ROME: Ministers from the Group of Twenty (G20) on August 5 established the Digital Economy Working Group, a forum that will help steer the world through upcoming digital transitions. At a  summit of G20 ministers, Italy's Minister for Technological Innovation and Digital Transition Vittorio Colao said the creation of the working group was the crowning achievement of the talks. Italy, which holds the 2021 G20 presidency, hosted the talks in the northeastern port city of Trieste.

"Thanks to the work of the Italian presidency, the Digital Economy Working Group was born at this year's G20," Colao said, calling the working group a platform that will "lead the debate on the digital transformation in the public and private sector for future G20 presidencies." The minister said the coronavirus pandemic illustrated the value of digital capacities. The minister added, "In a remarkably short period of time, the 27 European Union countries designed, tested, and made operational an infrastructure that makes digital health certificates operational between platforms and easy to authenticate."

The challenge of making the newly-established working group relevant in the future will include addressing the different speeds with which countries and large companies move toward their own versions of digital transformation.

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