Frontier technologies carry a promise to fast track the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through supporting innovative, forwarding-looking policies and solutions. There are, however, numerous risks and complexities of digital technologies that come along with those opportunities, such as a widening digital divide as well as policy and regulatory challenges.
In recent years, relatively new approaches of policy experimentation and regulatory sandboxes have emerged among countries, and have proven to be effective in creating a more conducive space where governments, in partnerships with relevant stakeholders, can experiment and trial with digital technologies and innovations at the edge or outside of the existing policy space and regulatory framework.
The Maldives is one of three[1] target countries of the project. A sensitization workshop was held on 3rd June 2021[2] of which the Maldives identified ‘Digital currency’ and ‘Mobile Wallet’ as potential project’s focus areas. As a follow-up to the sensitisation workshop, DESA, ESCAP and the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Technology (MECCT) are jointly organising a national consultation workshop with relevant domestic stakeholders on the project.
The key objectives of the meeting are to conduct in-depth consultation with national stakeholders and experts on the opportunities and obstacles of implementing policy experimentation on ‘Digital currency’ and ‘Mobile Wallet’ and to identify the next course of action in strategic planning and implementation for advancing the project in the Maldives.
For any question related to the event, please contact the ESCAP secretariat at [email protected].
[1] Bangladesh and Kazakhstan.
