Announcement
When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out at the start of 2020, citizens, businesses and governments were forced to move online. Many employees started working from home; firms adopted digital business models; digital tools were introduced to help “track and trace” the development of the pandemic and researchers employed artificial intelligence to learn more about the virus and accelerate the search for vaccines and treatments. Due to this rapid shift, Internet traffic in some countries increased by up to 60% following the outbreak. The pandemic has opened a new phase of the digital transformation. The strong digitalisation drive has been enabled by a range of digitalisation policies, some of which are still evolving. These policies will require even greater attention as the digital transformation deepens and economies become more reliant on these technologies. This presentation will provide evidence on the rapid digital transformation of OECD economies since COVID-19 and explore policy responses.
Information
- Time and Date: Tuesday, January 26, 2021
- Host: Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI)
Speakers
- Speaker: Dirk PILAT (Deputy Director, Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation, OECD)
Dr. Dirk Pilat, a Dutch national, is Deputy Director of the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation.
Dr. Pilat joined the OECD in February 1994 and has worked on many policy issues since then, including innovation, the role of digital technologies for economic growth, environmental innovation, labour markets, regulatory reform, global value chains, productivity and entrepreneurship, as well as health innovation. He is currently helping to coordinate the OECD's new Going Digital project, which aims to help policymakers better understand the digital transformation and the related next production revolution and develop recommendations for pro-active policies that will help drive growth and well-being.
Dr. Pilat was responsible for the OECD's Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy from 2006 to January 2009, and for the Committee on Industry, Innovation and Entrepreneurship from February 2009 to December 2012.
Before joining the OECD, he was a researcher at the University of Groningen, where he also earned his PhD in Economics, working primarily on productivity and economic growth. - Commentator: MATSUMOTO Rie (Consulting Fellow, RIETI / Principal Deputy Director, IT Innovation Division, Commerce and Information Policy Bureau, METI)
- Moderator: SABURI Masataka (Director, PR Strategy, RIETI / Special Advisor to the Minister, METI)
