Fostering Global Digital Cooperation for Prosperity
21 Sep 2024 16:00h - 17:15h
Fostering Global Digital Cooperation for Prosperity
Session at a Glance
Summary
This discussion focused on fostering global digital cooperation for prosperity, organized by the Digital Cooperation Organization (DCO). The event brought together government representatives, international organizations, and private sector leaders to address the challenges and opportunities in the digital economy.
Key themes included bridging the digital divide, promoting inclusive growth, and leveraging technology for sustainable development. Speakers emphasized the importance of multilateral partnerships and knowledge sharing to accelerate digital transformation across nations. The DCO’s initiatives, such as the Digital Economy Navigator and IMPACT platform, were highlighted as tools to facilitate cooperation and exchange best practices.
Participants stressed the need to address gender disparities in the digital economy, noting the significant economic potential of increasing women’s participation. The role of artificial intelligence in driving productivity and economic growth was discussed, along with the importance of ethical AI governance.
Private sector representatives from Oracle and Microsoft outlined their efforts to support digital skills development and provide affordable access to technology in developing countries. They emphasized the importance of public-private partnerships in building digital infrastructure and fostering local innovation ecosystems.
The discussion also touched on the challenges of data governance, cybersecurity, and the potential fragmentation of the global digital landscape. Speakers called for common standards and interoperability to ensure a more inclusive and equitable digital future.
Overall, the event underscored the critical importance of international cooperation in harnessing digital technologies to achieve sustainable development goals and create a more prosperous global digital economy.
Keypoints
Major discussion points:
– The importance of digital cooperation and bridging the digital divide to ensure inclusive growth and prosperity
– The role of women in the digital economy and the need to increase female participation
– The potential of artificial intelligence and the need for ethical governance frameworks
– Public-private partnerships and collaboration between governments, companies, and international organizations
– Building digital skills and capacity, especially in developing countries
Overall purpose/goal:
The overall purpose of the discussion was to explore ways to foster global digital cooperation in order to harness digital technologies for inclusive economic growth and development. Participants aimed to share insights on bridging the digital divide, increasing digital skills, and leveraging public-private partnerships to advance the digital economy.
Tone:
The tone was largely optimistic and forward-looking, with speakers emphasizing the opportunities presented by digital technologies while also acknowledging challenges. There was a sense of urgency about the need for cooperation and action. The tone became more concrete and practical when private sector representatives discussed specific initiatives and partnerships in the latter part of the discussion.
Speakers
Speakers:
– Hassan Nasser (moderator/facilitator)
– Deemah AlYahya – Secretary General of DCO
– Constantinos Kombos – Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus
– Munir Akram – Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN
– Abdallah Al Dardari – Regional Director for Arab States at UNDP
– Hisham Alsheikh – Vice Governor of Digital Government Authority, Saudi Arabia
– Josephine Mukesha – Director General of National ID Agency, Rwanda
– Akiko Yamanaka – Senior Advisor to the President at ARIA, former Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs for Japan
– Alaa Abdulaal – Chief Digital Economy Foresight at DCO Secretariat
– Dima Al-Khatib – Director of UN Office of South-South Cooperation
– Mathis Pellerin – Vice President at Oracle
– Alexandre Pignot – Global Leader for UN at Microsoft
Moderators/Facilitators:
– Hassan Nasser – DCO
– Amir Dossal – Global Partnerships Forum
Areas of expertise:
– Digital cooperation and economy
– Foreign affairs and diplomacy
– International development
– Digital government transformation
– National identity systems
– Women, peace and security
– South-South cooperation
– Technology and private sector partnerships
Full session report
Digital Cooperation for Global Prosperity: A Comprehensive Discussion
This event, organized by the Digital Cooperation Organization (DCO), brought together a diverse group of government representatives, international organizations, and private sector leaders to address the challenges and opportunities in fostering global digital cooperation for prosperity.
Key Themes and Discussions
1. Introduction and Opening Remarks
Hassan Nasser, the moderator, opened the event by highlighting its focus on digital cooperation for global prosperity. Deemah AlYahya, Secretary General of DCO, emphasized the urgency of collaborative action to address the widening digital divide. She introduced DCO initiatives such as the Digital Economy Navigator and the IMPACT platform, designed to facilitate cooperation and exchange best practices among member states.
2. Digital Cooperation and Inclusive Growth
Constantinos Kombos, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus, called for “networked multilateralism” and synergies between stakeholders. He likened the current digital transformation to a new industrial revolution with unpredictable consequences, highlighting that nearly 2.6 billion people remain unconnected to the internet, with the majority being women and young girls. Kombos stressed the need to align technological progress with all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.
3. Women, Peace, and Security
Professor Akiko Yamanaka spoke about the importance of women’s participation in peace and security efforts. She emphasized the role of digital technology in empowering women and promoting their involvement in decision-making processes.
4. Role of Technology in Economic Development
Abdallah Al Dardari, Regional Director for Arab States at UNDP, presented a sobering statistic: productivity in the Arab region has declined over the past 50 years, currently standing at 50% of its 1980 levels. He stressed the importance of AI and digital technology in addressing the low participation of women in Arab economies.
Hisham Alsheikh, Vice Governor of Digital Government Authority in Saudi Arabia, shared the kingdom’s success in digital transformation across government sectors. He highlighted Saudi Arabia’s commitment to train over 50,000 nationals in AI, cybersecurity, and cloud computing.
5. Digital Identity and Cross-Border Cooperation
Josephine Mukesha, Director General of National ID Agency in Rwanda, shared insights on the country’s implementation of digital identity from birth. She emphasized the need for common standards, interoperability in digital identity systems, and regulatory frameworks for cross-border identity verification.
6. Private Sector Partnerships
Mathis Pellerin from Oracle stressed the importance of private sector partnerships in accessing innovation and skilled workforce. He highlighted Oracle’s collaborations with DCO member states in areas such as cloud computing and AI.
Alexander Pignot from Microsoft outlined the company’s Tech for Social Impact focus on access, skills, and deployment. He emphasized the need for tailored affordability frameworks to address the uneven distribution of digital capabilities. Pignot also highlighted a critical disconnect between traditional development financing models and the needs of the digital economy.
7. South-South and Triangular Cooperation
Dima Al-Khatib, Director of UN Office of South-South Cooperation, highlighted South-South and Triangular Cooperation as key vehicles for bridging digital gaps. She mentioned the South-South and Triangle Cooperation Solutions Lab as a platform for knowledge sharing among developing nations.
8. Challenges in Digital Transformation
Munir Akram, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN, raised concerns about the potential fragmentation of digital systems on an east-west basis. He emphasized the need for developing countries to acquire their own computing power to ensure digital independence.
Conclusion and Future Directions
The discussion underscored the critical importance of international cooperation in harnessing digital technologies to achieve sustainable development goals and create a more prosperous global digital economy. Key takeaways included the need for inclusive digital transformation, the importance of partnerships across sectors, and the necessity of addressing both technological and socio-economic aspects of the digital divide.
Several initiatives and commitments were announced during the event, including the DCO’s Digital Economy Navigator and IMPACT initiative, Saudi Arabia’s commitment to digital skills training, and the expansion of skilling efforts by private sector partners.
Amir Dossal provided closing remarks, noting the need for more time to address all the important topics raised and expressing inspiration drawn from the concrete initiatives discussed.
The event concluded with the announcement that Microsoft has become a new observer to the DCO, further strengthening the organization’s partnerships with the private sector.
Session Transcript
Hassan Nasser: Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, all protocol being observed, we are starting this side event named Fostering Digital Cooperation for Prosperity. The title is already very ambitious, and as you’ve all seen during these two days and as we expect also to see during the next two days, digital is taking a big place in New York this time. So it was really important for DCO to have this event with the support of four DCO member states naming Cyprus, Pakistan, Rwanda and Saudi Arabia. We thank them for their support making this event possible. I would like also to recognize the support of other international organizations including UNDP, UN Office of South-South Cooperation and our partners from area attending today, as well as a global partnership forum. I hope with this everyone is recognized but also what is important is to be together in this room to have a fruitful and meaningful conversation. Without further ado, I will first of all give the floor to the Secretary General of the DCO, Her Excellency Deemah AlYahya. The floor is yours.
