The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for digital connectivity and transformation to mitigate the impact of economic slowdown, sustain well-being, and speed up e-resilience readiness, and build back better. Social distancing has generated higher demand for fast and reliable broadband connectivity to support the growing information flows.
14-15 December 2020 Time: 8:00am – 12:00pm EST
In addition to unleashing unfathomable opportunities for sustainable development, the digital age has also highlighted the vitality of digital solutions allowing societies to function and businesses to continue in the times of COIVD-19 pandemic. Online services and remote working arrangements were among the few of the measures addressing the isolation, keeping people informed and engaged during the COVID-19 response and recovery.
In recent years, a growing number of governments have adopted policies aimed at supporting the transition towards a digital economy. The World Trade Report 2020 looks at these policy trends and at how trade and the WTO fit with them.
As the novel coronavirus has undertaken its deadly migration across the globe, most attention has understandably focused on its immediate public health consequences, as well as the downstream economic consequences of the lockdown measures needed to contain it.
A less remarked development, however, has been the changes to everyday life that have resulted from the contagion. In particular, a new report reveals the extent to which COVID-19 has driven a dramatic uptake of digital technologies across Southeast Asia, accelerating a profound shift that was already underway.