Digitalisation offers people chance of upward social mobility - Alfred Sant

Digitalisation may offer people a chance of upward social mobility in countries where this has typically been very difficult for the majority of the population, Maltese MEP Alfred Sant has said in an intervention on the report ‘Digitalisation for development: reducing poverty through technology’ at the European Parliament.

The Maltese MEP voted in favour of the report, which supports increasing access to technology in developing countries as a tool to reduce poverty as well as a means of achieving sustainability goals worldwide.

Sant said that more than half of the world’s population did not have access to the internet. Consequently, he said, digitalisation represents an unexploited area with the potential to help level the playing field by reducing inequality on a global scale. For instance, establishing a digital economy in the world’s least developed countries may act as a means of spurring economic development, including the creation of new jobs, growth, and export diversification.

The Maltese MEP said that increasing digitalisation in developing countries could also act as a means of fighting the negative consequences of globalisation, namely the loss of low-skilled jobs to automation. Increasing digital literacy and skills in developing countries will therefore give these populations better access to information that could improve education and overall ability to obtain jobs as well as wages and living standards in general.

The report was adopted with 499 votes in favour; 48 against and 108 abstentions.