Emerging from an Economic Crisis - What Role for Technology Adoption?

Session Background:

While the full extent of the economic impact is not yet evident, COVID-19 is reshaping the constraints for technological transformation across the region. However, new opportunities are also emerging to leverage technology in order to support recovery and growth. This session aims to reflect on the technological and industrial insights gained during a recent ADB study, identify key contextual changes driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, and discuss policy implications. Published in March 2020, the report “Innovate Indonesia: Unlocking Growth through Technological Transformation” investigated the impact of new technologies across key economic sectors in Indonesia and identifies policy initiatives with the potential to support the country’s technological transformation. The study incorporated contributions from experts at the University of Cambridge and Indonesia’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies, under the overall guidance of the ADB Indonesia Resident Mission and the Fiscal Policy Agency of Indonesia’s Ministry of Finance. Opportunities exist to leverage the evidence base developed during the study to inform policy responses to COVID-19, particularly those focused on technology and innovation. 

Objective:

This session will feature research insights, policy and practice perspectives with speakers from the private and public sectors. Audience members will be exposed to the latest international thinking on the role of emerging technologies in economic growth – during the current crisis as well as the bumpy journey towards recovery and sustainable growth that lies ahead of us.

The proposed session will cover the following themes:

• Critical role of new technologies in the wake of COVID-19 
  
• Impact of new technologies on Southeast Asia’s development – emerging opportunities and new constraints 
  
• Research and innovation policies to support recovery and growth – how the policy landscape is changing in response to COVID-19 
  
• Enabling policy frameworks, digital infrastructure and their impact on entrepreneurs
  

Moderator: Arndt Husar, Senior Public Management Specialist (Digital Transformation), ADB

Speakers:

• Dr Carlos López-Gómez, Head, Policy Links Unit, University of Cambridge 
  
• Dr Yurendra Basnett, Country Economist, Indonesia Resident Mission, ADB 
  
• Ms Vimala Murugan, Director, Industrial Policy, Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), Government of Malaysia
  
• Dr Michael Gryseels, Executive Vice Chairman, True Digital Group 
  
• Mr Willson Deng, CEO & Founder, Arcstone Pvt Ltd and Chairman, Singapore Manufacturing Consortium Singapore
  

The Digital Economy Revolution

For countries in Southeast Asia, the drive to digitize their economies has not been a question of if, but rather, how and when. The region has seen rapid innovation in many key markets and has witnessed exponential growth and diversification of companies utilizing digital platforms. MSMEs, critical to economic success in the region are quickly understanding that they also must adopt digital solutions in order to compete in the growing digital ecosystem. At the same time, financial sectors have also experienced a similar transformation with fintech emerging as a key channel for accelerating access to and usage of financial services for a wide range of clients and markets.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on these same economies - the IMF World Economic Outlook projecting GDP to fall to negative 6% for ASEAN countries – the need to digitize commerce and finance has become critically important for surviving through the pandemic and to prepare for recovery. While businesses and individuals suffered, many turned to fintech solutions to access funds as there was no other option possible. In the Philippines, for example, fintech solutions offered 24-hour convenience and safe access to funds. Data indicates that four million new digital e-money accounts were opened (remotely) from 15 March to 30 April 2020. Governments in the region have been tasked with unprecedented urgency to provide emergency relief to businesses and individuals across all sectors and populations. But in the absence of a strong well-functioning digital economy with effective digital channels, these benefits are extremely difficult to deliver to those who need the assistance the most.

Objective of the Session and Benefits:

This session will look at how government and private sector have responded to the challenge to increase access for all through fintech and e-commerce and how the pandemic has accelerated adoption of new approaches which can help drive and sustain the recovery process and at the same time establish strong platforms to grow strong digital economies.

Moderator:
Kelly Hattel, Senior Financial Sector Specialist, ADB

Speakers:

• Magnus Ekbom, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Lazada Group
  
• Deanna Morris, Programme Management Officer, United Nations ESCAP
• Ellen Joyce Suficiencia, Officer in Charge, Center for Learning and Inclusion Advocacy, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) 
  
• JoJo Malolos, President and CEO, JG Digital Equity Ventures
  
• Isvary Sivalingam, Southeast Asia Lead, Better than Cash Alliance, UN Capital Development Fund

Access for All: Remote Learning and “EdTech”

Session Background:
As COVID-19 continues to force students to stay at home, learning has become largely online for many. While some governments, schools, parents, and students were more prepared than others in making the transition to online and distance learning, the experience has exposed challenges, drawing attention to the promise of education technology (EdTech). EdTech entails the use of technology and digital innovations to improve teaching and learning.

