Leaders TalkX: ICT Applications Unlocking the Full Potential of Digital – Part II

WSIS Forum Leaders’ Talk 10: Exploring the Socio-Economic Impact of ICT Applications

Extended Summary:

The WSIS Forum’s Leaders’ Talk number 10 convened a diverse panel of experts to discuss “ICT Applications, Unlocking the Full Potential of Digital,” focusing on the intersection of technology and socio-economic progress. The session was moderated by Ms. Dana Ramadan of Access Partnership, who emphasized the importance of written contributions to the WSIS outcomes.

Mr. Anir Kumar Lahoti from India outlined the country’s ICT initiatives, noting a tele-density of 85%, 1.2 billion telecom subscribers, and over 900 million broadband subscribers. He highlighted the affordability of data, the rapid adoption of FinTech, and the swift rollout of 5G technology. The BharatNet project aims to connect all village local governments with reliable internet, and over 500,000 common service centers have been established to bring government services to villagers. Digital literacy programs aim to cover 60 million rural households, while the Aadhaar biometric system provides unique digital identities to citizens. The Jan Dhan Yojana initiative has integrated banking services for over 517 million beneficiaries, and the UPI payment system has seen significant transaction volumes. Lahoti also mentioned the ONDC initiative for low-cost e-commerce and digital systems to support MSMEs.

Professor Sandra Maximiano from Portugal discussed the role of telecommunications in promoting e-employment and remote work. She emphasized the need for strong connectivity, investment in infrastructure and software, and cybersecurity. Maximiano highlighted the importance of national regulatory authorities in ensuring reliable and secure connectivity, bridging the digital divide, and promoting digital literacy.

Ms. Noemi Burkl from Germany addressed the challenges and opportunities in international cooperation for ICT-driven socio-economic development. She cited digital tools’ potential to accelerate progress toward sustainable development goals and empower marginalized communities. Burkl stressed the need for concerted efforts to bridge the digital divide and called for a socially just, ecological, and feminist digital future.

Professor Salma Abbasi of eWorldwide Group critiqued the current private sector partnerships model, advocating for a bottom-up approach that considers social, economic, and cultural contexts. She called for multi-sector stakeholder engagement frameworks and governance models to drive inclusive change and emphasized the importance of listening to diverse voices, including the youth.

Mr. Timothy Grosser from EY discussed leveraging technology for sustainable development goals, focusing on digital public goods. He highlighted the benefits of rapid deployment, reduced risk, transparency, and avoidance of vendor lock-in. Grosser provided examples of successful digital public goods, such as India’s national ID system and the DHIS2 health system.

Ms. Nora Kao from Huawei Technologies shared industry challenges, including ICT convergence, data protection, talent cultivation, and innovation in business models. She emphasized the importance of uniting R&D, students, and experts and highlighted Huawei’s initiatives in ICT competitions and talent programs.

Mr. Mohtibi Ramoussi, joining virtually from South Africa, explained how ICT applications are transforming traditional industries. He detailed South Africa’s infrastructure coverage, including 100% 3G and 98% 4G/LTE coverage, and the growing adoption of the Internet of Things. Ramoussi emphasized the importance of robust infrastructure, data analytics, and cybersecurity in supporting these transformations.

In conclusion, the session showcased the commitment of the panelists to digital inclusion and the potential of ICT to drive socio-economic development. The panelists shared insights from their respective sectors and countries, highlighting the need for innovative approaches, international cooperation, and inclusive strategies to harness the full potential of digital technologies.

