Joint Statement: Public-Private Roundtable on Digital Priorities

7 Jun 2019 03:07 PM

TOKYO – Today, JEITA, ITI, DIGITALEUROPE, and techUK issued the following joint statement in advance of the G20 Ministerial Meeting on Trade and Digital Economy in...

On June 7, 2019, ahead of the G20 Ministerial Meeting on Trade and Digital Economy JEITA, ITI, DIGITALEUROPE, and techUK convened senior government and private sector representatives in Tokyo to discuss global collaboration on digital policy issues, including artificial intelligence (AI), data free flow with trust (DFFT), and the role of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Digital transformation breaks down national barriers and fosters a collaborative approach, which is needed to deliver prosperity, growth and benefits to citizens across the world.

Roundtable participants discussed the importance of public-private collaboration on digital policies, which helps industry, government, and other stakeholders make strides in achieving the goal of “Society 5.0” by addressing issues of importance to the global community, including: reducing CO2 emissions, improving inclusivity and reducing gender and social biases, and fostering personalized healthcare. Participants also discussed AI, which is poised to help achieve these goals, and underscored that its implementation must be paired with a human-centric approach, so everyone can share in technology’s benefits. As today’s discussion affirmed, this requires careful consideration of fundamental policy issues, such as how to facilitate data flows and increase interoperability.

The participating associations and governments highlighted the importance of promoting and supporting guidelines and frameworks to foster collaborative policy discussions on issues foundational to the development of AI, including safety, privacy and data governance, ethics, and diversity and inclusion. The European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group’s Guidelines for Trustworthy AI; the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) recently released AI Principles; the UK Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation, and Japan’s “Social Principles of Human-Centric AI” are all examples of  important and aligned work to develop guidance to institutions and companies developing and deploying AI technologies. We welcome and will continue to support these multi-stakeholder efforts.

Our associations fully recognize that robust privacy protections and cybersecurity are essential in the free flow of data. In this context, we encourage discussions among stakeholders to further develop the concept of “Trust” in the free flow of data (DFFT).

We convened today’s roundtable in the spirit of advancing a collaborative approach to addressing key policy questions related to emerging technology and data. We intend to review the outcomes of the discussion and identify appropriate fora in which to advance key initiatives.  Our associations thank today’s participants for their efforts. We look forward to advancing global public-private collaboration on technology issues and thank the Japanese Government for its leadership during Japan’s G20 Presidency.