Deemah AlYahya: Thank you, Hassan. I would like to thank definitely our member countries for making this happen, believing in DCO and putting together a room full of thought leaders, either from governments, private sector and civil society, which really demonstrates that cooperation is the way forward to prosperity. So, with that, your excellencies, distinguished guests, and ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon and welcome to this very important meeting we have today. We come together to foster global digital cooperation for prosperity. We’re living in a time where the digital revolution is reshaping our world at its extraordinary pace. Technology has become the backbone of our economies, the bridge that connects us all together without any borders and any boundaries, and the tools that empowers individuals and communities. Yet, as we embrace the immersive opportunities of this digital age, we must also confront the challenges that come with it. I’m speaking, of course, about the digital divide and the daunting number of 2.6 billion individuals and people that remain unconnected and unable to take part in all the digital age has to offer. Despite the rapid advancement of technology, these people still lack access to the internet and the digital tools that many of us take for granted. This divide threatens to widen exponentially and grow even bigger and bigger. This is where our work becomes very crucial. The DCO was founded with a clear mandate to accelerate the inclusion and sustainable growth of the digital economy and to ensure that digital prosperity is within reach for everyone. With 16 member states across Africa, Asia, and Europe, representing over 800 million people, and a diverse group of observers from the private sector, civil society, and academia, We are united in one ambition, to bridge the digital gap and to harness digital transformation to drive global progress. Earlier this year, during our third General Assembly hosted by the Kingdom of Bahrain, the DCO Council of Ministers adopted a final Council Declaration that highlighted our collective commitment to these goals. We recognized the unique opportunity presented by the upcoming Global Digital Compact to build a global consensus on digital cooperation. As the world prepares for the adoption of this compact, the DCO stands ready to lead by example, driving a multi-stakeholder approach that brings together governments, businesses and civil society to create a new model of cooperation to co-create and co-design an ambitious digital future. One of our flagship projects that we actually launched this morning is the Digital Economy Navigator. This comprehensive tool offers a detailed, country-specific analysis of the digital economy maturity across 50 countries. The then primary goal is to help countries to understand and leverage their unique digital economy characteristics and also to share best practices from one country to another that would help in accelerating their growth. Another key initiative that I would like to highlight that showcases cooperation is also DCO Impact Platform, which serves as a marketplace for digital solutions and services adopting for multilateral partnerships and cooperation. These are just a few examples of the initiatives we’ve put in place. There are many more in progress. each design to drive action and impact on ground and meaningful change and to ensure that no one is left behind in the digital era. While I could continue listing these initiatives, but the time is short and our work is far from finished. The theme of today’s event is Fostering Global Digital Cooperation for Prosperity speaks directly to our mission. In our interconnected world, no nation, organization or individual can tackle the challenges of the digital age alone. We must work together to harness and harmonize digital policies, enhance digital skills and foster trust in the digital economy. This is not just about technological advancement. It’s about ensuring that technology serves as a force for good and a tool for everyone, ensuring that use of technology to build a more inclusive, equitable and prosperous world. Thank you everyone for your participation and I look forward to a fruitful discussion and I would like to thank our esteemed panelists that join us and are very keen on listening to your thought leadership on how can we bridge the digital divide with cooperation. Thank you very much.
Hassan Nasser: Thank you very much. As we said, we have 16 member states today in DCO. The first European country joining DCO was Cyprus and we are very honored today to have with us His Excellency Dr. Constantinos Kombos addressing this participant with his view on the way to foster digital cooperation. Your Excellency, the floor is yours.
Constantinos Kombos: Thank you very much and let me from the outset I say that I’m deeply honored to be here with you. Of course, I have a difficult task speaking after Dima and after everything that she has explained that is happening starting from today. Let me first of all once again congratulate you and thank you for organizing this very important event. And the DCO is about vision, and you are the force behind the vision. We are bringing together a plethora of stakeholders for a discussion that is both topical and also future-oriented. We are, after all, living in a rapidly changing world, with shifts in the ways that we envision, plan, and implement, and shifts that, me at least, I feel that I cannot keep up. We are experiencing a new industrial revolution that is wide in scope and multilayered to the extent that its impact and consequences are quite unpredictable. It is a pendulum that swings between prosperity and exclusion, because at the end, these are the two options. Accordingly, technological progress and the interconnected digital revolution can be the blessing that will bridge the gap and create the opportunities for people from non-privileged societies, thus establishing new economic models that cancel out social injustices and overcome gender inequalities. The positive is possible, and progress can be meaningful, but only if that is on the basis of including everyone. Only if it is structured in terms of responsibility with a normative regulatory framework that is responsive to the fast-growing developments. Therefore, a strong multilateral network is needed, one that focuses on sharing innovation and good practices, including on regulatory issues. streamlining. And this is what the DCO has been doing. It is our collective task and obligation to make sure that technological progress is inclusive and sustainable. Leaving others behind is not an option. Currently, close to 2.6 billion people remain unconnected with no access to the Internet, with the majority being women and young girls. This is a stark reminder as to the task ahead, as regards the alignment of technological progress with all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Over the next few days, we are expected or we hope that we will be able to agree on the Global Digital Compact. This will form part of our collective response to the task ahead and will also present a point of reference for the future. My country, the Republic of Cyprus, fully supports an ambitious Global Digital Compact that is anthropocentric and anchored on the premise that digital transition is part and parcel of the core of human rights. This will ensure that inclusivity is integral to closing the digital divide and instrumental in moving towards the Sustainable Development Goals. This is clearly a monumental task, one that requires a new type of synergy between all the relevant stakeholders, governments, regional and international organizations, the private sector, civil society. In our interconnected world, network building and synergies is the only strategy that can work. Networked multilateralism transcends existing modes of operation and is guided by a very simple principle. Integrating the expertise and resources of all stakeholders is, on its own, about inclusivity, innovation and adjustment to the task at hand. This multidimensional collaboration will ensure coherence, it will prevent fragmentation, will have an expanding positive impact on our economies, on digital landscapes, on national and individual capacities. Ladies and gentlemen, it is for these reasons that in 2022 the Republic of Cyprus became the first EU member state to join the DCO. We are a small country, but we saw the potential and we endorsed fully the founding values of the organisation. An organisation that is both the platform for sharing and the springboard for inclusiveness and progress. For us, for Cyprus, merging capacities in the digital sphere facilitates communication and the transfer of knowledge, and we are committed to advancing those exact policies that promote inclusive digital growth. We are partners with the DCO and we contribute as much as we can to the formulation of its policies. At the same time, we have benefited as a recipient of technological know-how that enabled us to make significant strides in developing a robust digital economy with a strong research and innovation ecosystem. Dear friends, the technological digital revolution is not waiting for anyone. The future is being morphed right now. Let’s unite and harness our combined strengths. Let’s transform the global digital complex vision into reality. Thank you.
Hassan Nasser: Thank you, Your Excellency, for remembering us the monumental task you mentioned and the need for cooperation. The next moment of this side event will be a first panel, and the idea of cooperation will be at the core of the participants on this panel. We have today for the first panel on this right a representative of three member states of DCO, with Ambassador Munir Akram, permanent representative of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to United Nations, with Vice Governor Hisham Elsheikh from Digital Government Authority, and with Ms. Josephine Mukesha, the Director General of the National ID Agency in Rwanda. And they are joined by very important partners. Unfortunately, we are missing one, so you have more to do. And we have the Regional Director for the Bureau of Arab States, Dr. Abdallah Dardary. So I will leave these panelists who are trusting us today in the very capable hands of my friend Amir Dossal, who will bring to you the right questions, and we expect, of course, the right answer. Amir, you are the duty now. Thank you.
Amir Dossal: Thank you, Hassan. I want to thank my good friend, the Secretary General of DCO. Let’s see if it works this time. First, I want to start by thanking my good friend, the Secretary General of DCO, Her Excellency Deemah AlYahya, for her leadership and for commitment and driving all of us to do good, actually. Thank you, Deemah. It’s great to see you. And I also want to thank the inspiring remarks by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Konstantinos Kombas. Thank you, sir, for being here and for supporting this work. So today’s panel is actually quite simple. How do you make it happen, essentially? And we are really honored to have the three member states present, plus a stalwart at UNDP who can share his thoughts. his vision of how UNDP is doing things on the ground. And I’d like to start, without further ado, with Ambassador Munir Akram, who’s really been, I think, almost like the founding member of the DCO. Ambassador Akram, good to have you, and please, a warm welcome to you, sir.
