Thank you very much. Thank you, professor Patterson and Tuan, professor Zaneta. What an honor to be included today. I know that we are running a bit late on times. I will be brief. I really appreciate the opportunity to be here today for such an important event. My family spent five weeks in Ukraine 13 years ago at the beginning of the war. That’s actually that same week we entered the country on an adoption mission as a family of four, and we left a family of five, so this is very very personal for me. My daughter Natasha is from Maryinka just outside of Donetsk, and we have had such a tremendous conflict for a long period of time. So when Tuan asked me to come today and to talk about the role of innovative technology, and we’ve had some discussions today, seeing department from MIT discussed the role that technology can play. I’m a tax lawyer by training, so I’m going to speak in a few comments about tax policy at the end but there are three points that I want to raise about innovative technology, and how the role that technology can play in the rebuilding of Ukraine.
First, we’ve talked a bit today about refugees and the importance of supporting refugees in Ukraine, and we’ve found that there are tremendous technology platforms that have been available for example in Syria to support the Syrian refugees, blockchain and other distributed ledger technology to track refugees so families can stay together, to provide digital identity systems that are so necessary in order to return to life in their home country, and also providing one place to look for work permits and many other devices to receive subsidies from the government, so these technology systems are developed. It’s not as though that I stand here today looking for money to develop more technology. We have these open-source systems in the world, but how do we advance and how do we use this technology to help refugees? so that is the first, how technology will support refugees. The second, and it’s so exciting to see the premise behind AI world society and artificial intelligence, and in our work the most important and I think the huge opportunities in the world for shifting to data-driven decisions that is performed through artificial intelligence. It’s happening in developed countries like the US, the UK, and Germany, and many of the countries represented here today. The council from Israel is a leader of advancement of technologies like artificial intelligence. And we think that as we look forward in recovery in Ukraine, there will be plenty of decisions that need to be made, and the combinatorial creativity of new data that’s available can help make better decisions, and we think as a premise of ai world society how can we encourage that shift from gut making decisions to actual data-driven decision-making. And the last point that I’ll make about technology is the role of new digital public infrastructure. We’ve seen this with the onset of the pandemic and throughout the last two years governments are shifting to new digital platforms that are decentralized, and they’re resilient in the face of resistance. And we think that, as professor [Alex “Sandy”] Pentland pointed out, what can we learn from the government of Estonia, there is an opportunity to shift to a distributed digital public infrastructure in Ukraine as they return and in the rebuilding of the country. It’s important to look at what technologies like blockchain could do. We have examples with countries like Estonia.
The last point I want to make, and I promise just a few points, and we’ve not had much talk today about taxation, but tax will be incredibly important. Now is the time, I believe, to be thinking of a redesigned taxing system for Ukraine. There are examples of countries that, as they are in the conflicts, they need to find ways to raise taxes. We heard today there’s a 70-billion-dollar deficit. How can they tax? For example, natural resources is one place that other similar fragile states have decided to impose taxes on extraction rates. There are opportunities to raise some revenue today, but the importance in the recovery is to go the other way, to keep taxes low. How do we encourage foreign domestic investment within Ukraine by keeping a low stable tax base? We want to make sure we at least had some discussion of taxation because I believe now is the time to form teams to actually redesign what that taxing system could be ideally coming out of this crisis.
So I want to thank you again for the opportunity to provide some remarks. Technology, innovative technology, will be incredibly important, and Ukraine will need a new tax system as well. Thank you.
Good morning, everyone. I would like to start with a huge thank you to the Boston Global Forum for putting on this conference together. I would like to start with the fact that the horrors of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine mark a turning point in German foreign policy. This turning point, or Zeitenwende, as chancellor Olaf Scholz called it, is truly a sea change a sea change in foreign policy, a sea change in security and defense policy, and a sea change in energy and energy policy in Germany. For the first time, the German government is supplying weapons to a warring party, and Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced a plan to spend more than one billion euro to modernize our military force.
