Role of Emerging Technology Advanced in New Chamber Study

A greater governmental policy embrace of emerging technologies will help facilitate the country’s recovery from its current pandemic economy.

So says a report just issued by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce called the 2021 Technology Agenda, noting that even in the face of the Covid-19 outbreak, social unrest, and global economic disruptions, the country’s technology companies have been “innovating to rebuild our economy.”

Looking at four areas of innovation, the study is calling for a “national data strategy that promotes a single privacy standard, robust artificial intelligence adoption, and government IT modernization.”

Noting that 18 million Americans continue to lack access to high-speed broadband, the study recommends a federal initiative to fund enhanced “access and adoption,” along with “permit streamlining and smart regulation.”

In the area of transportation, the study notes that technology today includes “drones, urban air mobility, and automated vehicles.”

Such technology can be accelerated by “safely removing barriers to innovation, ensuring regulatory clarity, educating the public, and maintaining U.S. leadership.”

Finally, in the area of workforce development, the study argues that policymakers “must empower the gig economy, modernizing immigrant laws, partner with the private sector on upskilling, and encourage the deployment of data centers.”

The study additionally notes that today’s technology sector makes up some 6.5% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, directly employing nearly 6 million people.

In an overview of the study, Tom Quaadman, vice president of the Chamber’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness, asserts that “American innovation depends on a close and cooperative public-private partnership.”
​
Quaadman adds: “Smart regulation can invigorate and incentivize business while protecting and enabling consumers.”

​By Garry Boulard

---