The experience of living through COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of innovative technology in providing access to education, while ensuring equity across income-groups and maintaining quality learning environment.

EdTech can also address the challenge of poor learning outcomes and weak skills in the workforce. In Southeast Asia, school enrolment up to tertiary education level has increased dramatically, but evidence from the last decade suggests that there is still a need for significant improvement—that is, students are in school in greater numbers and stay in school longer, but they are not mastering basic competencies for their grade level.1

An average student in low-income countries performs worse than 95 per cent of the student in high-income countries. Even among middle-income countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines, students at top-quarter of PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) Scores are below the bottom quarter of an average OECD country.2 Going beyond secondary school, the learning deficit begins early and accumulates over the years as students in primary school fail to master “minimum proficiency” in foundational skills. A learning crisis exacerbates existing inequalities in countries and worsens the prospects of youth from poor and disadvantaged communities.

With projections that across Asia-Pacific the EdTech market will grow to 54% of the global market by end of 2020,3 there is an urgent need for governments to understand whether it works and how best to take advantage of online learning tools and services to produce job-ready graduates.

Objective of the Session and Benefits:
The session will highlight stories of impact, innovation and success stories. The session will also try to shed light on the following:

• Will EdTech help countries improve learning outcomes? How will it be any different in the wake of the pandemic? 
  
• Evidence shows that many current EdTech interventions tend to be designed without inputs from educators and policymakers. Dramatic expansions of education opportunities to underserved population cannot be achieved with technology alone. How will this time be any different? 
  
• Can countries capitalize on the renewed push for EdTech and start introducing technology enabled innovation across formal education systems? What are the main barriers? 
  
• Given the differences in levels of ICT infrastructure, not all countries are “EdTech ready” to make this change—how can we overcome the infrastructure deficit? Can low-cost technology solutions be effective? 
  

Speakers:

• Colin Marson, Head of Google for Education, APAC, Google 
  
• Sarah Pouezevara, Senior Education Research Analyst and EdTech Specialist, RTI International 
  
• Vincent Quah, Regional Head - Regional Head for Education, Research, Healthcare and Not-For-Profit, Head – ASEAN Public Sector, Asia Pacific and Japan Global Public Sector, Amazon Web Services 
  
• Janine Teo, Chief Executive Officer, Solve Education!
  
• Robert Smith, Higher Education & eResearch Lead - APAC, Microsoft

Leveraging Digital Technology for Health

Session Background:

The COVID-19 pandemic has jolted health care systems around the world. Technology in health brings great opportunities for prevention, detection and response to COVID-19, but have policymakers and strategist done enough with technology to maximize efficiency and health outcomes? The mixed results to date of the global pandemic potentially suggest technology may not have been used effectively enough. The panel explores how technology could be leveraged in the three dimensions of prevention, detection and response, including use of IT for communications and information dissemination, mobile technology for testing, interoperability of datasets for track, trace and verification, medical technology for vaccines, and how to better mitigate future outbreaks by using data visualization and artificial intelligence. The session will end by exploring how to harness technology to bridge the divide and address inequality in health outcomes, and strengthen collaboration across borders.

Objective of the Session and Benefits:

Moderator:
Azusa Sato, Social Sector Specialist, ADB

Speakers:

• Anit Mukherjee, Policy Fellow, Center for Global Development
  
• Ankita Negi, Healthcare Industry Lead for APAC, Microsoft 
  
• Yit Ming Liaw, Co-Founder and CEO, Smarter Health
  

From Technology to Leadership
“Putting the Transformation back into Digital”

Session Background:
Much of the technology that we need to battle Covid19, and to achieve the SDGs, has already been invented and is in common use. Most potential strategies, even tactics, have been discussed and gamed out in multiple conferences and seminars. And yet so much remains to be done. This session will consider the challenges of moving from ideation to execution, from boardroom to boots on the ground, from process to leadership.

Objective of the Session and Benefits:
The objective is to augment strategic policymaking by adding new operational perspectives to strategic thinking and decision-making processes. The panel of field practitioners and business executives will be providing insights on questions like - how can we create the partnerships and teams that will execute the strategic plan, drive action, and scale initiatives? How can we engage youth and grass roots activists to achieve goals? How do we nurture leaders that can create enabling environments for technology that lead to positive change?

• Teymoor Nabili, Publisher and CEO, TechforImpact
  

Speakers:

• Zahin Hussain, Consultant, UNDP CoLabs 
  
• Prasoon Kumar, CEO, BillionBricks 
  
• Virginia Tan, Founding Partner, Teja Ventures; Founder, She Loves Tech; Founder, Lean In China