Building a Global Enabling Environment for the Digital Economy

The digital economy can drive democratic and economic development by opening new market channels for local businesses, promoting inclusive trade, and boosting tax revenue for governments to provide essential services. At the same time, legal and regulatory frameworks impact how innovation and development occur in markets around the globe. On November 7, the Center for International Private Enterprise with New Markets Lab, will host an event to discuss how their new guidebook: “Digital Economy Enabling Environment Guide: Key Areas of Dialogue for Business and Policymakers” can help governments, civil society, and business work together to make reforms that promote a robust and inclusive digital economy.

The guide explores four pressing digital economy themes: data protection, electronic transactions (e-payments and e-signatures), consumer protection, and cybersecurity. Together, these topics constitute much of the enabling environment for the digital economy and affect nearly every aspect of conducting business online in a responsible and secure manner. Inclusive economic growth and development in the digital age relies not only on infrastructure and investment, but on national policies and regulations that facilitate competitiveness and access to global markets for local business communities.

Join the conversation on Twitter with #DigitalEconomyDialogues!

Opening remarks:

• Andrew Wilson, Executive Director, CIPE

Panelists:

• Katrin Kuhlmann, President and Founder, New Markets Lab
  • Lead Author of the Guidebook
• Jacqueline Muna Musiitwa, Board Member, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD)
• Terence Chu, General Counsel and Acting Chief Compliance Officer, MPower Financing
• John Collins,  Partner, FS Vector
• Louisa Tomar, Global Program Officer, CIPE
  • Guidebook Editor (Moderator)

Speaker Bios:

• Katrin Kuhlmann is the President and Founder of the New Markets Lab, a non-profit law and development center.  She is also a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center, and she serves as a member of the Trade Advisory Committee on Africa of the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). Her areas of focus include trade and development, economic law and regulation, entrepreneurship, regional trade, and international legal and regulatory reform. She is published widely and frequently speaks on these topics, and she has testified before Congress on several occasions.
• Jacqueline Muna Musiitwa, Esq. is the Founder and Managing Partner of Hoja Law Group, a boutique legal consultancy that represents clients in corporate governance, commercial and public law matters. Musiitwa is also the Executive Director of Financial Sector Deepening Uganda, and was an advisor to the Director General of the World Trade Organization on matters of trade, economic integration and global governance and the Rwandan Government on matters related to trade, investment and energy. She is also a Cybersecurity Fellow at the New America Foundation.
• Terence Chu has represented financial institutions for 30 years, both in private practice and in house. Chu has extensive legal and compliance experience in banking, regulatory, real estate, commercial, and consumer law. Past clients include HSBC (formerly Marine Midland Bank), JPMorganChase, Bank of America, and Capital One. He received his J.D. from the Temple University School of Law and his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania. As a former entrepreneur himself, Chu relishes the unique legal and business challenges associated with representing startup companies.
• John Collins is a founding Partner at FS Vector, a Washington DC-based advisory firm which provides a broad range of solutions for financial services, fintech and cyrptocurrency firms. John is also an Affiliate with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University where he focuses on emerging financial technologies. He is former Head of Policy for Coinbase, the world’s largest cryptocurrency firm, and former Senior Advisor to the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.
• Louisa Tomar is a Program Officer on the Global team at the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE). Tomar specializes in anti-corruption and anti-money laundering compliance and is the editor and a regular content contributor to CIPE’s corporate compliance trends blog. Tomar also oversees cross-regional projects on democratic governance, the intersection of technology and democracy, women’s economic empowerment, and promoting resiliency in think tanks in challenging environments. Prior to joining CIPE, Tomar consulted for the Inter-American Development Bank where she co-authored a policy guide on the use of big data to improve public service delivery.