Tokyo, Nov. 6 (Jiji Press)–The Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) on Wednesday held the first meeting of a panel to discuss utilizing digital transformation for the country’s economic growth.

The panel, launched at the initiative of Hiroaki Nakanishi, chairman of the nation’s biggest business lobby, will debate how industrial and social changes brought by cutting-edge digital technologies, such as big data and artificial intelligence, can lead to economic growth.

It also aims to take on the challenge of reviewing corporate cultures and regulations that hamper digital transformation, to help the Japanese economy keep growing amid rapidly spreading information technologies.

The digital transformation panel will come up with a set of proposals based on its discussions, hoping for them to be reflected in the government’s growth strategy and companies’ structural reform measures.

“Digital transformation is unstoppable,” Nakanishi said at the start of the inaugural meeting, indicating that the panel will aim to fully examine and attempt to resolve a host of related obstacles.

At Wednesday’s meeting, panel members heard explanations from experts about the current state of digital transformation in China and the United States, and discussed how to utilize data.

The first meeting, initially planned to be held around summer, was postponed after Nakanishi was hospitalized in late May for lymphoma treatment.