Tackling Digital Inclusion: Just Makes Good (Business) Sense

Forget clogs, tulips and weed, the Dutch bring a lot more to the international business table. Think instead #sustainability #innovation #cocreation - critical blocks to any successful business collaboration.

By Sebastiaan Messerschmidt,Consul General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands & Nichi Walker-Woodard, Deputy Consul General

AND THIS is no different in the Artificial Intelligence arena. AI is no doubt set to become the defining technology of the future and the Netherlands has carefully built its foundations for a solid AI policy and strategy. Developing a competitive economy to maximise the benefits that AI technologies can bring to the Netherlands and the nations it trades with, the country’s main idea is to fund applied technical research supported by social research. “ Forget clogs, tulips and weed, the Dutch bring a lot more to the international business table.

Think instead #sustainability #innovation #cocreation - critical blocks to any successful business

This is achieved through the Dutch Triple Helix approach (Government, Private Sector and Knowledge Institutes ” collaboration. working together) which has contributed significantly to the Netherlands having one of the strongest economies in the world.

Innovative, sustainable solutions arising from these critical collaborations are then taken to market where relationships are built and the demand side is kept at the core of all engagements.

But understanding local demand in the African context is no mean feat, and requires ongoing investment into understanding the complexities of the local ecosystem. The annual #cocreateDESIGN

Festival, an initiative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in South Africa, is one such example. It engages people with local and Dutch business communities

Sebastiaan Messerschmidt, Consul General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

Nichi Walker-Woodard, Deputy Consul General

and civil society organisations, all to tackle current socio-economic and environmental challenges through the power of design thinking.

This year’s festival hosted in Langa, Cape Town tackled the complexities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the African context with the theme ‘Towards Digital Inclusion’. Understanding 4IR as the convergence of our physical environment, cybernetics and the biomedical worlds, the consensus amongst festival participants was that the fourth industrial revolution is very much with us in South Africa and is fundamentally impacting on the way people live, work and interact with each other.

Participants also agreed though that this is not the reality for everyone, as the numbers of disadvantaged are growing (e.g. over 30% unemployment rate) and access to (very expensive) digital technology is not for the masses. Indeed South Africa, often experiencing debilitating daily load-shedding, could be said to be stuck in the 2nd and 3rd industrial revolutions too.

This is not an easy context for doing business, but the most successful businesses entering the market will be those who recognise this, as they #cocreate, #innovate and build sustainable solutions (whilst making a good return on investment of course).

And so this year’s AI Expo Africa brings an exciting opportunity to the Dutch business community operating in this space. From agriculture to water, transport and logistics to health sciences, energy solutions to creative industries, we are looking forward to #cocreating and #innovating- make sure you join us at our business table and get the conversation going. ai