Munir Akram: Thank you. Thank you, Amir. Welcome, Excellency, Ms. Deemah AlYahya, Secretary General of the DCO. Welcome, Brother Nasr. We are about to, I hope, adopt the global digital compact, probably tomorrow morning, if all goes well. Everything is not solved. We still have some problems that remain to be resolved tonight. But hopefully it will be adopted. And this compact basically has five major objectives. Firstly, to bridge all digital divides. Secondly, to expand inclusion and provide benefits for all. Thirdly, to have a safe and secure digital space. Fourthly, to promote responsible, equitable, interoperable data governance. And fifth, to enhance international governance of artificial intelligence. These are five main objectives. A number of commitments are being undertaken under the Well, member states have undertaken to bridge the digital divide, enhance capacities, do national digital surveys and develop national strategies, develop upskilling and reskilling of digital personnel, provide digital competency frameworks, have national and regional assessments of the digital capacities, exchange knowledge and best practices, and foster entrepreneurship and innovation. These are some of the commitments that are being undertaken in the document. Obviously, the DCO, which is the first stand-alone organisation devoted to digital space, it is in fact the only one so far devoted to digital cooperation, that the DCO has a head start in being able to contribute to the implementation of the Global Digital Compact once it is adopted in. And there are these commitments that have been undertaken by member states provide a good guideline for what we will need to do in the DCO as such. I think some of the programmes that have been outlined by the Secretary-General, perhaps also the STRIDE programme and other programmes that the DCO is already in place, I think all of these programmes could be aligned. with the objectives and the commitments in the GCD, GDC, for implementation and see how to elaborate those programs, and to collaborate with the United Nations, with the organizations, the technology, I call them the technologies are, and of course the UNDP and others, who we can cooperate to promote these objectives. But I think to my important point is that we need to keep the organization focused on the strategic objectives, because of course the Global Digital Compact has a set of strategies and objectives, but as member states of the DCO, we have to see where our interests are and where our objectives should be and what we should focus on as such. And here, of course, my thoughts are, first of all, we have to focus on artificial intelligence. I think this is also given quite a lot of importance in the document, in the compact, and there is to be the annual dialogue on artificial intelligence, there is to be the forum on the governance of artificial intelligence, and as yet we did not find agreement on the financing model for AI. So the proposal of the developing countries was for a fund, I believe we should work towards establishing the fund for AI. And I think the DCO could make a good contribution in that respect. Secondly, on data governance, I think the two points which were, of course, governance of AI data, but also interoperability of data governance. I think that that is an important point that needs to be kept in mind. And the capacity for data governance is one of the issues that we need to address as to how we will develop the capacity amongst our member states for data governance. The third issue is the issue of fragmentation. It is mentioned in the Global Digital Compact. We, at the moment, have a north-south fragmentation. We call it the digital divide. It’s basically a north-south divide. There is the gender divide as well. But there is also the most important geo-strategic development that is taking place is the potential fragmentation on an east-west basis. There are basically two systems which are emerging in the world, and countries are going to have to make a choice if this is forced upon us. If we are asked to accept one system and not the other, if we are asked to accept an eastern system or western system, then that is going to promote fragmentation across the world, not only between the two powers concerned, but across the world. So the DCO is one organization which has membership that is, I think, sits in the middle of the world. in the middle of this geo-strategic development that we are facing. And as such, the GCEO is in a good position to try to find ways of bridging this gap, which is going to become as important a divide as the north-south divide. How do we do this? How do we develop systems that are actually compatible with both worlds, both the eastern and western systems that are emerging at this time? It’s a challenge. The last point which I’d like to raise is perhaps not fully addressed in the Global Digital Compact, and that is the issue of computing power. All of us are talking about digital cooperation, digital inclusion, and we will have to have that inclusion only through access to data, to power that is owned by somebody else, whether it’s in the government sector or the private sector. So the only answer for countries as the members of the GCEO who want to be independent states and have the control of their own destiny in their own hands, the only answer is to acquire computing power. And to acquire computing power will take many things. It will take skills in design. It will take… finances, huge amount of degrees of finances, it will take access to minerals, it will take the political will to be able to actually act independently of the major powers. So this is, of course, these are some strategic issues which I think that the DCO is well placed to at least have a dialogue on, to see how we can address these strategic issues, even as we are promoting the cooperative programs to implement the global digital compact that we have. Thank you so much.
Amir Dossal: Thank you. The challenge remains a challenge for many developing countries and, of course, computing power is a whole issue of energy kicks in and infrastructure, capacity, et cetera. I was going to ask Hassan, whilst he was speaking, whether we might get an extension of time, because this is an important subject.
Hassan Nasser: You know, that’s why I give you the facilitation. There is no extension on time. So I can stop you at some point, because usually I stop myself, it’s difficult. No, we need to have the first panel closing at 45, I would say. Seven minutes? Oh, we can solve the problem of the world. Seven minutes is enough.
Amir Dossal: Ambassador Akram, thank you so much. I’m going to go in the order of the presence of everybody in the document as well, and I’d like to invite Dr. Abdallah Al Dardari, who is the Director of the Regional Bureau for Arab States at UNDP. Dr. Aldari, it’s very nice to see you again, and thank you for what you do. And I absolutely don’t want to rush you. You have 90 seconds starting from now.
Abdallah Al Dardari: Okay, sir. What a pleasure. The two topics of today’s meeting, the two main topics, technology, digital technology, and the role of women in digital technology. So this will be my angle today. The Arab region’s productivity has been in decline for the last 50 years. In fact, productivity in our region today is 50% of what it used to be in 1980. And that applies to the richest of us and to the poorest of us. You will be amazed that the productivity patterns of all countries in the region are very similar. And the two main reasons why productivity is low in our region and has been going down is the very low level in technology and innovation in the composition of Arab economies and the very low participation of women in the Arab economies. In fact, the cost of the current level of female participation in economic activity in the Arab world is 20% of GDP every year. Out of a $3.5 trillion GDP of the Arab world, this means we are losing $700 billion a year because of low female participation in our economy. And according to the IMF, bringing in artificial intelligence at full scale in our global economy could give us a boost of 1.5% annually in productivity, total factor productivity, which translates into a $7 trillion increase annually in global output. In our region, this is $116 billion every year, plus the $700 billion we are losing because of the female participation. Together, we can add almost a trillion dollars of economic output every year in this region alone if we invest in women and in artificial intelligence and digital technology. And therefore, the efforts to move in this direction and these two directions working closely together and the efforts of DCO are not a matter of small amounts of money. They are existential matters, at least in our part of the world, and we need to take them that seriously. We in UNDP think of the problem as I just explained, and we believe this is the greatest opportunity in modern history for Arab economies and the global economy. By the way, you look at the recent reports in Europe, the Draghi report, exactly the same problems with different percentages, of course. So let me say that our commitment to work with you and with all partners around the room to address these two points, especially that in our cultural context, using artificial intelligence and digital technology to empower women probably is the fastest way to leapfrog rather than having to go through all what other women around the world had to go through to be where they are today. So, it’s a win-win situation. I’ll stop at that. Thank you.
Amir Dossal: The Bahrain have been at the forefront of some of these changes, actually, and it’s really nice to have His Excellency Hisham Alsheikh here, because he’s the real founding father of GCOs. I appreciate you coming back and supporting this. Perhaps you might also touch on the question of women’s role in the technology sector and how you are dealing with the question of what Mr. Al Dardari said, that if you don’t address women’s issues, if you don’t bring them into the fold, you can’t solve some of these problems. So, thank you, sir. Welcome.