The approval is brought not only in the German parliament but also in the German population. The German government has announced on Tuesday that it will always also deliver tanks to the Ukraine. Kiev is only two hours away from berlin by plane the war crimes committed by the Nazi regime against the people of Eastern Europe are part of our collective memory. Those historical memories and seeing that an outside aggressor is bringing death and suffering to the people of Ukraine once again are the reason why Germany fundamentally changed its course of its foreign policy. The German people are doing everything they can to support refugees from Ukraine. So far more than 330,000 refugees have arrived, and the German people are welcoming with open arms.
Putin’s war of aggression also marked the end of an illusion for Germany. The assumption that we can achieve change within Russia and its government through diplomatic engagement and trade has failed. In January 2022, Germany took over the presidency of the G7. We understand that G7 is a group of democracies based on common values and global responsibility. During its one year of G7 presidency, Germany aims to tackle global challenges in a multilateral way together with our partners. We are working towards a global energy transition, a strong post-COVID economy recovery, and the prevention of the next pandemic. The war in Ukraine has dramatically shifted the attention of the G7 in the light of Russia’s unjustifiable unprovoked and illegal aggression against an independent and sovereign Ukraine. Our main objective has become to strengthen and the coordinated action of G7 along with our allies and partners in the world. The G7 nations are bringing together their collective economic weight in order to end the war in Ukraine as quickly as possible. As a result the G7 in coordination with the EU has implemented and is implementing unprecedented sanctions against Russia and Belarus. My colleague, the consul general of France Arnaud Mentré already spoke about this. And of course at the G7 level we also coordinate arms deliveries to Ukraine.
Let me end by saying it has been two months since Russia launched its unprovoked attack against its people and its peaceful neighbor. Faced by the horrifying war crimes committed by Russian troops, the people of Ukraine are fighting back heroically. This war affects the world, the whole world, whether you go along with the sanctions or not, whether you believe in international rule-based order or not.
As one of the largest industrial countries in the world, Germany has a responsibility to Ukraine. Two months after the start of the war, the crimes committed by Russia continue to dominate every headline in Germany. The German people are watching, and we are horrified by the suffering inflicted on the Ukrainian people. We are determined to work with our partners and allies to end this war as quickly as possible by imposing the heaviest possible sanctions on Russia and sending civilian and military aid to Ukraine. At the same time, Germany is addressing the humanitarian crisis by welcoming Ukrainians that needed to flee their own country. We will remain in solidarity with the Ukrainian people, and we are taking a long-term perspective on assisting Ukraine with military defense. I can also assure you that Germany will take a leading role in rebuilding Ukraine. Thank you.
Michael Dukakis Institute and Boston Global Forum support in building the Mekong Smart City in Vietnam
On January 23, 2022 in Ho Chi Minh City, CEO of Nova Group Hoang Thu Chau and Governor of An Giang Nguyễn Thanh Bình, Governor of Dong Thap Pham Thien Nghia, signed a MOU to build the Mekong Smart City in the An Giang and Dong Thap provinces of Vietnam.
CEO of Nova Group Hoang Thu Chau and Director of Michael Dukakis Institute Nguyen Anh Tuan also signed a MOU, that the Michael Dukakis Institute will advise Nova Group in building an excellent university in Mekong area and supporting the project Mekong Smart City.
Leaders of Vietnam that attended the event are: Lê Hồng Quang, Chief of the Party of An Giang, Lê Quốc Phong, Chief of the Party of Dong Thap, Lê Đức Thọ, Chief of the Party of Ben Tre, Vu Hai Quan, President of Vietnam National University at Ho Chi Minh city, Trần Ngọc Tam, Governor of Ben Tre, Nguyen Van Giau,Vietnam’s central bank former governor, former Vice Minister of Defense Tran Don, Former Vice Minister of Public Security Vo Thai Hoa, and others.
Mr. Bui Thanh Nhon, Chairman of Nova Group, said at the event:
“Tan Chau town (An Giang) and Hong Ngu district, Hong Ngu city (Dong Thap) are located at the headwaters of the Mekong River, which is the gateway for trade between Vietnam and Cambodia. This is a rich and precious land that developed very early. And I am fortunate to be the son of 2 provinces An Giang – Dong Thap. For me, it is happiness and pride but also responsibility.”
