Video Message
Excellencies,
Distinguished Participants,
I am pleased to address the opening of this Forum.
Advancing global digital cooperation is critical for advancing sustainable development.
Your focus today on key issues like the digital economy, digital governance and closing the digital divide, are a valuable contribution to ongoing dialogue on ensuring a just digital transition.
Digital technologies have transformed our world in a fundamental way, driving economic growth, social progress and sustainability.
Two decades ago, a mere one billion people enjoyed access to the Internet.
Now, 5.3 billion are digitally connected.
Today, the digital economy makes up more than 15 per cent of the global GDP and has grown 2.5 times faster over the previous ten years than the GDP of the physical world.
Digital government has also transformed the way governments deliver essential public services.
China has been among the front runners in advancing digital public services, and is ranked very high on UN E-Government Survey.
International frameworks of digital cooperation allow countries like China to leverage its experience from initiatives such as the GDI to strengthen digital capacity building and bridge the digital technology divide in developing countries.
The need for action is clear.
Despite the remarkable progress in digital applications, the digital divide continues to persist across regions, gender, income, language and age groups.
For example, globally, in 2022, 62 per cent of men were using the Internet, compared with 57 percent of women, but only 21 percent of women in low-income countries use the Internet. Likewise, across the globe, access to the Internet at home is almost twice as much in urban areas as in rural areas.
New digital tools, such as generative artificial intelligence (AI), pose new regulatory challenges, even while promising to open new frontiers.
This is why the UN Secretary-General has called for a Global Digital Compact, articulating a shared vision of digital cooperation as an open, free, secure and human-centred digital future.
I hope your discussion here at this Forum will contribute to the vision of the Global Digital Compact.
We at UN DESA stand ready to continue our cooperation with the Wuzhen Summit Secretariat to strengthen digital cooperation to accelerate progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals.
I wish you a fruitful discussion.
Thank you.