The future has already started at exponential steps. Is our state prepared for it?

11/02/2019

 

By Andriei Gutierrez, Leader of the ABES Regulatory Committee, co-founder and coordinator of the Movimento Brasil, País Digital

 

We started 2019 with a new government and, together with it, with new expectations. The yearning for economic growth with legal certainty, tax stability and, consequently, improved competitiveness, makes us reflect on the future and whether the State is prepared for it.
 
Regardless of an economic or political project, for us, who breathe and experience digital transformation, there is a clear feeling that it is necessary to go further, towards the disruption of a State model that was conceived and formatted to support the economic and social development of the country. 20th century Brazil, whose laws were created to regulate social, production and labor relations typical of an industrial society.
 
A State in which its own structure was conceived and specialized in the light of the productive processes and tools of an era in which bureaucracy was a necessary evil for guaranteeing legal security and for the efficiency of control and management mechanisms. With a tax system that, regardless of its complexity, has its pillars based on goods and services of immediate perception. A State with a model of democratic representation that is slow, bureaucratic and far below the capacity for political participation that society has at its fingertips today.
 
Worldwide, we live in a moment of transition, from an industrial society to a predominantly digital society. Transition means the coexistence of the old with the new. In fact, many elements of the first end up interposing and combining with the second. Perhaps the big question is: how to break out of outdated structures without tearing down the pillars that still continue to sustain today's society in transition? I confess that I don't have the answer here either. Perhaps, just the certainty that we have to move forward and fast.
 
And the “new” is advancing at a very fast pace. According to a recent IDC projection, more than 50% of Latin America's GDP growth, driven by Brazil, will come from the digital economy by 2025. An investment of around USD 380 billion in IT is expected over the next four years in the region. The numbers attest to a “period of dramatic and disruptive transformation”, according to the IDC, with Brazil making great strides.
 
But anyone who thinks that our state is stopped is mistaken. We have progress. In the regulatory sphere, it is worth mentioning the promulgation of the Marco Civil da Internet, the General Law for the Protection of Personal Data and some sectorial regulations focused on cyber security and cloud computing. Regarding the fight against bureaucracy, it is worth mentioning, although little known, the Decree of Bureaucratization, of July 2017, and numerous measures carried out by the defunct Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management to further rationalize the management of the public sector.
 
I also emphasize the efforts undertaken and which resulted in the launch of the Brazilian Strategy for Digital Transformation, eDigital, in March 2018, with a focus on the modernization of the Brazilian State in order to allow the advancement of benefits and mitigate the negative effects of the digital revolution. ongoing. As important as the establishment of the strategy, it was the creation of a political coordination mechanism for this, an Interministerial Committee, under the leadership of the Presidency of the Republic, raising the issue to the priority of the State.
 
The State is moving in the right direction, but its steps still demand effective coordination and greater speed. Progress in the economy and in society requires faster progress. We need it to move at a digital, exponential pace. Demands abound: red tape, transparency, openness and interoperability of data, connectivity, regulatory updating and, why not, perhaps even a national strategy for artificial intelligence.