Introduction:
moderator, Ms. Dana Ramadan, along with distinguished panelists, Mr. Anir Kumar Lahoti from India, Professor Sandra Maximiano from Portugal, Ms. Noemi Burka from Germany, Professor Salma Abbasi from eWorldwide Group, Mr. Timothy Grosser from EY, Ms. Nora Cao from Huawei, and last but not least, Mr. Mohtibi Ramoussi. Join us online from South Africa. Welcome. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Leaders’ Talk number 10 of the WSIS

Dana Ramadan:
Forum. My name is Dana Ramadan. I’m with Access Partnership, which is a global tech policy consultancy, and I will be moderating today’s session. This session is entitled ICT Applications, Unlocking the Full Potential of Digital, and it will explore the intersection between technology and socio-economic progress, which is a topic very close to my heart as well, and I’m sure to the esteemed panelists who are with me today. Before we start the discussion, I would like to remind our panelists that you have three minutes for your intervention each, please, and I would also like to remind you to please send your written contributions to the WSIS Secretariat, because these will be included in the WSIS High-Level Event Outcomes document, as well as the Chair’s Summary. So with that, Let me start with you, Mr. Anil Kumar Lahouti, the Chair of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India. I would like to ask you to please share with us how India, with its extremely diverse demography, is harnessing ICT applications for socioeconomic growth for its citizens.

Anil Kumar Lahoti:
Thank you, Dana. First of all, I thank ITU for inviting me to this plus 20, and I consider this as my privilege to address this August gathering today on this very important topic. So as you just mentioned the topic, in India, the government has taken multiple initiatives for harnessing the ICT sector in its contribution to the socioeconomy. The Indian telecom sector is at the center stage of digital empowerment of citizens with a tele-density of 85%. There are 1.2 billion telecom subscribers in India and over 900 million broadband subscribers. India’s average wireless data usage is over 21 GB per user per month, and it is at one of the cheapest tariffs in the world, that is an average of 11 cents per GB. India has the highest 87% FinTech adoption rate, surpassing the global average of 64%. India has seen the fastest rollout of 5G, started in October 2022, and in less than one and a half year, it expanded. across the country with over 438,000 5G BTS, which is second largest in the world. To ensure that reliable internet connectivity reaches each and every of the 263,000 village local governments, that is Gram Panchayat, Government of India has taken up BharatNet project for laying fiber. Besides, mobile connectivity is also being taken to all the uncovered or poorly covered villages through Universal Service Obligation Fund. Utilizing the broadband fiber network, over 500,000 common service centers have been established all over the country to take government services to the doorstep of villages. In order to improve digital literacy in rural areas so that citizen can avail the advantages of digital technology, government has taken up a digital literacy program to cover 60 million rural households. Digital public infrastructure for an inclusive financial society is an important success story of India. Aadhaar is a biometric identification system providing a unique digital identity to every Indian citizen. Utilizing the Aadhaar biometric identification, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana is a financial inclusion initiative to provide access to banking services to all households. 517 million beneficiaries. have been onboarded to banking system through this initiative. The JanDhan, Aadhaar, Mobile, Trinity has played a pivotal role in transparent direct benefit transfer of welfare subsidies to bank accounts of the underserved. India has established a robust unified payment interface that is UPI, which has empowered users to conveniently transfer money in real time. Its popularity and impact on the economy can be seen from the fact that in April 2024 alone, a total of 13 billion transactions, valuing $235 billion, took place through UPI in India. Open Network for Digital Commerce, that is ONDC, is an initiative to provide low-cost e-commerce to an open protocol based on open source specifications. ICT is also being used for ease of doing business by MSMEs. And a single window digital system has been enabled for all the approvals and facilitating access to financing schemes for MSMEs.

Dana Ramadan:
Thank you so much for this comprehensive overview of India’s remarkable progress in the ICT and digital domain. And I would like to now turn to Portugal. We have here Professor Sandra Maximiano. She’s the chair of the National Communications Authority of Portugal. Professor Maximiano, can you please tell me what you think is the role of telecommunications in promoting e-employment and, more specifically, remote work? And from where you sit, what are the challenges of the regulatory authority?

