COVID-19 has accelerated the shift to online government services with positive impacts on private sector growth, vulnerable populations and administrative productivity:
- Benin is now the fastest place in the world to start a business (in under two hours).
- Kenya has cut the administrative costs and time faced by its trader and exporters by more than half.
- Bhutan registers and deliver licenses to cottage industries in its most remote valleys within seconds.
The data shows the biggest winners to be small entrepreneurs, particularly women, young people and rural populations who no longer have to queue at multiple government offices or cope with lengthy and difficult-to-understand procedures in order to enter the formal economy.
This session will explore the latest developments, discuss how more developing countries can go digital, and identify the best way to impact vulnerable populations. It will hear from on-the-ground experiences in developing countries, understand the approaches of global players and conclude with a memorandum of understanding between UNCTAD and the United Nations Institute for Training Research to accelerate the rollout of digital government worldwide.
Speaker(s)
