April 2021|Project Documents, Studies and Research Papers » ECLAC Headquarters, Santiago (Studies and Research Papers)

Digital technologies for a new future

Autor institucional: NU. CEPAL Physical Description: 94 páginas. Editorial: ECLAC Date: April 2021 ECLAC symbol: LC/TS.2021/43

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Description

Fifteen years after the adoption of the first Digital Agenda for Latin America and the Caribbean, the region is facing a new world. Some of the expectations of that time have been fulfilled, but others have not. Growth in digital technologies has been exponential and they are now used worldwide, but this has been accompanied by negative social repercussions. The region has yet to strike the right balance between the benefits and costs of digitization in a more adverse global situation, exacerbated by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
This document contributes to discussion on the use and deployment of digital technologies for more inclusive and sustainable development and to related actions. It is divided into four chapters that analyse the potential effects of digital disruption, the impact on well-being and equality, the costs of universalizing Internet access, the relationship between digitization and productivity, the impact of digitization on various production chains, and the need for specific policies to recover from the effects of the pandemic with a transformation of production. The report also examines the state of digital agendas in the region, particularly in terms of data management, and concludes with some recommendations for strengthening regional cooperation and a process leading to the formation of a regional digital market .

Foreword .-- I. Towards a sustainable digital society. A. The systemic impact of digital disruption. B. The difficult balance between digitalization and sustainability. C. The roll-out of 5G networks: essential to the new models of industrial production and organization. D. The mass take-up of new technologies requires more infrastructure investment .-- II. Digitalization for social welfare and inclusion. A. Divides in broadband access. B. The use and take-up of digital technologies. C. Universalizing access .-- III. Digitalization for productive development. A. Digitalization and productivity. B. The digitalization of production chains. C. The digital ecosystem and the main barriers to digitalization of production. D. Digital policies for recovery and the transformation of production methods .-- IV. Digital governance, institutions and agendas. A. Digital agendas: empowerment and cross-sectoral policies. B. Competition, privacy and data security at the heart of digital agendas. C. Fifteen years on from the first regional digital agenda: strengthening competition. D. The regional digital market at the heart of subregional integration mechanisms.