Sandra Maximiano:
Thanks a lot for inviting me. I think it’s a big challenge for us. of telecommunications and of course, remote working, employment is all about connectivity. So we have to have strong, very resilient, very secure connectivity and it’s the main role of regulators to provide it. So just to give a brief overview, employment is also known as online employment, uses digital tools and online platforms for conducting any employment related activities and process from job searching and recruiting to onboarding and remote work and offer several advantage to both employers and employees. Over the past decade, we have witnessed a tremendous growth in employment and remote work in particular, largely driven by advances in telecom industry and of course now even more advances with AI. High quality connectivity, as I said, virtual private networks, cloud computing, access to vast amounts of data and unified communication platforms integrating for instance, messaging, voice and video have been the key drivers of a digital revolution that has significantly transformed labor markets and labor relationships. As employment becomes more common and prevalent, the demand for robust, reliable bandwidth and low latency increases. Telecom providers must scale up their investments in both physical infrastructure and software, such as improved broadband speeds, 5G rollouts and data centers. Employment also raises concerns related to data security and privacy of employees, as it involves sharing sensitive information and data over digital platforms, moreover, multiple and personal devices. Telcos need to invest in cyber security and technology. keeps data secure, so it’s not only investing more, it’s investing more with more quality. Telcos have the potential not only to provide quality connectivity, but to also drive innovation and shape the future of employment. By working closely with software developers, telcos can contribute to the creation of advanced communication tools that align with evolving needs of remote workers and digital nomads. The key contribution to a digital employment ecosystem by telcos is provisioning of high-quality connectivity, as I mentioned. As such, national regulatory authorities should take actions to promote strong, reliable and secure connectivity, and to bridge the digital divide that still exists between urban and rural areas. Connectivity should be for all, because if we talk about e-employment that brings so much potentialities for everyone, it should not be discriminatory. So, I think national regulators also have a big role there. So, it is important to help in construction of high-capacity networks, regulating the access to physical infrastructure, owned by firms with significant market power. And just let me say, this e-employment and flexible remote work contributed to the growth of digital nomads, freelance work and the gig economy. In recent years, Portugal has become an increasingly popular destination for digital nomads. In order to attract more and retain digital nomads, the country needs really good coverage of high-speed networks and competitive landscape that favours emergence of both fixed and mobile internet offerings that respond to specific needs of these users. And these users, they tend to need standalone offers with low latency and fast speeds. and we believe that the market structure that favours that should favour sustainable competition and foster investment. Lastly, it is very important to emphasise the importance of promoting, of course, digital literacy and empowering end-users. It is very crucial to guarantee that all workers, as I said, no matter where they live, have equal access to the benefits of employment, thanks.

Dana Ramadan:
Thank you very much, Professor, for highlighting the pivotal role of telecommunications and promoting e-employment and remote work as well, and for your insights as Chair of ANACOM, which is the Regulatory Authority of Portugal. So I thank you very much. And I would like to turn now to Germany with… Hello. Ms. Naomi Böchle, who is the Deputy Digital Officer at BMZ, which is the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. I would like to ask you, from the perspective of the German government, what do you think are the key challenges and opportunities that Germany sees in international cooperation to harness ICT for socioeconomic development?

