In partnership with BusinessEurope, Ericsson experts addressed G7 digital ministers at a mid-March meeting of the business arm of the G7 (called the B7) in Verona, Italy, on the national and international role of digital infrastructure, in particular 5G.

The briefing came ahead of the full 2024 G7 Leaders' Summit, to be held in Apulia, Italy, later this year.

Ericsson Vice President and Corporate Officer at Ericsson Technology, Mikael Bäck, says the invitation to brief the B7 and G7 highlights the strategic importance of advanced technologies for the businesses of G7 economies and to G7 members.

"The G7 is a powerhouse forum that influences and drives where some of the biggest economies in the world will go in the future," he says. "Therefore, only the most respected and leading companies and organizations are invited to brief the G7 as subject matter experts. Ericsson and BusinessEurope joins a selected group of companies and organization who are trusted to a level where their contribution can have major influence on future global economies."

A top B7 agenda item is the speeding up of the digitalization of society and businesses by getting the building blocks in place, such as digital infrastructure, cloud technologies, and increased digital competence.

Meeting delegates were told that having the basics in place is a requirement to enable the full benefit of transformational technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), which was a key topic in the meeting.

Digital transformation, fundamentally enabled by advanced digital connectivity infrastructure and AI have major innovation potential and an unprecedented speed of evolution that, if properly directed, will enable increased productivity and competitiveness in all sectors while fostering more inclusive growth.

Bäck adds: "It was important to address industry and digital ministers from G7 countries in the meeting in Verona so that we could bring industry insights to the political agenda. The meeting focused very much on the role of emerging technologies such as AI. Accelerating buildout of secure and trusted digital infrastructure based on 5G, as well as a resilient cloud infrastructure is a key priority. The importance of cooperation among G7 countries to secure leadership in the transition to 6G, with focus on research, standardization and spectrum availability was also covered in the conversation."

The B7 engagement group aims to formulate policy recommendations regarding the priorities of the global economic agenda to be addressed to the Presidency of the G7 - this year led by Italy - and to major international organizations and institutions.

In addition to digitalization, other topics include global value chains; climate, energy, and environmental transitions; data economy and digitalization; employment; and AI as an overarching theme.

G7 and B7 in 2024

The General Confederation of Italian Industry, Confindustria, assumed leadership of the Business Federations of the Group of Seven (B7) in conjunction with the Italian Presidency of the G7 for 2024.

G7 assembles the most important inter-governmental forum that brings together the main industrialized democracies of the world: the USA, Germany, Japan, UK, France, Canada and Italy, as well as the European Union as a non-enumerated member.

The B7 engagement Group, reserved for the business world, aims to formulate policy recommendations on the priorities of the global economic agenda to be addressed to the Presidency of the G7 and the main international organizations and institutions.

The work of the B7 will culminate with the delivery of the Final Declaration to the G7 Presidency and will end in December 2024.

Declaration from G7 Ministerial meeting on Industry, Technology and Digital Italy 2024 March 13 -15 is available here.