*By Leticia Lewis
The beginning of President Lula's term and the new legislature of the National Congress is bringing important opportunities to develop and implement policies that guarantee a business environment for the IT sector that is conducive to innovation, ethical, dynamic, safe and sustainable. In this sense, the Brazilian Association of Software Companies (ABES) works on several actions that aim to allow the country's global competitiveness, boosting all sectors that benefit from technology.
It is a fair battle. The approximately 2,000 companies associated or affiliated with the Association provide products and services that drive the Brazilian economy, which help other companies and many Brazilians every day to be more productive, efficient and to have a better life. Therefore, we seek to establish public policies that impact the Brazilian economy in a positive way, guaranteeing the country's economic and social development.
Public policies that impact the information technology (IT) market have effects that go far beyond the sector. In this article, I will cite two examples. Combating hunger is a priority for the current government and for Brazilian society and, in this context, technology plays a fundamental role in achieving this important objective. Therefore, public policies that allow the advancement and implementation of solutions based on artificial intelligence would have a positive impact on improving precision agriculture, increasing production and reducing the cost of food in the country and food insecurity. Another example is the public policies aimed at solving the problem caused by the lack of qualified professionals for the jobs available in the IT sector, which would bring inestimable benefits to society as a whole, since many jobs would be created, increasing the income of Brazilian families. .
Public policies need to consider the impacts of the digital revolution on society, understand its effects on the population and companies and act strategically to expand its positive effects and to balance any negative impacts, creating conditions for technological progress to be transformed into well-being Social. It is necessary to promote the inclusion of citizens in the digital age, expanding opportunities to adapt to the challenges brought by new technologies, eliminating barriers to economic development. In this context, ABES is ready to contribute to this objective and, at the beginning of the year, prepared a Regulatory Agenda that brings recommendations in the following areas:
- The role of the State in building a Nation Project for the Digital Age
- Importance of technology for socioeconomic development
- Artificial intelligence
- Taxation
- Privacy and data protection
- Cybersecurity
- Labor relations, qualification and inclusion with a focus on digital skills
- Responsible and transparent use of the internet
- Startups
- eSocial
ABES hopes that such recommendations, which can be found on here, can contribute to the creation of public policies that leverage the economic and inclusive development of the country and that make it possible for Brazil to be, increasingly, a more digital and less unequal country.
*Leticia Lewis is leader of the Regulatory Committee of the Brazilian Association of Software Companies – ABES. Senior Government Relations/Public Policy professional with more than 15 years of experience developing and executing advocacy strategies designed to increase business access to market globally through ethical and inclusive approaches that benefit local economies.
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