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Designing CBDCs for success

The decision to develop a central bank digital currency, or a CBDC, must be the outcome of wide-ranging policy and technology choices. What factors are at play in designing and implementing CBDCs? Which of the G7 foundational principles should be emphasized, and where can the private sector lend valuable experience? To find out, read the latest report from the Visa Economic Empowerment Institute.

Digital Cross-Border Trade Post-COVID:Paperless, Logistics Tech | Economic Empowerment | GZERO Media

How digitization is accelerating international trade

How did the pandemic facilitate cross-border trade?

It certainly helped move things along more efficiently in two ways, Nextrade Group founder and CEO Kati Suominen says during a livestream conversation on closing the global digital gap hosted by GZERO in partnership with Visa.

First, customs agencies in many countries (finally!) went paperless — a huge help for small businesses. Second, COVID accelerated the move toward logistics tech innovations like data-driven route optimization or drone delivery that make it easier and faster to deliver stuff.

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Adapting To A Digital Economy Around The World | Economic Empowerment | GZERO Media

Adapting to a digital economy around the world

In the next decade, 70% of new value in the global economy will come from digital businesses. But more than 3.5 billion people without internet access will be cut off, and not all of them will live in the developing world.

“This is very much a global challenge,” Eurasia Group senior analyst Ali Wyne says in a livestream conversation hosted by GZERO in partnership with Visa.

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GZERO Media

The world economy’s digital destiny

One of the most important changes happening in the global economy today is invisible. It’s the accelerating move from hard currencies and brick-and-mortar banks to digital and mobile-based platforms for commerce, payments, and banking.

This shift, which got a boost from the COVID pandemic, will transform the global economy from the ground up: broadening households’ and entrepreneurs’ access to the financial tools they need to thrive and grow, which strengthens national and regional economies, ultimately spurring more global economic growth. The annual value of the digital economy is already valued at $14.5 trillion. And through the next decade, it will account for nearly three-quarters of global GDP expansion.

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A customer sets-up M-Pesa money transfer servive inside a store operated by Kenyan's telecom operator Safaricom.

Reuters

What We’re Watching: Boosting access, gender equality, and trust in the digital economy

More tha 3 billion people are still not operating within the digital economy, thus widening global inequality. We look at three issues the world’s grappling with to bring them on board.

Why internet access is everything

Scan any UN report’s “development goals” and the importance of expanding global internet access becomes obvious. To end poverty, boost healthcare, improve the quality of education, reduce all forms of inequality of opportunity, create jobs, power innovation, and enhance life in the world’s cities, more human beings need reliable access to the internet. That’s why it’s disappointing that half the world’s countries remain slow to introduce information and communications technologies (ICT) in schools and that too many poor countries still lack the mobile broadband needed to connect. The pandemic has been a good-news, bad-news story here. The virus has forced greater investment in ICT and provided people everywhere with obvious incentives to learn how to use it. But a difference in means ensures the gap between rich and poor countries has grown wider. The solution to these problems depends, as ever, on greater international investment. This isn’t charity, and it isn’t simply a matter of “fairness.” All countries need a stronger, more resilient, and more sustainable global economy. Shared prosperity depends now more than ever on access to the internet for everyone.

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GZERO Media

The Graphic Truth: Mobile payments around the world

Mobile payments took off during the pandemic, and there's no going back. Contactless payments using your phone are now king in many parts of the world, like China, where cash is becoming an afterthought. But adoption has been uneven, with Asia leading the way and Latin America struggling to keep pace. Meanwhile, people in sub-Saharan Africa are digging low-tech mobile payment solutions that work on simple cellphone networks. We look at which regions will dominate these transactions in the future and which are the most popular platforms globally, highlighting a few select markets.

Lowering Costs of Poverty With Digital & Economic Access | Economic Empowerment | GZERO Media

Lowering costs of poverty with digital & economic access

By the end of the decade, 70% of all new value in the global economy will come from digitally enabled businesses. The pandemic accelerated a push toward digitalization, especially in developing nations, yet nearly 4 billion people are still offline, and 1.4 billion don't have a bank account.

Expanding access to digital tools for individuals and small businesses is a no-brainer, but easier said than done. So, what can we do to expand digital trade further, come up with fairer and safer remittances and digital payments, and push to include everyone in tomorrow's digital-first economy?

To get some answers, GZERO hosted in partnership with Visa the livestream conversation "Closing the Gap: Digital Tools for Economic Empowerment," moderated by JJ Ramberg, co-founder of Goodpods and former host of MSNBC's Your Business.

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Watch live October 19: Can access to digital tools transform the world's economy?

Is digitization crucial to economic growth? GZERO Media is partnering with Visa to explore what it means when 70% of the global economy’s growth in the next decade is projected to come from digitally-enabled businesses – yet 3.7 billion people lack internet access. What are the tools and initiatives needed to bring more people into the digital economy?

Live on Wednesday, October 19, our expert panel will explore the impact of digitization on empowering consumers and small businesses. Please register to attend.

Closing the Gap: Digital Tools for Economic Empowerment

Wednesday, October 19, 2022 | 11 am ET / 8 am PT

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