Technology is today touching the lives of individuals and of businesses across the world. In almost every community, we find ourselves entering a social and economic revolution enabled by digital technology, often underlined by the power of the ubiquitous access to the internet. The revolution is rapidly extending beyond people to objects, illustrated by the new found potential of the Internet of Things (IoT). The 17 SDGs, designed to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity, will virtually all be supported by this technological advancement. There is a strong link between digitalization and economic and social wellbeing. But as digitalization unfolds, policy makers and regulators are faced with an unfamiliar challenge: how can they capture the benefits of digitalization for the society by removing blockages and introducing initiatives that enable the pace and scale of digital change.
This session will focus on how policy interventions may advance digitalization of sectors, such as education, agriculture, healthcare, transportation, e-government. The discussion will build on the work of the Broadband Commission Working Group on the Digitalization Scorecard (http://www.broadbandcommission.org/workinggroups/Pages/digiscorecard.aspx). The Digitalization Scorecard project, launched by the Broadband Commission Working Group and chaired by Nokia, is designed to help create a positive regulatory environment for the use-cases that will drive further broadband uptake. The scorecard sets out how each a country is performing when it comes to policies and regulations to foster digitalization.
We will discuss how policies and regulations may enable digitalization of verticals, what governments should do to facilitate digitalization, and which regulations should be avoided as blocking a switch to digital in a given sector. During this session leaders of the Digitalization Scorecard project will present its results, and reveal learnings from the analysis of the digitalization readiness of six countries: Colombia, Finland, Indonesia, Kenya, Pakistan, and Singapore. Representatives of some of those countries will have an opportunity to comment on the country’ scores, and share own insights about how digitalization is approached in the country.

About the organizers:
The Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development<http://www.broadbandcommission.org/Pages/default.aspx> was established in 2010 and comprises of more than 50 leaders from across a range of government and industry sectors. They are committed to actively supporting countries, UN experts and NGOs to fully leverage the potential of ICT to drive national Sustainable Development Goal strategies in key areas such as education, healthcare, gender equality and environmental management. From its inception the Commission launched a large number of working groups focused on the socio-economic aspects of broadband.
Mr Rajeev Suri, CEO of Nokia is the Broadband Commissioner who chairs the Working Group on the Digitalization Scorecard. Nokia is a global technology leader at the heart of our connected world. Powered by the research and innovation of Nokia Bell Labs, we serve communications service providers, governments, large enterprises and consumers, with the industry’s most complete, end-to-end portfolio of products, services and licensing. From the enabling infrastructure for 5G and the Internet of Things, to emerging applications in virtual reality and digital health, we are shaping the future of technology to transform the human experience. A truly global company, we are 160 nationalities working in more than 100 countries.