ix • establish or maintain independent, well-resourced and effective Data Protection Authorities, strengthen cooperation with DPAs from members of the African Union and develop mechanisms at the continental level to develop and share regulatory practices and support institutional development to ensure a high level of protection of personal data; • promote interoperability, data sharing, and responsiveness to data demand through the setting of open data standards in data creation conform to the general principles of anonymity, privacy, security and any sector-specific data considerations to facilitate non-personal data, and certain categories of personal data are accessible to African researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs; • promote data portability so that data subjects are not locked into a single provider and, in so doing, promote competition and consumer choice and enable gig workers to move between platforms; • improve unevenly developed infrastructure across the continent, leveraging existing REC regional efforts to support efficient broadband network coverage, reliable energy supply, and foundational digital (data) infrastructure and systems (FDI) (digital identity (Digital ID)), interoperable trustworthy payments, cloud and data infrastructure, and open data sharing systems, for cross border digital trade, e-commerce; • establish an integrated national data system to enable data-driven public and private value creation, operating on the basis of harmonised governance frameworks that facilitate the flow of data necessary for a vibrant data economy, but with sufficient safeguards to be trusted, safe and secure; • govern the integrated national data system according to the principles of access, availability, openness (where anonymity can be preserved), interoperability, safety, security, quality, and integrity; • integrate sector-specific and specialists data codes or guidelines into national and continental data governance regimes; • who have not yet ratified the AU Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection, do so as soon as possible to serve as the foundational step for the harmonisation of data processing; and • in the forthcoming negotiations on Trade in Services and E-commerce protocols, as well as the Competition and Intellectual Property protocols, in the African Continental Free Trade Area provide guidelines to promote access to data to support local innovation, entrepreneurialism and pro-competitive purposes; • prioritise politically neutral partnerships that take into account individual sovereignty and national ownership to avoid foreign interferences which may negatively affect the national security, economic interests and digital developments of AU Member States; • promote research, development and innovation in various data-based areas, including Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Computing, and Blockchain.