Noemie Burkl:
Thank you very much for this question, for having me with you here today. The global digital age opens up tremendous opportunities, which is why we’re here today. It harbors a lot of challenges for us. The use of digital tools can accelerate progress to the sustainable development goals. It can enhance access to essential services, such as healthcare, education, and financial inclusion. What we also see is that digital tools can contribute to a greener future. They can empower youth, women, girls, and marginalized communities, and they can drive socioeconomic development in a sustainable manner. We all know this, but I think it’s easier if you grasp it. with a concrete example. So allow me to talk about Nancy Amito who runs a small restaurant in northern Uganda. 90% of people in her region do not have access to regular electricity. The initiative Fair Forward that we support together with the African tech company Sunbird AI developed a tool that recommends locations for green energy sources. Sometimes it’s just as easy as that. Based on these recommendations a set of small solar plants was installed in Nancy’s village. Through the reliable availability of electricity and light she was able to extend her opening hours and in consequence double her income. But we are aware that digital transformation is yet to benefit everyone and my colleague from Portugal just talked also about the persistent digital divide. Millions of people are still lacking meaningful connectivity. This threatens to exacerbate existing inequalities on a global scale. Bridging this gap demands concerted efforts that particularly consider marginalized communities. Also the misuse of technologies can threaten societal cohesion and democracies. This in consequence requires that we work together for as we hope a socially just digital future that is also ecological and includes everyone. In times in which digital technologies have such an influence in our lives we the German government as a whole have recognized the need to use digitalization in order to proactively tackle not only national issues but also global challenges. We have published a strategy for an international digital policy for the very first time. As BMZ we are committed to harnessing the opportunities presented to us by the international community. by digital technologies for sustainable development in close cooperation with our partner countries. To leverage the opportunities and mitigate the challenges that come with digital transformation, we believe international cooperation is essential. And that is why firms like the Wazes are so crucial for all of us. And for the sake of time, let’s work together towards a socially just, ecological and feminist digital future for all. Many thanks for having me on stage.

Dana Ramadan:
Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. Böchle, for your insights on the opportunities and challenges posed by the global digital age and especially from the German perspective. We really see the potential that digital tools have on sustainable development through the examples that you mentioned. So thank you very much for that. I would like to turn now to the private sector with Professor Salma Abbasi. She is the founder, chair and CEO of eWorldwide Group. So I would like to know from your experience, what limitations do you see with the current private sector partnerships model and what innovations do you recommend to enable a more localized private sector partnerships model with stakeholders to drive a truly inclusive and sustainable economic growth?

Salma Abbasi:
Thank you so much. Salaam alaikum and good afternoon, everybody. I really appreciate the opportunity to be here today. I’m delighted that we came after the smart cities. I think before I begin, I want to set the stage that we’ve heard a lot about digital transformation and the importance. However, we’re living in times of serious global crisis and a visible deficit of trust, equality, equity and humanity. As a result, many nations are facing complex multidimensional challenges. The cost of living crisis and the widening. divides are fueling extreme poverty, homelessness, unemployment, shortage of foods, escalation of gender-based violence, youth violence, gangs, knife crimes and drugs, coupled with the polarization of society, egged on by unethical social media and artificial intelligence. Nations and cities are crippled by the lack of resources, conflicting priorities, which we’ve heard today and yesterday, unreliable, outdated infrastructure and skill gaps, and the lack of willingness to embrace change and take risk at all levels. This, I’m sure, sounds familiar to many of you, but I’m actually referring to the United Kingdom and many cities in Europe and the USA. We can no longer rely on the big five to show us the way to create national transformation policies, strategies and 10-year roadmaps. They don’t accurately reflect the invisible and visible barriers and power structures that prevent meaningful, inclusive change. Solving these enormous global challenges requires a paradigm shift to decouple from the normal way of working, allowing us to fast track and the co-creation of innovative, but realistic, scalable solutions that have impact of sustainability and deployable models. This requires a holistic coupling from the bottom up and top down. We use the word of meaningful digital transformation, so indeed it benefits the citizens. Social, economic, physical, environmental and geopolitical, cultural context must be taken into consideration if things are really going to be inclusive. This calls for a robust multi-sector stakeholder… engagement framework which should act as the foundation and a governance model to drive inclusive meaningful change at the grassroots to ensure we leave nobody behind. However demoralized, underpaid, undermotivated, disempowered cannot lead the charge for change nor can they successfully form new partnerships for collaboration on these complex challenges. Solutions need to be multi-dimensional in the way they look at the problems so we can do things in an integrated manner that leverages the strength and experiences of others through collaboration, partnerships with private sector on a new scale, listening to the voices of the young and those that are struggling for their basic survivability. This success, this new success forms public-private partnership leveraging the hidden skills of private sector, efficiencies, streamlined processes, flattened organizations that help the rapid decision making and proven information systems to monitor efficiency and eliminate waste. This is how governments responded in the pandemic and we should go back and see how we did this. It is crucial that we continuously engage different sets of stakeholders from multiple sectors and backgrounds and communities grounded in intergenerational dialogue. If there’s one message I would like to say that is we need to make sure that we work and collaborate and listen to the young and the old because they are part of our leaving no one behind so that we can ensure the understanding of the dynamic lives and experiences to jointly adopt and adapt and oversee positive change for digital transformation that is essential. for resilient, inclusive, sustainable future for humanity and our planet. Thank you so much.

