WASHINGTON – Today, 11 leading technology trade groups from Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America joined together in releasing their recommendations to G20 Leaders and Ministers on policies the countries should pursue to best utilize innovation to unleash economic growth that will benefit their citizens. The tech industry will work to ensure that any outcomes from the early April meeting in Düsseldorf of G20 ministers responsible for digital issues and early July meeting in Hamburg of G20 Leaders reflect these recommendations.

“Digital technologies are vital to the growth and development of the global economy,” the groups’ say in their proposal. “…the G20 is a critically important setting for the world’s leading governments to outline approaches to managing 21st century technology policy challenges…and growing the global economy in ways that benefit all countries and people.”

The recommendations come as leaders and policymakers across the globe debate national and global policies that could potentially hinder the job creation and economic growth that countries have enjoyed, in part, thanks to the rapid development of the tech sector in recent years.

Specifically, the tech industry is calling on G20 leaders to address privacy protections; enhance national security and data security; and ensure that online data can freely travel across borders because of the critical role data plays to power growth, job creation, and innovation. Among their recommendations, the tech industry groups recommend that G20 leaders commit their governments to:

  • Promote the principle that economies should facilitate the free flow of data across borders and refrain from imposing measures requiring local storage.
  • Acknowledge that privacy is a fundamental right and commit to pursuing privacy and data protection policies that draw on multi-stakeholder frameworks.
  • Ensure that measures governments take to enhance cybersecurity reflect the global nature of cyberspace.
  • Commit to resolving outstanding questions of cross-border taxation in multi-lateral settings, on the basis of the principles of certainty, predictability, and the rule of law.

The recommendations build on the tech industry’s work last year for G7 leaders to adopt similar policy approaches and which culminated in two agreements to emerge last May from the G7. They are endorsed by the Alliance Francaise des Industries du Numerique (AFNUM), Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA), Associazione Nazionale Industrie Informatica, Telecomunicazioni ed Elettronica di Consumo (ANITEC), bitkom, DIGITALEUROPE, Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC), Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA), Syndicat de l’Industrie des Technologies de l’information (SFIB), Tech’In France, and techUK.

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