New business models based on information technologies have opened up a world of opportunities that require new legislative, educational and political responses. To analyse this phenomenon, the Chamber of the Digital Economy of Uruguay (CEDU) convened an outstanding panel composed of engineer Juan Grompone, member of the National Academy of Engineering; economist Gabriel Oddone, partner of CPA Ferrere; accountant Carlos Lecueder, director of Estudio Luis E. Lecueder; engineer Max Cortés, Expansion Manager of Uber Latin America, and economist Diego Vallarino, professor of the postgraduate course in Organisational Information Systems at the Faculty of Economics and Administration (FCEA).
In his speech, Oddone said that the digital economy "challenges public policies in various dimensions", among which he mentioned labour and tax regulations, education, communication and international relations. "Today in the United States, 34% of labour relations are non-dependent. He also referred to the limits of sovereignty in the face of this new business model, which implies the presence of companies in different countries, where they use freelance labour and often avoid paying taxes, which leads to difficulties in terms of taxation.
Oddone said that solutions to these new requirements are being sought at the global level and questioned Uruguay's position on the issue. "This is being resolved in the TISA, where we decided not to be. These are the challenges facing public policy. You have to keep an open mind to know what is happening in the world," he said.
Uber's arrival in Uruguay is a clear example of the imbalance generated by the digital economy in an outdated regulatory framework. "We collided with regulations made for a world that did not have these advances," Max Cortés, the company's expansion manager in Latin America, said at the forum, although he acknowledged that it is normal for regulations to arrive after innovation.
From the commercial sphere, accountant Lecueder pointed out that in Uruguay the way forward is the complementation of sales channels, a concept known as omnichannel. "The idea is to make it possible for people to buy online and pick it up at the store, where they can try it out. That will make it possible to adjust costs, variety, service and combine the factors in such a way as to get a better result. That is what we are working on," he said.
The businessman explained that the Uruguayan consumer continues to value the shopping experience, which allows direct access to the product before purchasing it. Diego Vallarino expressed himself in the same vein, referring to the change in a consumption pattern that goes "from the economy of possession of the asset to that of access".
For his part, Mr Grompone said that the world is entering a new stage of the capitalist era, which he defined as the "information society phase". In this scenario, new businesses are appearing and old ones are disappearing, intermediaries are being left behind and reaching the consumer is much more direct, and as an example of this progress, he mentioned the current tendency to buy books that are printed on the spot, which means that the publishing house is no longer necessary. Along these lines, he said that "it is possible that Uber, which is an intermediary, will end up eliminating itself. It invented something that will kill it".
The forum was held by CEDU in the Aula Magna of the FCEA. At the opening of the event, Rodrigo Arim, Dean of the Faculty, stressed the importance of technological change, "which is at the basis of human progress". "We live in an era in which digital technology is radically transforming our daily lives and the organisation of the economy," he said, noting that one of the challenges facing the government and the education sector when designing public policies is "how to train more and better professionals capable of adapting to a changing world and of working in new business models linked to the digital economy".
Marcelo Montado, president of the Chamber, explained that his intention was to "shed light on the transformations that are taking place in society" and assured that the world "is going through a fascinating moment of evolution".
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