Page 107 - SAMENA Trends - July-August 2022

ARTICLE SAMENA TRENDS

ARTICLE

Toward Excellence in the Digital Economy

Over the last two decades, digital technologies have transformed
society at unprecedented scale, changing the ways we live, work,
play, commute, and interact. Indeed, today, digital technology has
the potential to make widespread social and economic advances.
The COVID-19 pandemic has only reminded us of this fact,
teaching the world that it must build digital resiliency to prepare
itself to better handle unforeseen, disruptive events. Going further,
to prosper in the new world we find ourselves in, it has become
critical for nations to understand and cater to the digital-based
economic construct that we refer to as the digital economy. Overall,
the digital economy as a share of the total economy has, in general,
been growing and those countries with larger digital economies,
relative to the whole, have proven to be more resilient.

Defining the Digital Economy and Key Trends
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD), the digital economy encompasses all
economic activities reliant on, or significantly enhanced by, digital
inputs, including digital technologies, digital infrastructure, digital
services, and data. This can be taken as a broad definition. As
such, the emergence and evolution of this digital economy is
characterized by three key trends.

The Dominance of Digital Business Models: The digital economy is
often called the platform economy due to the dominance of digital
business models and the digital platforms that enable them. Key
examples include the dominance of digital-native players — think
Careem and Noon in transportation and retail — as well as the shift
to apps and the closure of bank branches.
Safder Nazir
The Shift from Providing Services to Creating Experiences: In the Senior Vice President, Digital Industries
digital economy, organizations differentiate themselves by creating Huawei Middle East
digital experiences for customers. For example, the public sector
is actively pursuing a whole-of-government approach, breaking
institutional silos to provide a seamless digital experience to
citizens through initiatives such as national government service
portals, customer journeys, national digital identities, and more.

The Rise of Industry Ecosystems: In the digital economy, traditional
and linear value chains, with limited partner engagement,
have given way to scaled-up, integrated ecosystems that use
software platforms to deliver value. For example, leading banks

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