Dana Ramadan:
Thank you very much Professor Abbasi for this wonderful assessment and we are indeed in need of a paradigm shift and I particularly like your emphasis on the holistic bottom-up approach for private partnerships model because that’s what really drives meaningful change at a grassroots level rather than keeping to rely on top-down approaches. So thank you so much for that. I now turn to Mr. Timothy Grosser who is the partner for EMEA region of international development at EY. Mr. Grosser, can you please tell me through your work how do you think we can leverage technology better to maximize our impact towards the sustainable development goals?

Timothy Grosser:
Hi, thank you very much and just as a way of an introduction, our international development team based in Geneva has a global footprint but we are focused on the UN and international development sectors but what’s different is we really bring people from the sector. So I myself worked for the international community for the Red Cross. We have lots of people from the NGO and international development sector so I guess we try to leverage on that from that background. Now to answer your question, I think there’s many areas of technology to focus on. We’ve got connectivity which we’ve talked about many times today, digital health, partnerships, policy and regulation but a lot of that really comes down to really good quality technical implementations but I think there’s really two domains that it’s worth drilling down on to think about that can really move the needle and I think the first one is data and AI but I’m not going to talk too much about that today because as we know we’ve got the AI for good coming up in the next few days which there’s people in the room they’re far better qualified than me to speak about that but the second one I’d like to talk about now in the next few minutes is digital public goods. Digital public goods is a mechanism to really get incredible technology very fast and very transparently and very low risk. I think that’s really where I think it’s interesting. So digital public goods is a term that’s getting better well known or DPG, digital public infrastructure, it’s all basically the same. It’s a set of open source code or AI models or software or standards that is available to the marketplace. So someone has built it and then they’ve published it and said it’s available for free of use. What we’ve got at the moment is around 142 digital public goods or capabilities or assets whatever we call them and of which 121 of those are software. Now these are mapped against the SDGs so we’ve got roughly 75 against health, 31 against poverty, 36 against education, 33 against equality. So we can see and they’re the big ones but we can see there’s a lot of assets or people pieces of code or software solutions that are available. And why would we want to go that path? It’s, I think there’s four really strong reasons for that. The first one is rapid time to market. So why would you build something that could take three to four years to build when actually you can just pull it off a directory and get access to that immediately? Second reason is risk. So if you have to do a three year implementation, I work in consulting, so I know the problems. A three year implementation is highly risky versus pulling some software off a website is significantly less risk. The third area is transparency. So if you’re using a standard product off the directory, it’s a much easier story around transparency. And the fourth is you’re reducing the risk of vendor lock-in. A couple of examples of really world-class solutions is the MOSIP, which is the India government national ID system. That is obviously a 1.3 billion, close to 100% penetration, massive scale. The second one would be DHIS2, which is a health system that’s been running for many years in 75 countries. It’s a large infrastructure. And as Mr. Lahore mentioned, the UPI is also another one. And these digital public goods are really, really impactful. There’s one that we’ve worked on recently also an India one, it’s a National Skills Development Council. It’s a skills platform for a government that enables citizens to go on, understand their industrial career path. So if you’re a welder to go to level three to level four welder, where you can get training from, how the job market is looking, what skills you need. It’s a fantastic product to scale on that. And I think what’s interesting around that is these are big systems. That one there is running 35 million participants with 27,000 education centers. And over and above, it has significant trust in the system. So these are platforms that have trust and are scalable. And I think there’s one number to remember is we believe. there’s about an 85% reusability. So if you’re going to download a product like that off the marketplace, you only have to tweak 15% of the product. And straight away, you’re reducing your risk significantly, you’re reducing your time to market significantly. And so we believe that’s the way to go forward. Thank you.