Hisham Alsheikh: As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. Your Excellency, esteemed guests, good afternoon. And honestly, today, we’re here to explore an exciting and rapidly evolving field, the field of digital cooperation. Digital cooperation refers to the collaborative efforts of various stakeholders, including governments, the private sector, civil society, and international organizations, to harness the digital technologies for the common good, primarily towards the center of our attention, the citizens. Now, digital cooperation is not just a trend. It is a necessity. It is crucial for addressing global challenges, fostering innovation, and ensuring inclusive growth in our interconnected world. It is about leveraging, leaving no one behind, and providing an equal opportunity to all in the digital era. And this is where, probably in an earlier remark by His Excellency, our Minister of Communication, Suhaha, mentioned that our workforce is 50% female are equal to men and this is where we are focusing our attention and enabling both workforces of men and women to jointly develop the nation in its vision. So Saudi Arabia’s digital transformation success is not just impressive. It’s a testament to the potential for global digital growth. The innovative and world-leading solution enacted across government agencies for society as a whole are a beacon of hope for the future. Saudi Arabia’s vision 2030 emphasizes on the importance of digital transformation and cooperation. This future forward approach can be seen in the health care sector where the kingdom has invested deeply in cutting edge care and facilities. Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the work completed under the vision 2030 ensured that Saudi was ideally placed to meet its residents’ health needs and respond nimbly and collaboratively to the changing landscape. Saudi Arabia today is a country that rewards determination, fosters opportunity and ensures citizens are empowered to reach their full potential, both men and women. Following the launch of vision 2030, the average life expectancy in Saudi Arabia rose to 75.1 years. In 2020, 87% of patients received emergency medical care within four hours of their arrival at a medical facility, up from 36% in 2016. Justice had its fair share of this transformation. reaching 95% of its hearings delivered online. More than 18 million beneficiaries across the kingdom benefit from those services on a daily basis. Litigation time dropped from 219 days on average to 30 days. This has made the justice system more effective and highly efficient on both productivity, significant cost saving while enhancing the service offered. Today, Saudi Arabia is one of the leaders in digital government transformation, ranking sixth on the UN EGDI and third on the World Bank GTMI. Additionally, it ranked first on the Open Government Data Index. The kingdom has also launched several initiatives. Cooperation was amongst the most critical and essential files on the global side. As a result, the Digital Cooperation Organization was founded in November 2020 during Saudi Arabia’s presidency of the G20, which focused on growing the global economy. In 2023, through the DCO, we have launched a global initiative named IMPACT, which was earlier referenced by Her Excellency the Secretary General. So what is IMPACT? It’s a marketplace for digital solutions and services that advocates for multilateral partnership and cooperation. It encourages the exchange of knowledge, cultivates digital ecosystems, and enhances capabilities for effective digital government transformation. The platform aims to catalyze the adoption of digital solutions across the DCO ecosystem to facilitate more efficient government operations and service delivery. It also aims to foster economic growth, innovation, investment attraction, and job creation, in addition to contributing to accelerating progress towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The emphasis on multilateral cooperation through IMPACT also promotes stronger diplomatic relation for the exchange of technological innovation, enrich the global community, and this is something probably was raised by His Excellency Ambassador Mounir in terms of East and West. IMPACT’s ultimate goal is to ensure that digital prosperity is accessible to all citizens within the DCO member states. Moreover, just a few days back, DCO launched the first ever Global Center of Excellence for Gen-AI, championed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, that will support member states to become innovators, producers, and leaders in AI by developing the talent and the resources needed to bridge the disparities in AI adoptions. I thank you.
Amir Dossal: Thank you. Thank you for the inspiring comments about what’s happening in Saudi Arabia. It really is an untold story. I was in Saudi last year for the climate meetings and it was really amazing, the progress being made, and credit to the country for sharing its know-how and technology with other countries. Thank you. I am delighted to welcome, and I’m sorry, please don’t worry about what Hassan told you. We’re delighted to have you here, Madam Josephine Mukesha. You’re the Director General of the National ID Agency of Rwanda and we’d love to hear from you because you’re the one who is actually implementing solutions. The question is how to build global digital cooperation to deliver on our commitments.
Josephine Mukesha: So thank you and a warm welcome. Thank you very much, and thank you, Your Excellency, Secretary General of TCO. So Rwanda has started the journey of implementing the digital identity, the single digital identity, and the digital identity will be issued from birth, because today we issue identity from 16, and the digital identity is poised on the foundational infrastructure that we already have, the CRVS, which is a digital platform where we measure and collect information about citizens’ vital events, and the population registry. So what we are looking at with global digital cooperation, we are looking at how to work on common standards and interoperability, because as we plan to issue digital identity to Rwandan citizens and foreign residents, refugees, foundlings, stateless, and everybody on the land, we want to make sure that there are areas of collaboration for best practices, knowledge and experience sharing for the implementation of a digital identity. We believe that TCO member states have a lot of knowledge and capabilities that we could look at areas of collaboration and see, not to repeat what didn’t work somewhere else, but what worked well, how we can implement ours. We are ambitious to look at an implementation of a digital identity that is built for purpose to fit Rwandan needs, so we do not want an off-the-shelf solution, we want a build from scratch, but that ensures, has all the standards for cyber security and all the ideas to the regulation for personal data protection and privacy, and we also look at building a digital identity where we could have regulatory framework that would allow cross-border identity verification. capabilities, and look at how to develop guidelines or frameworks that will allow the protection of personal data, because these are sensitive information, but to see how through DCO member states which ones we could start working with to look at how to develop, as we are developing our digital identity, it is forward-looking to allow that mutual interoperability to allow authentication cross-border, and also look at technology and partnership for leveraging expertise in technology to ensure an efficient and secure digital identity system implementation. I think my predecessors talked about capacity building and trainings for the users, because a digital identity, we believe, to increase its use, the more use case we have, the better it will be, and will reap the benefits that we look to generate from it, so we want to look at member states, the use cases they’ve developed, and we look at areas of collaboration and see if there are synergies and we could all benefit from, and we are looking at having an inclusive approaches and ethical consideration as well. Thank you very much.
Amir Dossal: Thank you, Ms Mukesha, and I appreciate your brevity. It’s very helpful, and I hope you’ll forgive me if I do not summarise, because it would be an insult to the amazing contribution of our panellists, actually, and it will give you an opportunity to continue that continuum of thought as you go forward, and more importantly, it gives me the pride to be able to give back five minutes to Hassan.
Hassan Nasser: Really? In which time zone? Thank you, Amir. Thank you. You did a great job, so you will take care of the second panel. But before we move to the second panel, we have also the immense honour… to have Professor Akiko Yamanaka with us. She is the Senior Advisor of the President at ARIA, but also the former Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs for Japan. And she will entertain and educate us today regarding a topic that she’s really passionate about, which is women, peace, and security, and women in digital economy, an age of balance. Professor Akiko, the floor is yours.
Akiko Yamanaka: Thank you very much for your kind introduction, Secretary General, Excellencies, ladies, ladies, and gentlemen. It is my honor that I can have an opportunity to share with DCO members about the future vision of the world society. Could I share with you about my experience, why I have been working on WPS and WDE, which ARIA, ARIA is the Organization Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia, had a kickoff event in June this year for ASEAN countries. When I attended the UN Decade of Women’s Conference in Nairobi, Kenya in 1985, I was young. Still are. No, the Secretary General of the conference, late Letitia Shahani, from the Philippines, gave the most impressive speech. She said, peace is not a situation where there is no war. It is women who can teach our children the reality of war and peace. True development. is social, cultural, and political, as well as economics, not only economics. Equality between men and women is not simply the absence of discrimination. Rather, equality means granting women the right, opportunity, responsibility to take part in their own development. So these words suggest that peace is the base, and we need updated tools like digital economic power in order to join the development equally with male colleagues. In order to make the challenges of WPS and WDE in the world, we have to remember the important concept of the human security. This concept is based on Albert Einstein, a team member of developing of atomic bomb, and he actually, after bombing to Hiroshima, encouraged focus more on human factor rather than scientific development for the future generation. And he also said, quote, it is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder, quote. Thus, UNDP defined the human security in 1994 with seven fields such as economic security, food security, health security, environmental security, personal security, community security, and political security. I have added two more items because we are in 2024. Water security, separated from the food security, and of course, energy security. These are the basic concept of SDGs as well. And let me introduce the words of late economic professor of Kenneth Galbraith of Harvard University. When I met him as a professor of the university, he said, Akiko, Japan and the U.S. have succeeded to produce excellent products. However, it is doubtful if we have succeeded to produce real happy people. And when I met him as a member of the House of Representatives, he said, House of Representatives means parliament in Japan. He said, Akiko, there are three programs in the 21st century. One, the program of the nuclear issues. Two, the program of the elite and the poor. Three, the program of the traditional discrimination such as race, religion, gender and so on. We are now 21st century. When I met him last time of his age, 93 years old, he stood up from the wheelchair and said three times, Akiko, Japan should stop just following the United States and establish your own identity. It sounded like his will to me. Now, I would like to share three key words which enables us move toward the better future. One, addressing common interests. Two, ensuring social resilience. And three, establishing an age of balance. That means development, environment protection, globalization, regionalization, high-tech information, individual privacy, group orientation, individualism. work, leisure, materialism, spiritualism, male, female, military solution, non-military alternatives, national interest, international interest, in other words, common interests. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I believe that the secret weapon to change the world to peaceful, stable and prosperous is us women. Let us work and work together in order to produce real happy people. I thank you very much.
