Il Ministro Colao al G20 Innovation League

I have to say that in my current role, I really miss the energy and the entrepreneurial spirit of startups. This would have been a great opportunity but unfortunately I cannot make it.

Let me start by thanking Minister Di Maio, Luigi, for having supported this unique opportunity for exchanging inspiring ideas and discussing forward-looking projects from all over the world. I would also like, most sincerely, to congratulate all the participants to this global competition.

As I was saying, your creativity, your sense of entrepreneurship, your long-term vision and I would say also your courage to experiment, I think are very important today and they can make an essential contribution to things that are very important to all governments these days.

First of all, strengthening the “culture of innovation” which we need because we are in uncertain times. Second, to support long-term economic growth and resilience which, again, we need in order to come out healthily from the pandemic.

And third, not to be forgotten, also to overcome the social, economic, environmental, and legal challenges that technological progress always poses.

Let me also say that the five challenges that you are trying to overcome are particularly important.

Let me go over them briefly.

First of all, innovative clean-tech solutions are really urgently needed to accelerate the energy transition and to match global supply and demand in the most efficient and sustainable way.

Think of for example the semiconductor shortage that we are facing today and all the consequences. Second, ongoing advances in artificial intelligence have shown impressive results, from business to government, but we need further efforts to make AI-related projects and services more robust, more accurate, and more sustainable.

We need to tackle issues like bias, uncertain models, and uncertainties, unexpected outcomes.

All these things have to find solutions in your technological innovations.

Third, we know that 75 billion devices are expected to be connected to the Internet by the Internet of Things will require advancements in two areas, at least in my view, one is of course security, there's a huge amount of innovation there, and the other one is standardisation across different jurisdictions.

If we solve these two challenges then the potential of IoT is truly massive.

Fourth, with smart cities and mobility we face the opportunity to deliver more efficient, sustainable and inclusive urban environments.

This requires you, and us, to reimagine the way we live in our homes, in our neighbourhoods, our commuting habits, our working patterns, so there will be a massive transformation in that area as well.

And finally, an area that is very dear to me, healthcare, here we are confronted by two enormous opportunities: the first consists of strengthening international collaboration in developing data standards and interoperability specifications, but also to invest in digital skills of our citizens, to improve medical services to them, and to allow them to fully benefit from e-health and telemedicine.

If I have to conclude my remarks, I really have three messages:

First and foremost, we need constant cooperation between the private and public sectors and when I say private sectors I really mean the very large companies but also startups and small enterprises because these are fundamental to really have a thriving and stimulating innovation ecosystems.

Second, we also need, and this is more for us, to enhance the cooperation across governments also within the national public administrations, to let knowledge, best practises flourish and to support each other.

And the third message which is more focused to innovators and experimentators, experimentation will be very important and creativity also.

They will be the crucial means for modernising our governments, our societies, and our political systems, and to create more trust between the citizens and those who are elected to represent them.

And here, again, smart solutions can really be a very important tool.

So, once again, I wish to express my gratitude, my appreciation for your work and my trust that your contributions, your ideas and projects will make all of us more informed, richer and better equipped to do our job.

I wish you a productive and fruitful discussion and, again, I thank you for this opportunity.