The autumn came with new digital economy reports providing interesting data about the evolution of the digital economy in Europe at a time when the EU is reviewing the applicable public policies in this area and the different stakeholders are also providing their perspectives and position. Innovation policies are very present this month through several publications, but also issues such as digital security or policies related to content and intellectual property rights. Have a good reading!
DIGITAL ECONOMY DATA & INDICATORS
The European Commission has released this month 3 interesting reports gathering useful data on several key aspects concerning Broadband policy in Europe.
The first one is a study monitoring the progress on the broadband coverage objectives of the Digital Agenda, covering from basic broadband access to high speed broadband access. The main findings are that over 216 million EU households (99.4%) had access to at least one fixed or a mobile broadband technology at the end of 2014.
The second study refers to the Quality of Broadband services within the EU, focusing on the difference between advertised and current broadband speed in Europe and the decrease of this differentiation in the last years.
The third study refers to the Broadband Internet Access Cost in Europe, covering the different price levels in the EU market at February 2015. The most relevant conclusion is the constant decrease of broadband prices for a better service. There are also some benchmarks with other regional markets.
The Journey to Government´s Digital Transformation, Deloitte University Press, October 2015.
This report shows through more than 1.200 surveys to government officials in more than 70 countries about the digital transformation of the national administrations and governments. The numbers clearly show that digitization is impacting the public sector, obliging to rethink and modify the current models. There is also a brief infographic summarizing the main findings.
DIGITAL ECONOMY STRATEGIES
Addressing the Tax Challenges of the Digital Economy, OECD, October 2015.
This is the summary report of action 1 from the OECD/G20 BEPS project that aims the creation of a set of consensus rules on international taxes policies, avoiding the double non-taxation worldwide and securing revenues nationally but also better certainty to taxpayers. A complex issue that deserve a clear cooperation from the different countries but also the adoption of new perspectives for the disruptive era we are living that need new rules to ensure a better level playing field.
Five Priorities Achieving Europe´s Digital Single Market, BCG, October 2015.
This BCG study commissioned by ETNO tries to explain what needs to be done to reach the ambitious goals to achieve the Digital Single Market within the EU. For this, the report focuses on 5 key topics such as (1) ensuring consistent standards across digital services, (2) analyzing the market structure with regard to best investment and growth, (3) adapting wholesale market regulations to drive investments in next-generation access (NGA), (4) modernizing spectrum policy to cover accelerated demand and (5)enabling specialized services with guaranteed network quality needs.
The Borderless Digital Economy, France Stratégie, October 2015.
The French Government has delivered a short publication with its perspective on the new digital world coming and providing some lines of reflections and thoughts to better ensure the success of the digital economy and the role of Europe in this new digital World. The paper focusses on 4 key areas such as the regulation of Internet companies, taxation, the data economy and the rise of IoT.
BIG DATA POLICY
Data-Driven Innovation, Big Data for Growth and Well-Being, OECD, October 2015.
This OECD report focusses on the benefits of data for the future, considered as the new oil for the advanced economies. However, there are a lot of uncertainties in this area as this is a very new area. Barriers are also relevant and need to be tackled too, such as the lack of skills in this area, privacy issues, intellectual property rights and taxation for example. But the outcome is clear: we need to take advantage of data. The main conclusions are that there is a need to encourage investments in Big Data and the promotion of data sharing but also the reuse of data. This would allow new sources of business and economic growth.
You can also access the presentation summarizing the main outcomes of the report here.
INNOVATION POLICY
This OECD publication gathers more than 200 indicators towards innovation and its relevance for competitiveness and for the national economies as a key driver for the future. It covers from the level of investments in determined countries, the focus of these investments, the disruptive innovation, public policies support to innovation and many other interesting data and indicators. Have a look!
The Innovation Imperative, Contributing to Productivity, Growth and Well-Being, OECD, October 2015.
The OECD considers innovation as a key driver for future economic and social growth. Therefore, this new report proposes some guidelines and principles to apply to foster innovation in the society, based on data and economic research.
Analysis of the Impact of Robotic Systems on Employment in the European Union, European Commission, October 2015.
This EU report analyses the impact of robotic systems on jobs within some EU countries such as Austria, France, Germany, Denmark the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland. The main outcomes are that robotization seems not killing employment but just changing the way work is done while increasing efficiency in manufacturing processes, fostering competitiveness. A curious fact of this report is to see that Spain counts with more companies using robots for production than Germany.
Internet of Things
The Internet of Things: an overview, Understanding the issues of a More Connected World, ISOC, 2015.
Internet Society (ISOC) has published a whitepaper underlining the opportunities and challenges offered by the perspectives of the Internet of Things in the next decade. The paper raises the main debated issues such as its definition and the technologies associated to the IoTs, but also questions related to security, privacy, regulatory issues amongst others.
DIGITAL SECURITY POLICIES
The OECD has published its recommendation for its Member States on Digital Security Risk management establishing that this issue should be considered more from an economic perspective than from a solely technical one. Digital security risk is increasing at the same time as the digital activities, therefore more measures and more attention should be paid to this area by the enterprises.
ENISA Work Programme 2016, ENISA, October 2015.
The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) has already published its Work Programme for 2016, determining the main priorities for the next months such as pan-European cyber security exercises, the support to specific EU actions on this area. It also will include mHealth and security of the IoTs in its 2016 work.
ENTREPRENEURS POLICIES
European Digital City Index, European Digital Forum, October 2015.
This Index recently launched gives a good overview on how the main EU cities (and some external to the EU well-known as digital hubs) provide support to digital entrepreneurs, through the implementation of different public policies, based on 10 different indicators.
CONTENT & COPYRIGHT POLICIES
Mobile for Development Impact, Approaches to Local Content Creation, GSMA-Mozilla, October 2015.
GSMA and Mozilla have published a report in which the need for digital literacy to foster the creation of local content is key to increase social and economic development. Empowering users and easing the creation of local content in emerging markets is a relevant issue that needs to be highlighted.
The Carrot or the Stick? Innovation vs. Anti-Piracy Enforcement, Copia, October 2015.
This is an interesting report on how to approach the future copyright policy challenges in a new digitized world and which kind of actions better suits to the market reality, through incentives and innovative actions (carrots) or penalties (sticks) to reduce infringements. The report does not see positive the stick strategies and considers that the carrot strategies are a better approach to reduce content piracy in a digital environment. Main key findings could be accessed here.