Committee on Digital Economy Policy (CDEP) Mr. Yoichi Iida
1. What is the mission and mandate of your Committee? The Committee on Digital Economy Policy (CDEP) studies, measures and exchanges information on the digital transformation, to develop evidence-based policies and standards that help countries reap its benefits and mitigate its potential risks. Through multi-stakeholder processes, it seeks to: stimulate the growth of an accessible, innovative, open, inclusive and trusted digital economy for sustained prosperity and wellbeing; provide policymakers with the tools needed to develop a forward-looking, whole-of-government policy response that leverages the potential of digital transformation for growth and wellbeing across policy areas; understand the impact of specific digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, 5G and big data analytics, on society and economy, and design appropriate policies. 2. You have been designated Committee Chair. What is your background and what has convinced you to take up this post? How do you consider your background and experience contribute to such a role and function? I started my career in the government late 80s in the Japanese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, where I worked for international policy making in telecom field. In the early 90s, I had the opportunity to work in the OECD Secretariat in the division then called Information, Computer and Communication Policy (ICCP) Division, which preceded the current Digital Economy Policy Division. I learned a lot from the experience, in particular about multilateral work environment, and came to dream of joining and contributing to the committee as the national delegate in the future. In this sense, taking the role of the Committee Chair is a ‘dream come true’ for me. Furthermore, over the last several years, I have been working for multilateral policy fora such as G7 and G20, in promoting digital policy priorities such as AI, data flow and Internet governance. In these government policy fora, OECD is the major knowledge partner, and most policy analyses are supported by OECD. Therefore I worked very closely through my work at these fora. For example, I chaired G7 working group for ICT Ministerial in 2016, and G20 Digital Economy Task Force in 2019, in both of which I had tremendous support and guidance from OECD colleagues and enjoyed ongoing cooperation in achieving our common goals such as adoption of AI Principles and advancement of discussion on international data governance (Data Free Flow with Trust) at the Leaders’ Summit. These experiences contributed to strengthening mutual understanding and trust between OECD and our government, and led to my greater engagement as the Committee Chair. 3. What is your main priority as Chair? Because digital affects virtually all sectors of economy, the CDEP’s work is broad and relates to many other policy areas addressed at the OECD. My three main priorities as the Chair of the Committee are therefore to: 1) Maintain and advance the CDEP’s leadership and expertise in the core issues underlying the digital
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