CLOSING the digital divide and deepening partnerships between governments and businesses are key for a more inclusive digital economy that brings the benefits of the Internet to everyone, said Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google's parent company, Alphabet.
This comes as the South-east Asian Internet economy is on the verge of a "massive transformation" as Covid-19 has accelerated the pace of digital adoption, he said at the Singapore FinTech Festival x Singapore Week of Innovation & Technology 2020 on Monday.
"We've seen this year how online has been a lifeline in South-east Asia - eight out of 10 people said that technology helped them navigate the pandemic," he noted.
At the same time, Covid-19 has also exposed the many people left behind, he added. Among them are the 1.7 billion people who are still unbanked, African households without access to broadband, as well as millions of women entrepreneurs who lack access to opportunities that their male counterparts enjoy, said Mr Pichai.
One instance of how Google is attempting to close the digital divide is by focusing on infrastructure. It is building subsea cables between western Europe and the west coast of Africa, as well as developing affordable devices to transform digital access, he said.
But Mr Pichai pointed out that it is not just about connecting to the Internet that is important. "It's about what people can do with that connectivity.
"One of the most exciting developments is financial connectivity, which ensures that everyone can participate in the economic system," he said. Its digital payment platform Google Pay, first launched in India in 2017, will be improved globally, starting in Singapore and the US, he said.
Google is partnering with various organisations to drive modular and non-profit-creating open-source tools so that any country or organisation can use them to develop its own digital payment system, said Mr Pichai.
Building a more inclusive digital economy will also require a spirit of collaboration, with digital trade a place to start, added Mr Pichai.
In South-east Asia, it is estimated that expanding business and trade through technology could add US$1 trillion to overall regional gross domestic product by 2025, and help entrepreneurs grow across borders, create more jobs, and develop better services and new opportunities, he said.
Unlocking these benefits requires the right frameworks, he noted. Singapore and the Asia Pacific region have been pioneering new approaches, with new digital economy agreements that could provide a template for other parts of the world, he said. This is alongside broader trade deals like the new Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
"Our goal for the post-Covid world is to ensure the benefits of technology can be shared, as widely and equitably as possible," said Mr Pichai. "If we can do that, 2020 will be remembered not as the end of the world we knew, but the beginning of a world that works better for everyone."
© 2020 Singapore Press Holdings
This article was written by Vivien Shiao from The Singapore Business Times and was legally licensed through the Industry Dive publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@industrydive.com.
