The 2022 Innovation and Catch-up in Platform Economy (ICPE) High Level forum was held online on the 18th of November with the theme ‘South-South Cooperation in Science, Technology, and Innovation’. The Oxford Technology and Management Centre for Development (TMCD) hosted the event in collaboration with the China Watch Institute of China Daily. Scholars, practitioners, and policy makers convened and shared their ideas and perspectives on technological innovation and the role of digital technologies in the South-South Cooperation.

Yingpu Qu, publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily, gave the opening remarks, where he highlighted that scientific innovation, and the application of new technologies can serve as structural solutions to the problems confronting the Global South in its development. He said the purpose of the forum was to share experiences of sustainable development and building a consensus for South-South Cooperation.

Professor Xiaolan Fu, the Director of TMCD and Principal Investigator of the ICPE project, noted that innovation is an important driver for long-term economic growth and sustainable development, and emphasized the significance of international cooperation in science, technology, and innovation. Drawing on the findings from a case study of a leading Chinese information technology company - Tencent, in the ICPE project, she suggested that Tencent’s value of ‘serving talents’ and emphasizing employees’ self-motivation and autonomy plays a very important role in motivating and empowering employees for greater innovation in the organization.

Sonia Bashir Kabir, Vice Co-chair of the Council of United Nations Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries said that the shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the weaknesses of existing systems and countries with stronger digital infrastructure were able to mount faster, more effective responses.

Taidong Zhou, Associate Research Fellow of the Development Research Center of the State Council, noted that strengthening cooperation in digital technology and intelligent science and technology among developing countries is becoming increasingly important and should be a key area of South-South Cooperation in the future.

Nobuya Haraguchi, Chief of the Industrial Policy Research Unit at the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation noted that advanced digital technologies are driving industrial growth across countries, and digitization is also supporting industrial firms’ resilience during the pandemic.

You can learn more about the ICPE Project here.