SPECIAL FEATURE
OPEC Fund Quarterly : How can innovation, encompassing not only new technologies but also new policies, best support economic development in the Global South? Guido Bichisao: Innovation is a very topical subject, and as you say it extends beyond just technology. Technology is a tool and not the final objective; our goal is to use technology to make our policies more e ff ective and our processes more e ffi cient. There is a lot of talk about measuring and improving development impact – and here innovation can be a game changer: it can significantly reduce the time needed to make decisions and roll out projects, from both the financial and technical perspectives. OFQ : Are these innovations already making a di ff erence? GB: We’re now in an exploratory phase: many institutions are looking at these new products and trying to address issues such as security and data concerns as they plan to introduce innovation. Project planning, especially in big institutions, takes long – we’re talking five years minimum – by which time the “current” technology is obsolete. So, we need to work step by step, keeping pace with technology evolutions. It’s a process of learning-by-doing. That means changing the way people work, which itself is a kind of innovation. OFQ : Can you share any recent examples from EIB in terms of implementing innovation policies? GB: I’ve been working on three dimensions of innovation as part of the EIB digital transformation strategy. First, we are rethinking the entire end- to-end process in portfolio management. Traditionally, this involved separate streams for collecting financials, spreading, credit memos and early warning systems, which required a lot of e ff ort. For example, financial accounts are sometimes published before customers provides lenders with the reports. So, we’re looking at AI solutions to automate this process. New AI systems can query company registries where financials are recorded by law in many countries, regularly check for updates, and share information
“We need to work step by step, keeping pace with technology evolutions. It’s a process of learning- by-doing. That means changing the way people work, which itself is a kind of innovation.” Guido Bichisao, Senior Advisor, European Investment Bank
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