On March 5th, 2024, World Bank Group President, Ajay Banga, and Hans Vestberg, Chairman and CEO of Verizon, were guest panelists at the Global Digital Summit in Washington D.C., discussing “the power of digital technologies to accelerate poverty reduction on a livable planet and how the public and private sectors can collaborate to accelerate this mission.”
The World Bank added that the summit ‘highlighted forward-thinking perspectives, cutting-edge technologies, and new insights centered on three pillars: (1) Connect, (2) Innovate, and (3) Transform.”
Banga began by explaining in a long introduction what the World Bank is all about, and the investments they make; a big one and great point of emphasis in recent years being investing in “digital.” With the digital landscape transforming so rapidly, Banga believes that these new investments in the digital space is needed for “governance.” He said, “I think that if governments embrace digital, they create transparency, they create clean governance, they create citizen engagement, and I think that is a very important part of digital that we are keen to be a part of.”
Later in the conversation Banga was asked how they should go pitching their emphasis on governments making deeper and long term investments to build a sustainable digital framework. One of these things includes “a sense of crisis,” he claims.
"A sense of crisis is your best friend. Never let a crisis go waste. A sense of crisis is your best friend in getting people to agree to tackle this triangle, along with the enabling tool of technology and the biggest headroom is geopolitics and fractionizing of the global order. That’s why I believe in digital for us.
Vestberg would later follow-up by saying, “we have the common goal that it shouldn’t matter where you’re born or where you come from or who you are, that you should be part of our digital society and all the benefits that some of us had when we were born.”
In response to that Banga replied, “I think providing infrastructure is a core element. But on top of that, creating a digital identity platform for citizenry is kind of foundational. I believe your government should be the owner of your digital ID.” Vestberg agreed: “Absolutely, 100%,” he remarked.
Following those remarks, Banga went to explain how the digital ID should be connected with their citizens, and the government’s role to play in them.
"Private companies should not own that. It is the social contract of a citizen with their country to have an identity, a currency and safety. You should not take that away from them. They should have the digital identity. That digital identity should guarantee the privacy of that citizen. It should help them with their security, but the government should give the identity.
Once you do that, then connecting them to the infrastructure that a private company, whether Ericsson or Verizon or combinations of them, in fact, mostly it’s a combination, can build.
Then the question is, what do you do with it that requires that digital ID so you can start connecting with that citizen? Now the question is, when you connect with that citizen, you must ensure that governments guarantee the privacy of that citizen, because if you don’t do that, you will run into trouble with the acceptance of the idea. If you want this to be embraced around the world, yes, get the infrastructure, get a digital ID. That’s what we used to talk about even earlier. Get that going and then move from there.
In the closing minutes of the discussion, Vestberg did want to emphasize that this digital inclusivity is just optional for those who want to be apart of it, which they hope to have ready by 2030.
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