Dana Ramadan:
Thank you very much, Tim, on these insightful examples and the research that EY is conducting on digital public goods. I would like to now turn to Ms. Nora Kao, who’s going to give us the industry perspective. So she’s the Vice President of Global Government Affairs at Huawei Technologies. It’s very nice to have you here. And my question to you is, in that whole process of ICT applications unlocking the full potential of digital, could you please talk about the difficulties and the challenges that you have encountered from the industry perspective?

Wenji (Nora) Cao:
Okay, thank you. And my name is Nora, I’m from Huawei Technologies. Thank you for this opportunity. I would like to share some observation and questions that we collected also from our customers. I think the top four are really important. Like, for example, the first one, the challenge is the ICT application and the convergence. Because now we know 5G, cloud, and then the AI, and many customers, they ask how eventually they can make good use of these technologies. And then this is the first challenge in general. And then the second challenge is definitely about the data protection and the cybersecurity. We know there is huge amounts of data it’s generating in the network. And then many people has concerns about the organization data, about their personal data, of course. And then every time we communicate in our projects and in our cooperation, they ask similar questions. And then the third one is about the talent cultivation and the skill upgrade. including how to make good training and whether we can provide good content and also how to attract talent and keep them in the industry. And this is the third challenge. And fourth challenge is about innovation. We mentioned about technology information, innovation, but what also important is the business model innovation. So for us, what we observe is the top four challenges as such. And from our experience, we think what importance the two, I say the two elements, fundamental elements. First, we think important is people. And then the second one is awareness. What does people mean? I think we at least need to unite three group of people and unleash the potential. For example, the first one is R&D. Of course, they are the heart core of the development of good products. And then the second group is the students. We have so many student programs in every country. It actually is also like yesterday and also last week, we hosted the biggest global ICT competition awards. And there are, in the beginning, there are more than 80 countries. And more than 2,000 schools, they applied for this program. And on 27th, totally in the end, nine country students and also nine team, they won the AI award, one team won the social media award, and two teams won the Green Development Award, and the four team won the Tech for Women Award. So for this part, we think student is important. And then, of course, the third group is the experts of who has experience, because in the training programs, we need more. more efforts and working together with the partners to jointly contribute to the training and to help the students and also working together with R&D and talents. And the other fundamental elements, awareness will mean, first of all, I think the strategy is important. And from top down, attention really helps the organization and also our customer to make sure that they can focus on the technology and the developments with the combination and then they can develop good solutions. And then a second awareness is about a cooperation, collaboration, and sometimes also maybe competition is also important. And then the third is talent cultivation. And in February this year, we also had a talent summit. We created new programs every year with UNESCO, ITU, JAL, UIL. On this, from this perspective, we think it really matters to solve these problems and challenges. And then to conclude, of course there are challenges everywhere, but we believe that challenges are the soil from which opportunities grow. So we will continue on this path and contribute as much as we can as a company. Thank you.

Dana Ramadan:
Thank you very much, Nora, for this really motivating assessment and which is quite customer centric as well. And with presenting us with these initiatives that Huawei is doing in terms of digital upskilling, which is truly important if you really want a global inclusive digital society. So thank you for that. And last but not least, we have our panelists who is joining us virtually. Mr. Muthibi Ramusee, I hope you can hear me well. So Mr. Ramusee is a chair of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa. as ICASA. I would like to ask you how have ICT applications transformed traditional industries in your opinion?

