By Emmanuel Oluebube, Correspondent UK                                                        

The EBRD’s Office of the Chief Economist  is set for the live launch of the Transition Report 2021-22: System upgrade: Delivering the digital dividend on Wednesday 10 to November at 16:00 (London time).

The launch will be opened by the EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso.  This will be followed by a presentation of the report findings by EBRD Chief Economist Beata Javorcik, who will then moderate a panel discussion between Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Daron Acemoğlu, Dina Matta and Oleksandr Bornyakov.

Major upheavals such as pandemics, wars and natural disasters act as catalysts for system upgrades – momentous societal, political and technological changes. Digitalisation during the Covid-19 crisis is a case in point. In many countries, large parts of the economy, as well as schools and universities, went online in a matter of days. That gigantic natural experiment was made possible by – and, in turn, gave a massive additional boost to – digital technologies.

The digitalisation process is destined to continue and will remain one of the key forces shaping developments around the world – including in the EBRD regions. It is therefore quite fitting that this year’s Transition Report is devoted to that subject.  It explores the size of the digital divides in EBRD countries, the digital infrastructure and its link to firm performance, teleworking, artificial intelligence and the labour force as well as fintech and banks in transition. The report also introduces a financial market development index, and features the regular analysis of structural reform.

Speakers:

• Toomas Hendrik Ilves is an Estonian politician who served as the fourth president of Estonia from 2006 until 2016.
• Daron Acemoğlu is the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics at MIT.
• Dina Matta is the EBRD Vice President, Chief Transformation Officer.
• Oleksandr Bornyakov is Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.
• Beata Javorcik is the EBRD Chief Economist and Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford.