Director

MexicoRemo Taricani

UniCredit

Co Ceo Commercial Banking Italy

Italy

Rhoodie Dakamela

Absa Group

Principal Legal Counsel

South Africa

Robert Milliner

Australian Payments Council

ChairmanAustralia

Roberto Suarez Santos

International Organisation of Employers(IOE)

Secretary-General

Switzerland

Ryan Stein

Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC)

Executive Director of Auto Policy andInnovation

CanadaSaibe Gül Ertuğ

Ford Otosan

Director, Innovation & New Ventures

TurkeySami Farhad

Alibaba Group

Senior Director

China

Sara Ramos

Novartis Biociências S/A

Sr. Legal - IP Manager

BrazilSarah BoxOECD

Directorate for Science, Technology andInnovation

Global

Saskia Steinacker

Bayer AG

Global Head Strategy & Digital GermanyB20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Saverio Addante

Incentive Promomedia

CEO

Italy

Sharad Sinha

Standard Chartered Bank

Director, Transaction Banking Singapore

Stanislav Pozharnov

Russian Direct Investment FundCounselor

RussiaStefano Zapponini

Guida Monaci

Presidente e AD

Italy

Stephen Simchak

Global Federation of Insurance
Associations

Chairman, Cyber Risks Working GroupUSA

Sultan Sultan

Zain KSACEO

Saudi Arabia

Sun Joo Lee

Korea Telecom

Senior Vice President

Korea South

Tae-Shin Kwon

The Federation of Korean Industries

Vice Chairman

Korea South

Takeo Harada

Institute for International Strategy andInformation Analysis, Inc.

Chief Executive Officer

Japan

Tala Al Jabri

HOF Capital

General Partner

UAE

Thomas Koenen

Federation of German Industries

Head of Department for Digital andInnovation Policy

Germany

Verdiana Toma

VE.AN Fashion

Director

Italy

Viktor Vekselberg

Skolkovo Foundation

ChairmanRussiaVittoria Carli

ISEDPartner S&I

Italy

Vladimir Averbakh

Sberbank

Managing Director

RussiaWai Meng Wong

Keppel Data Centres Holding

CEO

Singapore

Waleed Abalkhail

TradeKey Co.

Chairman

Saudi Arabia

Xiao Sun

CCOIC

Director

China

Yasemin Esra Avcı

TUSIAD

Director of Information Society andInnovation

Turkey59

B20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Coordination Group
Name

Company/Organization

Function

Confindustria

B20 Secretariat

Boston Consulting Group

Knowledge Partner

Valentina Carlini
Michele D’Ambrosio
Cinzia Guido
Silvio La Torre
Olivia Zangrilli
Davide Corradi
Fabrizio Pessina
Elena Benussi
Niccolò Bogianchino
Brando Bonaretti
Cecilia Bonucchi
Donatella Sciuto

Politecnico di Milano

Ferdinando Pennarola

Università Bocconi

Leopoldo Angrisani

Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II

Scientific Partners

Nicole Primmer
Business at OECD
Patrik Kovacs
Derek O'Halloran

60

Network Partners
World Economic ForumB20 POLICY PAPER DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

An initiative byKnowledge partners

Network partners

Scientific partners

1 lande nam es ex estem.

61