Hassan Nasser: Thank you very much, Professor Akiko. Let’s all make happy people after this event. But before, we have our four panelists who have been waiting patiently. We will be pressuring you on time, but we hope that, like lemon, if we press, we get very good juice, right? So, I will leave my friend Amir to continue the torture, but I would like to introduce, of course, Ms. Dima El-Khatib, the Director of the UN Office of South-South Cooperation. We have Mr. Mathis Pellerin, Vice President from Oracle. Mr. Alexandre Pignot, Global Leader for the UN in Microsoft. And, last but not least, my dear colleague, Ms. Alaa Abdulaal Chief Digital Economy Foresight at the DCO Secretariat. Amir. Please, you have five seconds.
Amir Dossal: I just want to say what Professor Akiko said. You’re really echoing what UNDP said. If we address the issue of disparity of women, then we get prosperity, you’ll address that. So thank you for reminding us. My founding material for my political conscience when I was studying economics, so I’m really grateful for the opportunity to remember Galbraith again. Sorry for stepping in. No, that’s all right. I have four seconds left now. Forgive the first panel, but the second panel is actually very interesting. We have the benefit of the private sector present as well, who will show us what they’re actually doing and making things happen. Of course, Deemah is already doing those things in South-South cooperation. He has been a formative leader in this. Alaa Abdulaal, welcome. I enjoyed your presentation yesterday at the Digital Awards. Thank you for what you’re doing. I’d like to start with you and invite you. Hassan has been very diligent and gave me some very good questions. I’m not going to give you questions. I’d like to invite you to talk about what DCO is doing, including on the impact initiative or anything else you’d like to talk about.
Alaa Abdulaal: Thank you so much. I’m really honored to be part of this panel just beside our colleagues here. It is an honor. On behalf of the Digital Cooperation Organization, you have mentioned that we have been doing a lot. Today, we were blessed with an amazing announcement of the Digital Economy Navigator. Mr. Hisham had talked about the impact initiative. I would like to also talk about the Digital Space Accelerator. Cooperation is our middle name. We are the digital cooperation organization. So if we do not act with cooperation, we are not fulfilling our organization name. And this is why we have the Digital Space Accelerator, which is a very innovative way that we have produced where we bring together different stakeholders all on the same table with also global experts to really discuss and find solution for some of the challenges or seizing some of the opportunities that will help us to really have a sustainable and inclusive growth. Last year, we had amazing six topics we started with. They are very diverse from misinformation and how much it is impacted by the social media. We had also the topic on taxation, financial incentives, and how they can help in the growth of the digital economy. We had on public-private partnership. They were six very diverse topics. And one of them is women participation in ICT and through ICT. And those groups together, they have been working with also our member states. We have conducted global roundtables. We were in South Africa, Geneva, and Riyadh, online sessions with more than 200 people thinking together on how to solve those issues. And we outcomed with nine amazing deliverables, which can be seen on our website from frameworks, policy papers, tools that hopefully they will help our member states to really grow in the digital economy. In addition, this year, we have added more five other topics because we saw the opportunity and how they can enhance also the inclusive growth. We are focusing on AI, how we cannot open a topic or a digital space accelerator on AI, and the importance of ethical use of AI. Also, we have a topic on misinformation again, but how does it impact the cultural values? We have topics about trade acceleration, the digital trade acceleration. All of this together, we have been in Thailand, we have been in Geneva during the WTO, we have been in Riyadh during, again, AI Summit, again with almost until now 100 participation of different experts and with our member states. And we are still working on other roundtables that are coming towards the year. The beauty of all of this is whatever solution that we are delivering from all of those topics will be comprehensive, reflecting the different views and serving our member states and even the global community. And we hope that we will continue working together and we invite everyone to be part of the Digital Space Accelerator. And I need to even invite everyone to visit the Digital Economy Navigator and download the report and see what are the data that can be used to accelerate the growth of the digital economy. Thank you so much.
Amir Dossal: Thank you for your inspiring remarks. Hassan, I’m assuming that the report will contain all the information and if somebody wants to add some additional thing about their thought, that can be included in the final report. Great, thank you.
Deemah AlYahya: If I can build on that as well, it is actually an annual navigator. And what is really beautiful, because I’m so passionate about it so I’m jumping in, what is very beautiful about it is that it highlights best practices of all our member states. And it enables countries to go in and if they have a gap in an area, they can look at where are the best practices in other countries that they can adapt and it gives that access. to either the private sector or either financial institutions that can help in funding such kind of developing programs as well.
Amir Dossal: So it’s a platform where you can build those partnerships online. Yes. Thank you. So I’m going to invite now Dima Al-Khatib. Dima, you launched a lab in July. We’re all interested to hear about what you did actually and how we can be part of this exciting movement.
Dima Al-Khatib: Open invitation. Thank you. Thank you very much, Excellencies. And it’s a real honor to take part in this discussion today, a very timely one, especially, as Hassan also was saying, this is the time where we all need to think about bridging the digital divide and think about the means of implementation, as His Excellency was also noting. And I want to take this opportunity to mention that with the ambition and the importance of the Global Digital Compact, we believe that South-South Cooperation and Triangle Cooperation are extremely important means to bridge that gap and to leverage expertise and to share experiences and to really move much faster and leapfrog, as we say. As you rightly noted, we have recently launched what we call the South-South and Triangle Cooperation Solutions Lab, which is a platform, is part of our knowledge platform for best practices, and it is a platform to test and incubate and pilot solutions related to different disciplines and addressing different complex issues that the countries of the South are facing. The purpose also is to look at the solutions from a portfolio perspective and not to address topics in a siloed way, because every topic, as we know, in development, is interconnected with so many others. We just spoke about peace and development and women, extremely interconnected. So this is the approach that we are using. And the other thing that I also want to mention and underline is that the focus in line with the Global Digital Compact will also focus on developing digital public goods, such as open data and AI models, and it will also try to build a robust digital ecosystem that will enable this incubation and this testing. Of course, by linking it to the different networks that already exist, whether the best practices or networks of think tanks, we have an initiative called the Global Thinkers, we will be also trying to leverage the voice of the Global South from different angles, whether the youth, the academia, the think tanks, all towards converging and finding solution. Of course, this is a partnership platform, so it’s open for any entity to join forces with us. We have already several partners, such as IAEA, WFP, Masdar City, the Gulf Organization for Research and Development, and hopefully it’s a trajectory of growth. So looking forward to have more partnerships and looking forward to keep promoting South-South and Triangle cooperation as a key vehicle and a key means of implementation to really address those gaps. Let me stop it here. Thank you.
Amir Dossal: Thank you. Hearing you, I realized that OHRLS, the High Commissioner for, or High Representative for Landlocked Countries, Leased-to-Help Countries, they would benefit from this entirely.
Dima Al-Khatib: With them, and for the Landlocked Conference, we will be partnering on the ministerial segment.
Amir Dossal: Thank you. Excellent. Thank you so much. Thank you. Now I’d like to invite our colleague from Oracle, actually, the Vice President of Oracle, Matis Pellerin. Matis, where are you based?
Matis Pellerin: I’m based in Paris.
Amir Dossal: Oh, hard life, actually. We are delighted to welcome you to New York. Thank you for coming here.
Matis Pellerin: Thank you very much. If I may, I will make a comment on the role of partnership with the private sector, because I represent the private sector with my colleague from Microsoft. Lots of things have been said. I think the access to innovation and the access to a skilled workforce is one of the challenges governments are currently facing. And what could we do as a private sector to really address this issue? I think I can identify at least two major problems. One is access to innovation. His Excellency was mentioning the artificial intelligence, compute power, are the things where the private sector can really help. The shortage of skills is also one of the main challenges. And we also see lots of things where the private sector could also intervene. So I don’t think governments should think that they can become tech experts. And actually, we are tech experts from the private sector. And I totally understand that on strategic issues, sometimes governments are a bit reluctant to delegate these strategic issues like innovations and IT. However, usually, when we talk about digital transformation, when governments try to do it themselves, it becomes much more expensive, much more challenging. And also, usually, it’s very difficult for the government because they are a bit lagging behind in terms of innovation while they need to compete. with all the big tech companies. In terms of hiring also, it’s a challenge. Hiring the best skilled people, you need to compete with the private sector when you are government. So there is lots of reasons where I really think that governments need to find a trusted partner. They need to find a partner that is going to be able to help them in both the digital transformation effort of the government, but also in developing local skills and supporting them in their capacity building efforts. And actually, I’m very proud that at Oracle, we are already partnering with lots of DCO member states. I was listening carefully what His Excellency was saying about Saudi Arabia, but we are doing a lot with the Saudi government to help them in their digital transformation efforts. We just committed to train recently more than 50,000 Saudi nationals to new technology like AI, cybersecurity, and cloud computing. We are also doing similar things in Morocco, for instance, partnering with the Moroccan governments to try to develop knowledge in Morocco. We are going to build an R&D innovation center in Casablanca to train and to embed inside Oracle Moroccan people that are going to be working in our innovation and R&D. So there is lots of partnership we can build, both on the digital transformation efforts, but also on the capacity building effort which is made locally to train the population. Thank you.
