Digital economy is far less about technique than facilitating choice

-applications bringing disparate groups of people into a market situation. That is where most people fit in, or at least try to find their grounding.

A digital economy training seminar was lately being held for policy makers, organised by the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) where the overall symposium statement indicated that the focus of the training was digital computing technologies. This furthers interconnectedness among people and organizations, with current developments elevating virtual proximity into three dimensional interaction as if people are actually seated around a table, not just connected by phone. It enhances the quality of communications and reduces by a wider margin the need to meet face to face for intense talk.

The period when many countries faced lockdown measures eased in most part by application of such technologies as people work and communicate in their own study rooms or verandah back home as if they were in office. Such technologies have enabled a more personalized approach between service providers and clients or suppliers and buyers, in like manner as online calling of taxis changes the way people look at such service – not to know a specific person to call but an organised network with safeguards. All this compels organisations to adapt in how they offer goods and services or be eclipsed by competitors, etc.

It isn’t clear how far the public authorities can develop a usable digital skills environment via policies and strategies to facilitate take up and application of such technologies. The TCRA noted that digital take up in the economy is altering conventional notions about how businesses are structured, how consumers obtain goods and services, and how states need to adapt to new regulatory challenges. Its emphasis on the primacy of supporting infrastructure, terminal devices, digital skills and a well-planned strategy on digital transformation was sufficient for public actors, but individual actors face a different kind of challenge.

Facilitation as the TCRA summary illustrates is one thing, but the fruitful use of such tools and how far they can change the quality of one’s business planning or execution is a different matter. Here the wider policy and macroeconomic limitations take hold of the matter, for instance the costing of materials, pricing of goods or services, and purchasing power in an economy, or a location where the user lives. Many businesses are tied to purchase choices in a limited neighbourhood, not in the entire economy.

That is why this tools approach needs to be widened or at least paralleled by the cost and purchasing power aspect, where the final issue is taxation. Low taxes facilitate more entrepreneurs and greater demand for goods and services, but with one third of the total revenue taken up by servicing debts, cutting taxes is hard. Selling off the debt to mitigate outflows is not a bad idea.