The World Economic Forum and GovTech Campus Deutschland opened the Global Government Technology Centre (GGTC) in Berlin recently, marking a key milestone for the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) Network.
The GGTC is the C4IR Centre focused on supporting GovTech solutions to accelerate the digital transformation of governments, and reportedly the “first” to open in a G7 country.
The Global GovTech Network supports a whole-of-government approach by applying emerging technologies and digital innovations to improve the overall efficiency, effectiveness, and accessibility of public administration and related services.
It assists world governments with modernizing via strategic collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and scaling GovTech solutions to enhance service delivery to citizens.
Inaugurated by Børge Brende, President of the World Economic Forum, along with Dr. Markus Richter, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community and Federal Government Commissioner for Information Technology, the GGTC is an initiative designed to connect the German GovTech innovation ecosystem with a network of experienced professionals as well as practitioners.
As a physical and digital space, the GGTC will aim to bring together governments, technology experts, as well as policymakers to accelerate innovation and support policy development, offering governments with insights and tools for effective transformation.
The GGTC Berlin was initially announced at the Annual Meeting in Davos in January, with a vision to tap the significant potential of technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, and Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality.
A key feature of the Centre’s work will be a growing, international directory of GovTech use cases.
At the opening, the first cases demonstrated the diverse applications of GovTech, with presentations from the UN World Food Program, the Government of Ukraine, the Government of the United Arab Emirates, and the City of Amarillo, Texas.
Markus Richter, State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community said that is vital to offer a platform like GGTC for this type of collaboration and exchange between governments, tech firms, and/or research entities.
As initial founding partners, the State of Berlin and global business and technology transformation company Capgemini bring a strong blend of leadership in governance and technological expertise, instrumental in shaping the Centre’s ongoing development.
This public-private partnership will contribute to bringing in key partners from government, technology, and academia, thus expanding its international reach.
The Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution is a platform for multi-stakeholder collaboration, bringing together public and private sectors to maximize technological benefits to society while minimizing the risks.
It explores exponential technologies and drives their responsible adoption and application, leveraging a global network of independent national and thematic centres.
The World Economic Forum launched the first Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in San Francisco in 2017, followed by centres in Japan and India.
The network now includes centres in Austin (Centre for Trustworthy Technology), Azerbaijan, Colombia, Michigan (US Centre for Advanced Manufacturing), Germany (Global Government Technology Centre), Israel, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Qatar, Republic of Korea, and other nations as well.