Deemah AlYahya: Do you mind, Amir?
Amir Dossal: No, please. Absolutely, yes.
Deemah AlYahya: Well, I totally agree on what you have mentioned. In the digital transformation, every part of the ecosystem has its role. So rather than trying to play other roles, let’s bridge. the communication gap. One very successful story, actually, we have with Oracle, whom are an observer to DCO, is we launched the skills program, which is a platform that enables skills, especially in AI, to educate individuals in all our 16 member states. We have now registered more than 1,000 participants from executives, from governments of our member states, and we represent 800 million in population. 75% is under the age of 30. So you can imagine all that support and help and upskilling. And if we don’t have partners from the private sector that can help accelerate that, then it would be very, very difficult to bridge that gap. So thank you so much for your partnership.
Matis Pellerin: Indeed, we are very happy about the DCO Academy partnership, and it’s open to all member states. So you are all very welcome to join and try to use this training platform, which is very important for everyone, expert people, but also beginners. So feel free to join.
Amir Dossal: Thank you, and we appreciate your ethos on this, actually. Thank you. So not the final speaker, but one of the most important speakers, our neighbor, actually, Alexander Pinot, who’s right across the street, right? You’re based here at 885? Well, I’m not based here, but Microsoft, yes. Good to have Microsoft’s office here focused on the UN. Thank you for being here. So please.
Alexander Pinot: Thank you so much. First of all, thank you, Your Excellency, for the opportunity to be here, ladies and gentlemen. I’d like to start to recognize that the global digital economy and the digital capabilities are at its highest ever. What just happened in these last years with the advent of AI has just created an exponential growth in terms of digital capabilities, digital potential, and what value it can create. The problem we have is that with this exponential growth and this explosion in potential and in capacity, the pattern of distribution is following the world patterns. So the same unequal distribution that we used to have is now potentiated in a way because the technology is expanding in a way and the ability to access this expansion and this new value creation continues to be as or even more uneven than it was. And it’s uneven from a geographical perspective when you think about the developed world and the developing world, and it’s uneven from a gender perspective as we all discussed and we reiterated on the relevance that it has to be more inclusive for women and the value it can create from a human, social, and economic perspective for the world. So as Microsoft, we deeply believe in the role of a company not just to generate profit for its shareholders, but to create shared value in a triple bottom line for all the stakeholders that we interact with and creating a better world and focusing not just on the markets where we have commercial profitability in the short term, but creating a better digital economy for all that creates sustained value for the world and future digital markets that are a lot more inclusive and a lot more broad. In this sense, we have created a group inside Microsoft called Tech for Social Impact which is dedicated to this long term triple bottom line value creation of the digital economy intimately aligned with the digital compact and with the creation of shared digital value for all. The focus is on essentially three big things. One is around access. The ability to have even connectivity today, it’s very uneven. If you look at LDCs and the amount of people in LDCs that don’t have yet access to internet or even connectivity, it’s astonishing. Digital infrastructure and cloud infrastructure is also another element that is absolutely critical. But even if these things exist, the affordability element needs to be tailored so that the ability to use, the ability to access, is tailored. In this aspect, we have been doing two things. One, creating frameworks of affordability that actually differentiate the cost of solutions in creating a positive impact for the global south, and especially for the least developed countries, to be able to access all our prime technology more locally and with different affordability and pricing models. And so we created a digital development program that allows for that. But secondly, we deeply embrace digital public infrastructure and digital public goods. And we believe that the expansion that we’re having on the cloud, the expansion we’re having on this new digital infrastructure, can and should be combined with digital public goods to create faster, easier to deploy digital public infrastructure. And so we are actually investing significantly on the onboarding and the support to digital public goods agenda and the creation of digital public infrastructure through associated with cloud and with AI to create additional value. The second aspect that we believe is, you can have all the capacity and with a much more even distribution, but there needs to be ability to leverage that technology. And so skilling and the ability for people to understand technology and to use technology in an effective way is absolutely fundamental. So this year, we have been for years, since COVID, we created a significant boost on our skilling efforts to help recover from the economic impact of COVID. But now with AI, we felt that we needed to triple down on that investment and the capacity to skill people at scale. So in partnerships with UNICEF, UNDP, IOM, we’re actually expanding the way we are skilling people at scale, not just in the global north, but also in the global south and in the developing world. Additionally, there’s also aspects around deployment and finance. Which is, you know, the ability to leverage these technologies is intimately associated with having the capacity and having the skills and having the talent that is able to deploy them and to implement them in a good way. And we know that that doesn’t exist today. So there needs to be mechanisms, partnering with technical assistance partners, partnering with the ecosystem to bring capacity to the countries where it doesn’t exist today. Use these projects as foundational investments that can help develop a more broad local digital ecosystem. And so what we’re trying to do is to create these projects where, by creating gravitas around a big project of implementation, it creates conditions for a more local ecosystem and digital economy to thrive. And finally, there’s also an element we’ve been advocating, and it’s still, I would say, there’s still a disconnect there, but gradually we’re seeing positive evolutions on the right direction. Development financing was built from an age centered on assets and CapEx. It is all about infrastructure. It is all about assets. It’s all about CapEx. But the digital economy today, it’s all about OPEX and access to innovation as a service. There is a tremendous disconnect that I think is hindering the developing countries to be able to tap into the digital economy based on services due to the disconnect with the financing mechanisms that are hyper-centered on strong CapEx up front that actually even increase the depth of those countries. And so there’s the transformation around from short, intensive, large scale CapEx to long term, 15 years, 10 years OPEX that allows them actually to adopt technology, create impact, and generate value in a sustained way without facing the problems of financing mechanisms these days. Finally, and I’m getting longer, I’m sorry, I’m not helping, I know. But just one more point, which is. If you achieve access, if we achieve ability to leverage, we also need to focus a bit on ensuring that it is creating impact and generating a trusted digital economy and trust in these countries. So the aspect of starting with the problem we’re trying to solve, making sure that technology is being deployed in a fit-for-purpose way. And we don’t start with technology. We start with the problems that technology can solve. And we use the technology just in the proportion that is needed to solve the problems, not necessarily just to put technology on the table. I think has been part of that. And with this also, the aspect of partnerships. It has been fundamental that for these projects to be successful, to center ourselves on strong partnerships between private sector, public sector, and especially the international development sector that makes the bridge super important for the creation of value on the long term. So thank you for the opportunity.
Amir Dossal: Thank you. Thank you very much. We need more time, but I’m sorry. We’ll have to do another panel, actually. I want to thank you again for your contributions, your ideas, and especially for the concrete initiatives you’re involved in. Because that’s what will inspire others. And you share it with others. They can replicate. They can learn from you and go forward. One minor point when we talk about LDCs, I keep reminding my colleagues, they’re not least of all countries. They’re the least discovered countries. We get lost in our negative connotations of the UN. I’m sorry. On that note, I return this back to ourselves.
Deemah AlYahya: And if you would just allow me to welcome Microsoft as our new observer to the organization as well. So we’re happy to have them on board.
Amir Dossal: Good. Excellent.
Hassan Nasser: So I will first thank all the speakers, and especially those who stick to the time. No offense. The other one, they owe me a coffee. I would like also to thank Amir for facilitating. Really, thank you very much, sir. And of course, a big thanks to our two keynote speakers for their visionary, let’s say, perspective and sharing with us those elements. This event team is chasing us from this room. New York is big. We still have a lot of days. I have a great summit of the future, and we are here really to impact the world. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Deemah AlYahya
Speech speed
122 words per minute
Speech length
990 words
Speech time
485 seconds
Digital divide threatens to widen exponentially
Explanation
The digital divide is a significant challenge that could worsen over time. Despite technological advancements, 2.6 billion people still lack access to the internet and digital tools.
