Although digitalization is a key driver of innovation and competitiveness, its value is realized only when employees possess the skills to use these tools effectively. Digitalization and workforce development must therefore progress in tandem to support long-term productivity, especially in emerging markets. Significant challenges remain. Digital access remains highly uneven: in low-income countries, only 27% of people had access to the internet as of 2024.45 At the global level, the divide is even more pronounced – internet penetration reaches 83% in urban areas but declines to just 48% in rural areas. Of the 2.6 billion people still without internet access across the world, 1.8 billion live in rural areas.46 This disparity is particularly relevant for emerging markets, where rural populations make up a significant share and where connectivity is directly tied to education, healthcare, finance and economic opportunity. Digital skills present an equally pressing issue. The Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that skills shortages are the primary barrier to business transformation, cited by 63% of employers globally. The challenge is even more pronounced in emerging markets: 65% of firms in both Argentina and Colombia cite skills as a major barrier. Globally, 50% of workers report completing training, with lower figures in many countries, including 38% in the Philippines.47 By 2030, nearly 60% of the global workforce will require reskilling or upskilling, with 1 in 10 workers unlikely to receive it – posing a direct constraint to growth and innovation.48 Digital public infrastructure (DPI) to power business growth Businesses can scale their operations more effectively when economic-wide digital infrastructure for identity, payments and data exchanges is in place. This infrastructure must be open, interoperable and designed with privacy in mind. MDBs can play a supportive role by helping to finance digital infrastructure (e.g. digital ID systems and payment platforms) and by contributing to the development of governance frameworks that enable public services and firms’ platforms to connect and use the same underlying system architecture. The value of DPI in emerging markets is significant. India’s Unified Payments Interface processed about 20 billion transactions in August 2025, showing how open systems enable low-cost and reliable cash collection.49,50 Brazil’s Pix demonstrates similar success, with the Central Bank of Brazil regularly reporting new daily records.51,52 For businesses, this translates into faster payments, fewer failures and stronger working capital cycles. Data infrastructure is also becoming a competitive factor as AI and data-heavy workloads grow. In December 2024, a consortium of lenders, including the IFC and HSBC, committed over $900 million to Yondr’s hyperscale campus in Malaysia as part of a wider effort to localize resilient and energy- efficient data centres in Asia.53,54,55 Neutral, open- access facilities such as this reduce latency, lower hosting costs for local firms and support data-3.2 Digitalization and skills: driving innovation and competitiveness 63% of employers globally cite skills shortages as the primary barrier to business transformation. Resilient Firms and Economies 21

Resilient Firms and Economies 2025