Regions

The word “innovation” appears a total of 97 times and “productivity” 63 times in Canada’s 2024 federal budget, and many measures targeted towards innovation and productivity reflect that focus. However, some of the funds being disbursed are tangential at best to actually addressing Canada’s declining productivity and supporting Canada’s innovation ecosystem.

The changes two bills are making to reduce market concentration in the Canadian economy pose grave risks to the future of the innovation that is essential to keeping Canada’s innovation economy from declining even more.

By changing the tax credit to be quasi-incremental, unifying the rates between small and large businesses, and simplifying the filing process, the government will be able to incentivize private R&D spending more effectively.

Instead of promoting and supporting Canadian content, the Online Streaming Act passes costs on to consumers. The government needs to modernize the way it thinks about supporting Canadian content and leverage technological innovation instead of fighting it.

If the proposed the proposed Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA) is implemented as is, Canada may not be able to fully realize the economic benefits that AI will bring.

ITIF’s submission focuses on the ITC’s interest in recent developments in the digital economy for key SSA markets, including national and regional regulatory and policy measures and market conditions that affect digital trade.

When attempting to evaluate the effect that a policy intervention can have on development or innovation, researchers and policymakers routinely look to short-term impacts, both out of urgency and because of the difficulty in maintaining contact with participants over several years.

Over the last decade, mobile money services have brought banking to populations that have lacked formal financial services by allowing users to manage money on their mobile phones. First launched in Kenya in 2007, 96 percent of Kenyan households now use mobile money and can withdraw funds in physical currency from 110,000 agents across the country.

Meet Arthur Zang, a 29 year-old Cameroonian engineer who invented the handheld Cardio-Pad, the world’s first medical tablet facilitating heart examinations and remote diagnosis. The Cardio-Pad is a touch-screen tablet device for conducting cardiac tests such as electrocardiograms in remote locations, and then sending the results to cardiologists in city centers often hundreds of miles away.

Rwanda’s government, which has declared a vision of making the country a technology and innovation hub for Africa, has partnered with the startup Zipline to facilitate the real-time delivery of urgent medical supplies, such as blood or vaccines, to patients in remote locations via drones.

India has the potential to play a much more significant role in global semiconductor value chains, provided the government upholds its investment policies, maintains a conducive regulatory and business environment, and avoids measures that create unpredictability.

With the Platform Competition Promotion Act, Korea should ensure its continuous development as an innovation leader by rejecting the EU model and instead following the light-touch path of the United States, as Robert Atkinson writes for The Korea Times.

As the global calls for antitrust reform continue to multiply, a sober look at the United States’ experience calls for a healthy skepticism in response to the hysteria in some corners about a systemic failure of merger enforcement.

Together, the United States and its like-minded partners in the CPTPP can work together to push Vietnam to remove restrictive and repressive digital policies. But if they fail to act, the challenge of building an open, rules-based, and rights-respecting digital economy will only get harder.

When it comes to the most important step Korea can take to address global climate change―boosting clean energy R&D―Korea, like most developed nations, is lagging.

China is leading in chemical production, especially basic chemicals. And while it is currently lagging behind on innovation—especially in more complex fine chemicals—all signs suggest it will catch up with the global leaders within the next decade or two.

While it is important for national security to prevent foreign adversaries from leveraging U.S. data for geostrategic advantage, it is also critical for U.S. economic security and technology leadership not to undermine the critical role that data and data flows play in modern commerce.

Alone, America cannot stem Beijing’s rise in advanced industries. We need a new pact with Europe. Its objective should be to refuse to surrender to technological domination by the CCP. Being pioneers of the green transition will not be enough.

A look at the proposals put forth during China's major annual political convening give hints as to what the government may focus on in the year ahead, which includes AI model development, data sharing, skills development, and safety.

Unlike the United States or the European Union, the primary focus among stakeholders in China was how to ensure China does not fall behind in the development or adoption of this emerging technology.

At the start of its digital transformation, Estonia had a GDP per capita of $3,134. By 2022, it was $28,247—an increase of more than 800 percent in less than 30 years. Its journey holds lessons for the EU.

Alone, America cannot stem Beijing’s rise in advanced industries. We need a new pact with Europe. Its objective should be to refuse to surrender to technological domination by the CCP. Being pioneers of the green transition will not be enough.

The United States and European Union should work through the Trade and Technology Council to align their respective cybersecurity labeling programs for the Internet of Things rather than allowing IoT security to become another technical barrier to trade and technology cooperation.

The EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) is attempting to chip away at the alleged dominance of the so-called tech giants, but not for the better.

Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology Michelle Donelan's recommendations, while commendable, fail to consider the wider context in which UK innovation currently sits, calling into question the feasibility of her plans in one of the most politically charged times of Conservative Party leadership.

A new working paper estimates that cross-border patenting from the Global North to the Global South would have been about 43 percent lower in the absence of globalization.

Congress should pass the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act to restore full R&D expensing to drive U.S productivity, growth, and global competitiveness.

The United States should not endorse an IPR waiver in the WHO Pandemic Preparedness Agreement. It would not increase the number of vaccines or therapeutics, or the global supply that might be needed to address a future global pandemic.

Governments should ignore the message that large firms are harmful and instead allow them to acquire market power legitimately, keep IP rights strong, and reduce corporate tax rates. Doing so will increase innovation and expand the economic pie for everyone.

Clean hydrogen is expensive to produce, difficult to transport, and a second- or third-best clean energy solution in almost all proposed markets. To help drive the global green transition, a realist approach to hydrogen policy must address all these practical challenges.

Innovation plays a critical role in improving public health and in overcoming global health challenges. The call for LATAM Health Champions, which ran from February 5 to March 5, 2024, received more than 60 applications proposing innovative health solutions to a wide range of health challenges. Here, the top 20 are highlighted.

A recent working paper found that women in Latin America and the Caribbean with internet access had a 5 percent lower rate of job pre-pandemic job loss and about a 4 percent increase in their labor force participation rate than those without internet.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act has played a significant role in the development of the Internet. Proposed changes to weaken or repeal it would have a significant economic impact on online services, business users, and consumers.

Europe’s digital model may not be the best fit for Brazil. Bill 2768/2022, mirroring the EU’s experimental Digital Markets Act, could potentially hinder innovation rather than ignite it. Brazil’s digital landscape calls for a culture of innovation, not borrowed blueprints of unnecessary intervention.

The Dominican Republic is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, offers perhaps the most attractive business environment in Latin America, and is a leading candidate for nearshored investments in advanced manufacturing activity—particularly for electronics such as printed circuit boards (PCBs) and the assembly, test, and packaging (ATP) of semiconductors.