Semilla, Hazel Erica B.

ABFS 301
International Negotiations
Mr. Jumel G. Estrañero

The World of Digitalized Negotiation

“Next Steps for Public Policy and Digital Development in Asia” was one of
the Featured Speaker Webinar series held by the Asian Development Bank Institute
where it mainly talks about the innovation and arise of digitalization in the global setting.
It also discusses the social and political consequences of the digital revolution that the
world is facing right now. The speaker shared about how the emergence of cyber policy
centers took place in their area precisely not just to look upon the technology but to also
see the consequences of this sudden shift that is caused by the current situation which
is the Covid-19 pandemic continuing to be prevalent as of the moment. Majority of the
people around the world has not been prepared for the normalization of conducting
office meetings in person to interacting with the usage of video conferencing platform
called zoom. Furthermore, it has been quite surprising that even if there are instances
that these platforms are already being used even before, nobody became depended on
it as one of the day-to-day routine and all of sudden meetings had been constantly
conducting in an unfamiliar environment where dress etiquettes are very different
compared before, it had used to be enclosed only into a formal type of dress code, but
now informality has been able to be accepted and recognized.
The sudden dependency to digital technologies unfolded certain characteristics
like the class differences, although it has been inhibited already in the society ever since
then but in this present period it became transparently obvious unlike before. This
setting made it easier for professionals to adjust relatively online due to their field of
work which is working in service industries. While ordinary people who has been used
to working in the public setting risked their selves exposing to the virus. In this sense,
digitalization truly has its advantages and disadvantages in the social encounters of
areas in all nations. Just like in the educational field, frantically, a lot of difficulties has
been encountered due to this inevitable transition, it paved the way for the existence of
digital divide where it has concluded that the poor social class can’t afford a single
computer and there is a limitation to their area of workplace due to their way of living.
Also, interactions are quite affected by the barriers of communication being evident and
the instances of having only limited to one connection to provide to all the members of
the family.
Digitalization may introduce a lot of consequences but no one has a choice but to
accept this kind of method as a new way of conducting communication and negotiations
in the local and global setting. Furthermore, providing information about its process in all
social classes must be prioritized so that no one will be left behind in this newly found
setting of communication. It may take a while for its normalization but improvements can
be seen as of the moment. Upon its acceptance, certain agendas must also apply like
addressing some of its issues like the prevalence of misinformation and unauthorize
stealing of data information that can be a major factor affecting the digital development
of the world. Establishing security methods can be one of the good ways to protect one
another against these certain issues that may prevent the modification of digitalization.
To sum all up, this webinar series has been able to provide information that can
be beneficial for the further understanding of the digitalization prevailing due to the
continuous globalization happening in the international setting. Some of the
interconnection in the lessons can be observed and these are the following: (1)
communication skills – upon the entire flow of the event, the speakers has been able
to manifest a good way of communicating due to its accuracy and conciseness in
transmitting information towards the chosen audience; (2) etiquette – professionalism
are being seen in the speakers as they valued each other’s perspectives especially in
the Q&A part of the event; (3) web-based communication channel – it is primarily
obvious that this webinar has been conducted in a video conferencing method where it
is solely happening online with the presence of people in all different locations
interacting to one another without having to meet up personally; (4) mass
communication type – the conducted webinar uses technological devices such as
computers and smartphones for the transmitting of message, also there is a presence of
large number of audience without the need of direct feedback, and; (5) preparedness –
overall, the webinar event has been able to deliver successfully and it is systematically
organize and they are well prepared especially when they answered the questions
provided by the audience without hesitation.