ROAD TO THE DIGITAL ECONOMY

By Juan Manuel Wilches

If any telecoms regulator wants to understand what they need to do in the current digital environment, they need to go beyond the limits of the telecoms industry and understand the challenges facing all public and private stakeholders that need communications networks as the base layer to support digital growth in their economic sectors. At present, Colombia has four studies that were developed by the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) to understand the impact of digital transformation in the country. They describe how any regulator should approach the challenges that arise from the rapid evolution of the digital economy, proposing actions and recommendations for multiple governmental stakeholders.
The first study, published in 2017, identified challenges for the development of e-commerce in the country. We thought the lack of payment options and appropriation of financial products were the most difficult barriers. However, the main conclusion was that consumers need to build trust in the digital environment to perform more transactions online.