Evidence
2.6 billion individuals remain unconnected and unable to take part in the digital age
Major Discussion Point
Digital Cooperation for Inclusive Growth
Agreed with
Constantinos Kombos
Hisham Alsheikh
Agreed on
Digital cooperation is crucial for addressing global challenges and fostering innovation
Constantinos Kombos
Speech speed
128 words per minute
Speech length
743 words
Speech time
346 seconds
Need for networked multilateralism and synergies between stakeholders
Explanation
Addressing digital challenges requires a new type of collaboration between various stakeholders. This networked multilateralism integrates expertise and resources from all parties to ensure coherence and prevent fragmentation.
Evidence
Mention of governments, regional and international organizations, private sector, and civil society as relevant stakeholders
Major Discussion Point
Digital Cooperation for Inclusive Growth
Agreed with
Deemah AlYahya
Hisham Alsheikh
Agreed on
Digital cooperation is crucial for addressing global challenges and fostering innovation
Akiko Yamanaka
Speech speed
100 words per minute
Speech length
626 words
Speech time
375 seconds
Importance of addressing common interests and ensuring social resilience
Explanation
To move towards a better future, it’s crucial to focus on common interests and social resilience. This approach helps in creating a balanced and inclusive digital future.
Evidence
Mention of three key words: addressing common interests, ensuring social resilience, and establishing an age of balance
Major Discussion Point
Digital Cooperation for Inclusive Growth
Hisham Alsheikh
Speech speed
128 words per minute
Speech length
715 words
Speech time
334 seconds
Digital cooperation crucial for addressing global challenges and fostering innovation
Explanation
Digital cooperation is essential for tackling worldwide issues and promoting innovation. It involves collaborative efforts from various stakeholders to harness digital technologies for the common good.
Evidence
Mention of governments, private sector, civil society, and international organizations as stakeholders in digital cooperation
Major Discussion Point
Digital Cooperation for Inclusive Growth
Agreed with
Deemah AlYahya
Constantinos Kombos
Agreed on
Digital cooperation is crucial for addressing global challenges and fostering innovation
Saudi Arabia’s success in digital transformation across government sectors
Explanation
Saudi Arabia has made significant progress in digital transformation across various government sectors. This transformation has led to improved efficiency and service delivery in areas such as healthcare and justice.
Evidence
Examples of improvements in healthcare delivery and justice system efficiency due to digital transformation
Major Discussion Point
Role of Technology in Economic Development
Abdallah Al Dardari
Speech speed
130 words per minute
Speech length
459 words
Speech time
210 seconds
Low productivity in Arab region due to low technology adoption and women’s participation
Explanation
The Arab region’s productivity has been declining due to low levels of technology and innovation adoption, as well as low participation of women in the economy. This has resulted in significant economic losses.
Evidence
Mention of 20% GDP loss annually due to low female participation, amounting to $700 billion a year
Major Discussion Point
Role of Technology in Economic Development
Importance of AI and digital technology in empowering women and leapfrogging development
Explanation
AI and digital technology offer a significant opportunity to empower women and accelerate development in the Arab region. These technologies can help overcome cultural barriers and enable faster progress.
Major Discussion Point
Role of Technology in Economic Development
Munir Akram
Speech speed
0 words per minute
Speech length
0 words
Speech time
1 seconds
Need for computing power to ensure independence and control of digital destiny
Explanation
Countries need to acquire computing power to maintain their independence and control over their digital future. This involves developing skills in design, securing finances, and accessing necessary resources.
Major Discussion Point
Role of Technology in Economic Development
Potential fragmentation of digital systems on east-west basis
Explanation
There is a risk of digital systems fragmenting along east-west lines, potentially forcing countries to choose between different systems. This fragmentation could exacerbate existing divides and create new challenges.
Evidence
Mention of emerging eastern and western digital systems
Major Discussion Point
Challenges in Digital Transformation
Alaa Abdulaal
Speech speed
142 words per minute
Speech length
533 words
Speech time
224 seconds
DCO initiatives like Digital Economy Navigator and Digital Space Accelerator
Explanation
The Digital Cooperation Organization has launched initiatives such as the Digital Economy Navigator and Digital Space Accelerator. These programs aim to foster cooperation and innovation in the digital economy.
Evidence
Mention of six diverse topics addressed by the Digital Space Accelerator, including misinformation, taxation, and public-private partnerships
Major Discussion Point
Partnerships and Capacity Building
Agreed with
Matis Pellerin
Dima Al-Khatib
Alexander Pinot
Agreed on
Importance of partnerships and capacity building in digital transformation
Matis Pellerin
Speech speed
149 words per minute
Speech length
519 words
Speech time
207 seconds
Private sector partnerships crucial for access to innovation and skilled workforce
Explanation
Partnerships with the private sector are essential for governments to access innovation and skilled workforce in the digital sector. These partnerships can help address challenges in digital transformation and capacity building.
Evidence
Examples of Oracle’s partnerships with Saudi Arabia and Morocco for digital transformation and capacity building
Major Discussion Point
Partnerships and Capacity Building
Agreed with
Alaa Abdulaal
Dima Al-Khatib
Alexander Pinot
Agreed on
Importance of partnerships and capacity building in digital transformation
Disagreed with
Hisham Alsheikh
Disagreed on
Role of government vs private sector in digital transformation
Dima Al-Khatib
Speech speed
137 words per minute
Speech length
444 words
Speech time
194 seconds
South-South and Triangular Cooperation as key vehicles for bridging digital gaps
Explanation
South-South and Triangular Cooperation are important means to bridge the digital divide and leverage expertise. These forms of cooperation can help countries share experiences and move faster in digital development.
Evidence
Mention of the South-South and Triangle Cooperation Solutions Lab as a platform for testing and incubating solutions
Major Discussion Point
Partnerships and Capacity Building
Agreed with
Alaa Abdulaal
Matis Pellerin
Alexander Pinot
Agreed on
Importance of partnerships and capacity building in digital transformation
Alexander Pinot
Speech speed
164 words per minute
Speech length
1197 words
Speech time
436 seconds
Microsoft’s Tech for Social Impact focus on access, skills, and deployment
Explanation
Microsoft’s Tech for Social Impact initiative focuses on improving access to digital technologies, developing skills, and supporting deployment in developing countries. This approach aims to create a more inclusive digital economy.
Evidence
Mention of partnerships with UNICEF, UNDP, and IOM for expanding skilling efforts
Major Discussion Point
Partnerships and Capacity Building
Agreed with
Alaa Abdulaal
Matis Pellerin
Dima Al-Khatib
Agreed on
Importance of partnerships and capacity building in digital transformation
Disconnect between development financing models and digital economy needs
Explanation
There is a mismatch between traditional development financing models, which focus on assets and CapEx, and the needs of the digital economy, which are more centered on OPEX and access to innovation as a service. This disconnect hinders developing countries’ ability to tap into the digital economy.
Major Discussion Point
Challenges in Digital Transformation
Need for tailored affordability and pricing models for developing countries
Explanation
Developing countries require tailored affordability and pricing models to access digital technologies and infrastructure. This includes creating frameworks that differentiate costs and allow for easier access to technology in the global south.
Evidence
Mention of Microsoft’s digital development program that allows for differentiated pricing models
Major Discussion Point
Challenges in Digital Transformation
Josephine Mukesha
Speech speed
131 words per minute
Speech length
455 words
Speech time
207 seconds
Rwanda’s implementation of digital identity from birth
Explanation
Rwanda is implementing a digital identity system that will issue digital identities from birth. This system builds on existing digital platforms for civil registration and vital statistics.
Evidence
Mention of existing CRVS digital platform and population registry
Major Discussion Point
Digital Identity and Cross-Border Cooperation
Need for common standards and interoperability in digital identity systems
Explanation
There is a need for common standards and interoperability in digital identity systems across countries. This would facilitate knowledge sharing and best practices in implementing digital identity solutions.
Major Discussion Point
Digital Identity and Cross-Border Cooperation
Importance of regulatory frameworks for cross-border identity verification
Explanation
Regulatory frameworks are crucial for enabling cross-border identity verification. These frameworks should allow for mutual recognition of digital identities while ensuring data protection and privacy.
Major Discussion Point
Digital Identity and Cross-Border Cooperation
Agreements
Agreement Points
Digital cooperation is crucial for addressing global challenges and fostering innovation
Speakers
Deemah AlYahya
Constantinos Kombos
Hisham Alsheikh
Arguments
Digital divide threatens to widen exponentially
Need for networked multilateralism and synergies between stakeholders
Digital cooperation crucial for addressing global challenges and fostering innovation
Summary
These speakers emphasize the importance of digital cooperation in addressing global challenges, fostering innovation, and bridging the digital divide. They highlight the need for collaboration among various stakeholders to achieve these goals.