Mothibi Ramusi:
Thank you, thank you very much and once more good afternoon. Thank you for affording ICASA an opportunity just to come and share with you how ICT application is transforming traditional industries, especially bringing the South African story to all the viewers. Firstly, I think just to inform those who may not know, ICASA is a regulator in South Africa, we regulate telecommunication, broadcasting and postal services. Now given these three sectors, one would basically as we talk about applications for us as a regulator what becomes important is do we have infrastructure that has been made available to support applications that will be required in these various industries. So as part of our journey in the past eight years we have been preparing through engaging our industries where we wanted to determine the state of our ICT sector in South Africa. I think we lost you Mr. Emosi, can you hear us? Apologies, yeah I think I’m audible again. I was still saying that as part of determining how these applications that are being required by various sectors, how they’re going to transform the traditional industries. I was saying that in the past eight years we’re in a journey where we were soliciting all the requirements mainly to assess the SEs of South Africa when it comes to infrastructure. Because as you know when you talk of applications, applications depend solely on a robust infrastructure. Now I’m happy to inform all the participants that in South Africa we now have a national coverage of 3G which is 100% by 2022. With the likes of the 4G and LTE we are sitting at 98% in terms of coverage. Then in terms of 5G population we’ve actually moved from 75 to 20%. Now the relevance of infrastructure availability, it basically gives us as a regulator that kind of comfort that when we talk about internet of things which becomes one of them as and when we talk about applications. How is the Internet of Things transforming the traditional industries because as we know people who are staying in rural areas, you are bound to be going to a farm where you collect data manually, but with the light of having proper infrastructure, this now facilitates Internet of Things not only in the agriculture phase, but even for safety and security areas where we need to be gathering information instantly. So the good news is as part of infrastructure rollout that is being done by various licensees in South Africa, we are seeing an uptick in terms of Internet of Things because as I’ve indicated, data exchange becomes very important over the Internet. We have actually observed as well from data analytics, because as I’ve indicated, it’s important for us as regulators when you know your SEs to develop regulations that are robust and agile, that are informed by policy. It becomes important that data analytics, big data, collecting of data, it’s something that is important. So part of what we have been doing as collecting this data in our reports is giving us reasons to actually accelerate our regulatory frameworks as there’s already an appetite communicated by various industries. Now the beauty of some of this application, we’re now seeing that even from our educational institutions in South Africa right now as we speak, some of our institutions, they’ve now introduced robotics, machine learning as part of curricula. And this becomes important because as and when we talk about awareness, and as and when we talk about applications, you need to have those developers on the ground. Now as a regulator, what is of interest for us is to ensure that as people talk of robotics, is the infrastructure solid? Are there enough frequency spectrum that will support this various application? Because we know that traditionally, majority of doing things, it has been manual. We’re now talking automation. Now, automation cannot happen in a country where there are no rules. So that’s something that we’ve been advancing as a regulator in South Africa. I’ve made mention, finally, just in conclusion, the issue of cybersecurity. I cannot talk without emphasizing the fact that as part of transforming the traditional industries, there needs to be those legislative frameworks, which in South Africa, we do have, where as we’re speaking right now, we’re talking more about securing information, ensuring that how information is handled. We do have regulatory prescripts, like the personnel, how information should be managed through some of our legislative framework in South Africa. I can safely say that despite the challenges we are still having in South Africa with our load shedding, which is electricity provision, we are at a stage where right now, many of the industries have taken advantage to make sure that as and when the rules as defined by ICASA are implemented, industry then take advantage. And as I said, I’m seeing efficiency, I’m seeing effectiveness on how these applications are transforming South Africa. And it’s something that we’re embracing as a regulator and we’ll continue to do that. So that’s basically how I’ve seen it. Thank you very much.

Dana Ramadan:
Thank you very much for these insightful examples from South Africa. And thank you to my esteemed panelists. I can really see your commitment to your companies or governments for digital inclusion. And I wish you all a fruitful rest of your WSIS journey this week. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you to everybody. So we will be moving on with our next. Recording stopped. Looking ahead, emerging tech for building sustainable futures. And I would like to call to the stage, Dr. Liberato Bautista. Recording in progress. Good morning, everyone. Good morning, everyone.