Digital Economy: Potential Cooperation Area between the Czech Republic and Pacific Alliance

- The Pacific Alliance has embarked on an ambitious strategy for developing a Regional. Digital Market (MDR). Its main concerns are with productivity, the promotion of digital SMEs, improving institutions and infrastructure, the growing skills gap and cybersecurity.
- The Czech Republic has developed equally ambitious programs for the Digital Czech Republic, Czech Republic: The Country of the Future and its National Artificial Intelligence Strategy.
- The focus of these programs on regional development centers, platforms supporting SMEs, training and capacity building for the digital society and cybersecurity suggest significant synergies and areas of cooperation between the Czech Republic and the Pacific Alliance, in collaboration with the OECD.
- Particular areas where the Czech Republic could collaborate with the Pacific Alliance include the construction of a Regional Digital Market (MDR), developing policies to promote innovation and entrepreneurship focused on SMEs and the creation of effective training and capacity building programs to develop the skill sets and lifelong learning required by the digital economy.
- The development of an MDR by the Pacific Alliance inevitably involves the alliance in broader international discussions of digital technologies, including cybersecurity and internet governance. The Pacific Alliance should consider the appointment of an Ambassador to the technology sector to engage better with the major international internet companies.