Page 54 - ASEAN-EU Dialogue 2018: Regional and Inter-Regional Economic Cooperation: Identifying Priorities for ASEAN and the EU

commerce as well as helping small and mid-level organisations gain global outreach, they also
have assisted in the facilitation of job matching.

The EU should also look through the angle of the investor in a sense, to understand what
investors are looking for within the digitalization of industrialisation. Within this effort,
European governments can strongly advocate for increased investments in digital infrastructure
and digital skills and to deepen and expand its digital ecosystem. AI technologies can also be
a targeted market for EU investors. This is considering the landscape of the continent itself
which has many AI and next gen startups, with vibrant ecosystems in the making in cities
including Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Stockholm. The companies around these territories can
look at investors’ sentiment premised around incentives and access to capital. Another premise
the EU can look at is the development of human capital towards the direction of digitalisation.
Strategic moves revolving around this sentiment include moves to spur entrepreneurship,
business dynamism, and job creation. The argument for this is that new products, new activities,
and new business models will be especially important in Europe, as the continent’s relatively
high wage levels will likely speed up automation adoption. There also needs to be a strong and
effective educational base as this will allow both faster digitisation and preparation of workers
for the transition. Nations realise this when they start to improve science, technology,
engineering, and math (STEM) skills and put a new emphasis on creativity as well as critical
and systems thinking. Greater mobility and better matching of talent with opportunity is needed
across Europe to increase fluidity. This is where digitalization comes into play, in a sense that
digital platforms can support that and open up myriad opportunities for individuals to earn
income outside of traditional employment contracts. A rethinking of worker support could
serve instrumental for the outflow of ideas such as conditional transfers, adapted social safety
nets, different forms of taxation, or even universal basic income may need to be considered and
tested, as Finland and the Netherlands are currently doing.

The Digital Market Initiative
The continuous integration of EU member states and the borderless nature of digitalisation
states push for the embodiment of the Digital Single Market initiative adopted by the bloc in
2015. The initiative revolves around the pillars, namely: much more liberal access for
organisations and consumers to the digitalisation of goods and services; the creation of
platforms that enable fair competition for digital networks to actualise their economic potential;
and the maximization of overall growth potential of the digital market. As far as efforts and
strategizing is concerned, there have been numerous proposals in the spirit of realising the
Digital Single Market initiative through various forms of action. One of those forms is the
sentiment of investing in digital infrastructures. In September 2016, the EU Commission
crafted the European Electronic Communications Code to modernise the current legislative
framework for communication in 2009. Seeing as how it takes into consideration the
emergence of AI technology and elements of digitalisation, it offers a more attractive
regulatory environment that will foster investments in top-quality infrastructure and
technologies across the EU. In the same year, a goal was set that by the end of 2017, whereby
the European Commission will also update the European guidelines that help national telecoms
regulators decide when to intervene in markets. Then, there is guaranteeing the free flow of
personal data which can be realised through a clear, comprehensive and predictable framework
for data storage and data processing services. This will contribute to a more competitive and
integrated EU market. Another form of action vital within this push is strengthening the EU’s
Creative Sector.

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