South Africa Digital Economy Diagnostic

South Africa is one of the digital economy leaders on the African continent, but lags developed countries. In this context, the digital economy for Africa targets appear within reach for South Africa, although efforts need to be maintained. Launche...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: World Bank Group
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/464421589343923215/South-Africa-Digital-Economy-Diagnostic
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33786
id okr-10986-33786
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-337862021-06-14T09:59:29Z South Africa Digital Economy Diagnostic World Bank Group DIGITAL ECONOMY DIGITAL SKILLS TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE BROADBAND DIGITAL DIVIDE E-GOVERNMENT PUBLIC DIGITAL PLATFORM INTEROPERABILITY DIGITAL FINANCIAL SERVICES DIGITAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP South Africa is one of the digital economy leaders on the African continent, but lags developed countries. In this context, the digital economy for Africa targets appear within reach for South Africa, although efforts need to be maintained. Launched in 2018 through a collaboration between the African Union (AU) and the World Bank, the digital economy for Africa initiative aims to ensure that every individual, business, and government in Africa will be digitally enabled by 2030. South Africa can also play a leading role for regional digital development, particularly within the context of the recently signed continental free trade area (CFTA) agreement, as well closer to home in the Southern Africa development community (SADC) and common market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) context, following on the East Africa single digital market as an example. South Africa can assist by leading the agenda to harmonize customs, disseminating best practices to other countries around issues such as data regulation, improvement in the ecommerce environment, promotion of Africa wide payment systems, and the provision of an even stronger regional hub for tech entrepreneurs. In this context, the South African government is aiming to pass several reforms across core elements of the digital economy, recognizing the need for new policy directions and preparing for the fourth industrial revolution (4iR). While South Africa’s wealthy households have broad access to quality and relatively affordable internet, people earning less than South African rand (ZAR) 7000 a month are largely unconnected. This report reviews how the digital divide affects the foundations of the digital economy and provides policy options for bridging the divide. This report will provide a diagnostic and offer recommendations on the five foundations of the digital economy in South Africa. The report will examine challenges concerning digital infrastructure, public digital government platforms, digital financial services, digital entrepreneurship, and digital skills. 2020-05-21T14:53:14Z 2020-05-21T14:53:14Z 2019-12-01 Report http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/464421589343923215/South-Africa-Digital-Economy-Diagnostic http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33786 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work Economic & Sector Work :: Other Infrastructure Study Africa South Africa
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic DIGITAL ECONOMY
DIGITAL SKILLS
TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE
BROADBAND
DIGITAL DIVIDE
E-GOVERNMENT
PUBLIC DIGITAL PLATFORM
INTEROPERABILITY
DIGITAL FINANCIAL SERVICES
DIGITAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
spellingShingle DIGITAL ECONOMY
DIGITAL SKILLS
TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE
BROADBAND
DIGITAL DIVIDE
E-GOVERNMENT
PUBLIC DIGITAL PLATFORM
INTEROPERABILITY
DIGITAL FINANCIAL SERVICES
DIGITAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
World Bank Group
South Africa Digital Economy Diagnostic
geographic_facet Africa
South Africa
description South Africa is one of the digital economy leaders on the African continent, but lags developed countries. In this context, the digital economy for Africa targets appear within reach for South Africa, although efforts need to be maintained. Launched in 2018 through a collaboration between the African Union (AU) and the World Bank, the digital economy for Africa initiative aims to ensure that every individual, business, and government in Africa will be digitally enabled by 2030. South Africa can also play a leading role for regional digital development, particularly within the context of the recently signed continental free trade area (CFTA) agreement, as well closer to home in the Southern Africa development community (SADC) and common market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) context, following on the East Africa single digital market as an example. South Africa can assist by leading the agenda to harmonize customs, disseminating best practices to other countries around issues such as data regulation, improvement in the ecommerce environment, promotion of Africa wide payment systems, and the provision of an even stronger regional hub for tech entrepreneurs. In this context, the South African government is aiming to pass several reforms across core elements of the digital economy, recognizing the need for new policy directions and preparing for the fourth industrial revolution (4iR). While South Africa’s wealthy households have broad access to quality and relatively affordable internet, people earning less than South African rand (ZAR) 7000 a month are largely unconnected. This report reviews how the digital divide affects the foundations of the digital economy and provides policy options for bridging the divide. This report will provide a diagnostic and offer recommendations on the five foundations of the digital economy in South Africa. The report will examine challenges concerning digital infrastructure, public digital government platforms, digital financial services, digital entrepreneurship, and digital skills.
format Report
author World Bank Group
author_facet World Bank Group
author_sort World Bank Group
title South Africa Digital Economy Diagnostic
title_short South Africa Digital Economy Diagnostic
title_full South Africa Digital Economy Diagnostic
title_fullStr South Africa Digital Economy Diagnostic
title_full_unstemmed South Africa Digital Economy Diagnostic
title_sort south africa digital economy diagnostic
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2020
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/464421589343923215/South-Africa-Digital-Economy-Diagnostic
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33786
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