Intergovernmental Group of Experts on E-commerce and the Digital Dconomy (third session)

Event report

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The third session of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on E-commerce and the Digital Economy was a continuation of previous sessions during  eCommerce Week. This report will focus on Capacity building for data analytics and artificial intelligence.

The presenter, Ms Brenda Quismorio, (Program Director, Master in Applied Business Analytics (MABA) of the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P), Advisory Board Member, APEC’s Project DARE (Data Analytics Raising Employment)) shared the approach the Philippines is using to begin building its data analytics capabilities.  Currently, in the Philippines, there is a high demand for employees in the data analytics field but a low supply of skilled experts. There are several initiatives to address this, such as  APEC’s project DARE,  whose aim is to close the digital skills gap. The Analytics Association of the Philippines’s (APA) mission is to develop an ecosystem that makes the Philippines a data-driven country. One of the ways it does this is by connecting stakeholders such as industries, the government, academia, and individuals to work together for one cause. The APS’s maturity model includes ten necessary skills such as domain knowledge, data governance, operational analytics, data verification, research methods, data engineering, statistical techniques computing, algorithms, and 21st-century skills. The MABA MA is a 2-year multidisciplinary program that focuses on proficiency and competency for analytics managers. The Philippines also implemented a K-12 programme 2 years ago to strengthen STEM skills in the youth, which is important for data analytics and data science. The sharp decline in the youth unemployment rate in the Philippines shows the impact that these programs are making.  

A delegate from Estonia asked: With all the all development in this world with AI and huge calculation capabilities, do you see a possible rise in the need for education in social science, since we may not need traditional education on the future? Quismorio responded saying that analytics is more about critical thinking and that out of the ten necessary skills listed previously, the 21st-century skills emphasise the soft skills. The rise of technology brings the opportunity to be more human and more creative. The session ended with her advice to build an ecosystem for analytics, define data protection, and grow manageably fast through collaboration.

By Jainee Feliz-Cabrera