On June 29, 2019, Sasin Executive Education was honored to welcome Silawat Santivisat, Senior Executive Vice President, Kasikornbank PCL, to speak on the topic, The Unchain Blockchain, and Kraiwin Wattanarat, Chief Executive Officer at AheadAsia, who spoke “Digital Divided: How are we bridging it?”
In the morning session, SDX participants learned about the influence of technology toward the evolution of global currency. From barter to physical objects to coins and paper money to plastic cards to electronic money, Khun Silawat explained that we are now moving forward into an era of a potential global currency. “Libra” has now become one of the hottest issues that people are widely discussing, and it’s predicted that Libra might become a global currency that could empower billions of people. Imagine that in the foreseeable future, everyone in Thailand receiving their salary in Libra instead of Baht!
Next, we moved to the topic of the “Digital Divide”, which refers to the gap between demographic groups and regions that have different levels of access to modern information and communications technology. This topic has been an increasing concern in today’s world and many people may actually experience the “digital divide” in some way. Looking at a typical office, imagine the technological gap between someone who doesn’t know how to use social media compared to someone who is a digital native.
“Learning digital is like learning a new language. You have to learn from making mistakes,” Khun Kraiwin told the SDX participants. However, he noted that the problem is that people today are afraid of making mistakes and that makes the gap much wider. In order to bridge the digital divide, Khun Kraiwin suggested not judging others, and allowing the new learners to make mistakes. He also said it is much better if you can simplify the technologies or applications to be more accessible to everyone. Khun Kraiwin concluded that the key way to reduce the digital divide may not be about the technology, but more about empathizing with others.