Michael Dukakis Institute supported Nova Group in building NovaWorld Phan Thiet as a flagship city to welcome the United Nations Centennial.
The Building the Foundation for the Global Digital Economy Conference (Digital Bretton Woods) is organized by Boston Global Forum, EY, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Connection Science, Prosperity Collaborative, and the World Bank on June 27-29, 2022 at MIT.
Global opportunities and challenges call for global action. The world is far past the Washington-consensus, in search of a new development paradigm. A paradigm that must reconcile national strategies for prosperity with the deepening integration of the world’s economies, driven by the digitalization of communication, commerce, and knowledge. This calls for renewed international cooperation and stronger global institutions.
The Digital Bretton Woods conference responds to this challenge through five themes of reinvention:
Developing a Growth Strategy in the Digital Economy
Investing in Digital Infrastructure
Managing Disruptive Technologies
Strengthening the Governance of Digital Systems
AIWS Government for Ukraine
These themes are part of a single continuum of reinvention.
The first theme on growth strategies aims to reconceptualize growth in the digital era, recognizing that the systems of value creation are rapidly evolving, the product cycles shorter, and the policy handles changing. Importantly, digitalization calls for a stronger treasury role in coordinating public investments in digital platforms, leveraging big data for evidence-based policy making, and rethinking the government’s role in promoting innovation.
The second theme recognizes that governments play a critical role in regulating and investing in digital infrastructure, including taxation, trade, digital identity, and payment systems. These foundational systems improve how services are delivered to citizens and enable the creation of new markets and ecosystems in which private-sector firms and other players can compete and collaborate.
The third theme explores the opportunities and risks created by emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, blockchain, quantum computing, and the Internet of Things. These innovations can impact critical infrastructure, transform industries, and redefine the way in which governments interact with their citizens. Consequently, the technologies need to be carefully assessed in terms of their economic and society impacts.
Finally, the development of new digital infrastructure and disruptive technologies call for strengthening governance frameworks to ensure that technology design and implementation, and multi-stakeholder collaboration around technology, are equitable and responsible. These governance challenges go beyond improving information security and privacy control. Core issues center around the delegation of decision making to autonomous systems on economic, legal, and administrative matters; reallocating the ownership of data to individuals and local communities; and the creation of trusted, decentralized information systems that respect privacy while promoting transparency and value creation.
This is a very significant event recognized by the Global Alliance for Digital Governance. At this conference, AIWS Government for Ukraine and AIWS City for Ukraine, as parts of the Rebuilding Ukraine program, will be presented and discussed as a pilot project for these reinventions.
Former State Minister of Defense, Yasuhide Nakayama, the leader of Global Alliance for Digital Governance (GADG) in Japan and Taiwan, and other coordinators of GADG will speak at this event.
We, the Boston Global Forum (BGF), an organization dedicated to promoting a more peaceful world through its World Leader for Peace and Security Award (its recipients have been Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chancellor Angela Merkel, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President Sauli Niinisto, President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, President Ursula von der Leyen, Riksdag Speaker Andreas Norlen), urgently call upon concerned parties to peacefully resolve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in a way that upholds the rule of law and the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and legitimate security interests of both nations.
We urge Ukraine to pledge not to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and not accept offensive military weapons on its soil. We urge Russia to pledge respect for the independence of Ukraine on land, air, sea, and cyberspace and to refrain from acts that threaten the territorial integrity of Ukraine and its people’s right to self-determination. We urge other nations to respect these commitments and refrain from acts disruptive thereof.
We urge the world community to respond to the current crisis by developing binding new international rules and instruments to safeguard the rights, interests, and integrity of countries that are too weak on their own to withstand aggressive hostile actions by more powerful countries. We, the Boston Global Forum, commit to assisting in the development of the new international rules and instruments and to advocating for their adoption.
Michael Dukakis, Co-founder and Chair, Boston Global Forum
Tuan Anh Nguyen, Co-founder and CEO, Boston Global Forum