Importance of partnerships and capacity building in digital transformation
Speakers
Alaa Abdulaal
Matis Pellerin
Dima Al-Khatib
Alexander Pinot
Arguments
DCO initiatives like Digital Economy Navigator and Digital Space Accelerator
Private sector partnerships crucial for access to innovation and skilled workforce
South-South and Triangular Cooperation as key vehicles for bridging digital gaps
Microsoft’s Tech for Social Impact focus on access, skills, and deployment
Summary
These speakers agree on the importance of partnerships and capacity building in driving digital transformation. They highlight various initiatives and approaches to foster collaboration and skill development in the digital sector.
Similar Viewpoints
Both speakers emphasize the importance of inclusivity, particularly for women, in digital transformation and economic development. They view technology as a means to empower women and address social inequalities.
Speakers
Abdallah Al Dardari
Akiko Yamanaka
Arguments
Low productivity in Arab region due to low technology adoption and women’s participation
Importance of AI and digital technology in empowering women and leapfrogging development
Importance of addressing common interests and ensuring social resilience
Both speakers highlight the challenges faced by developing countries in accessing and controlling digital technologies. They emphasize the need for tailored approaches to financing and pricing to ensure equitable access to digital resources.
Speakers
Munir Akram
Alexander Pinot
Arguments
Need for computing power to ensure independence and control of digital destiny
Disconnect between development financing models and digital economy needs
Need for tailored affordability and pricing models for developing countries
Unexpected Consensus
Importance of digital public goods and infrastructure
Speakers
Alexander Pinot
Josephine Mukesha
Arguments
Microsoft’s Tech for Social Impact focus on access, skills, and deployment
Rwanda’s implementation of digital identity from birth
Need for common standards and interoperability in digital identity systems
Explanation
Despite representing different sectors (private and public), both speakers emphasize the importance of digital public goods and infrastructure. This unexpected consensus highlights the growing recognition of the need for collaborative approaches to digital development across sectors.
Overall Assessment
Summary
The main areas of agreement include the importance of digital cooperation, partnerships for capacity building, inclusive digital transformation, and the need for tailored approaches to address the digital divide.
Consensus level
There is a high level of consensus among the speakers on the importance of digital cooperation and inclusive development. This consensus suggests a strong foundation for collaborative efforts in addressing global digital challenges. However, there are nuanced differences in approaches and priorities, particularly between public and private sector representatives, which may require further dialogue to align strategies for effective implementation.
Disagreements
Disagreement Points
Role of government vs private sector in digital transformation
Speakers
Hisham Alsheikh
Matis Pellerin
Arguments
Digital cooperation is crucial for addressing global challenges and fostering innovation
Private sector partnerships crucial for access to innovation and skilled workforce
Summary
While Hisham Alsheikh emphasizes the role of government in digital cooperation, Matis Pellerin argues for a stronger role of the private sector in driving innovation and providing skilled workforce.
Overall Assessment
Summary
The main areas of disagreement revolve around the roles of government and private sector in digital transformation, and the approaches to bridging the digital divide.
Disagreement level
The level of disagreement among the speakers is relatively low. Most speakers agree on the importance of digital cooperation and the need to bridge the digital divide. The differences mainly lie in the specific approaches and emphasis on different aspects of digital transformation. This level of disagreement is not likely to significantly impede progress on the topic, but rather could lead to a more comprehensive approach that incorporates various perspectives.
Partial Agreements
Partial Agreements
Both speakers agree on the need for developing countries to access advanced digital technologies, but they differ in their approach. Akram emphasizes the need for countries to acquire their own computing power, while Pinot suggests tailored pricing models to make existing technologies more accessible.
Speakers
Munir Akram
Alexander Pinot
Arguments
Need for computing power to ensure independence and control of digital destiny
Need for tailored affordability and pricing models for developing countries
Similar Viewpoints
Both speakers emphasize the importance of inclusivity, particularly for women, in digital transformation and economic development. They view technology as a means to empower women and address social inequalities.
Speakers
Abdallah Al Dardari
Akiko Yamanaka
Arguments
Low productivity in Arab region due to low technology adoption and women’s participation
Importance of AI and digital technology in empowering women and leapfrogging development
Importance of addressing common interests and ensuring social resilience
Both speakers highlight the challenges faced by developing countries in accessing and controlling digital technologies. They emphasize the need for tailored approaches to financing and pricing to ensure equitable access to digital resources.
Speakers
Munir Akram
Alexander Pinot
Arguments
Need for computing power to ensure independence and control of digital destiny
Disconnect between development financing models and digital economy needs
Need for tailored affordability and pricing models for developing countries
Takeaways
Key Takeaways
Digital cooperation is crucial for addressing global challenges and fostering inclusive growth
There is a need to bridge the digital divide to ensure digital prosperity for all
Partnerships between governments, private sector, and civil society are essential for digital transformation
Technology adoption and women’s participation are key factors for economic development
Digital identity systems and cross-border cooperation require common standards and interoperability
Capacity building and skills development are critical for leveraging digital technologies
Resolutions and Action Items
DCO launched the Digital Economy Navigator to analyze digital economy maturity across 50 countries
DCO launched the IMPACT initiative as a marketplace for digital solutions and services
Saudi Arabia committed to train over 50,000 nationals in AI, cybersecurity, and cloud computing
Microsoft is expanding skilling efforts in partnership with UN agencies
Rwanda is implementing a digital identity system from birth
Unresolved Issues
How to address the potential fragmentation of digital systems on an east-west basis
How to align development financing models with the needs of the digital economy
How to ensure equitable access to computing power for developing countries
How to effectively regulate cross-border digital identity verification
Suggested Compromises
Developing tailored affordability and pricing models for technology access in developing countries
Combining cloud infrastructure with digital public goods to create more accessible digital public infrastructure
Shifting from large upfront CapEx investments to long-term OPEX models for technology adoption in developing countries
Thought Provoking Comments
We are experiencing a new industrial revolution that is wide in scope and multilayered to the extent that its impact and consequences are quite unpredictable. It is a pendulum that swings between prosperity and exclusion, because at the end, these are the two options.
Speaker
Constantinos Kombos
Reason
This comment frames digital transformation as a double-edged sword, highlighting both its potential benefits and risks. It sets the stage for a nuanced discussion about the challenges of the digital age.
Impact
It shifted the conversation from purely optimistic views of digital progress to a more balanced consideration of both opportunities and potential pitfalls.
Currently, close to 2.6 billion people remain unconnected with no access to the Internet, with the majority being women and young girls. This is a stark reminder as to the task ahead, as regards the alignment of technological progress with all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Speaker
Constantinos Kombos
Reason
This comment grounds the discussion in concrete statistics and ties digital inclusion to broader development goals. It emphasizes the scale of the challenge and its disproportionate impact on women and girls.
Impact
It focused subsequent discussion on the importance of inclusivity and gender equality in digital transformation efforts.
The Arab region’s productivity has been in decline for the last 50 years. In fact, productivity in our region today is 50% of what it used to be in 1980. And that applies to the richest of us and to the poorest of us.
Speaker
Abdallah Al Dardari
Reason
This comment provides a striking regional perspective, highlighting long-term economic challenges that digital transformation could potentially address.
Impact
It broadened the discussion to consider how digital cooperation could address longstanding economic issues in specific regions.
There are basically two systems which are emerging in the world, and countries are going to have to make a choice if this is forced upon us. If we are asked to accept one system and not the other, if we are asked to accept an eastern system or western system, then that is going to promote fragmentation across the world, not only between the two powers concerned, but across the world.
Speaker
Munir Akram
Reason
This comment introduces the geopolitical dimension of digital cooperation, highlighting the risk of a new form of global divide.
Impact
It shifted the conversation to consider the strategic implications of digital cooperation and the need for approaches that can bridge potential east-west divides.
Development financing was built from an age centered on assets and CapEx. It is all about infrastructure. It is all about assets. It’s all about CapEx. But the digital economy today, it’s all about OPEX and access to innovation as a service. There is a tremendous disconnect that I think is hindering the developing countries to be able to tap into the digital economy based on services due to the disconnect with the financing mechanisms that are hyper-centered on strong CapEx up front that actually even increase the depth of those countries.
Speaker
Alexander Pinot
Reason
This comment highlights a critical mismatch between traditional development financing models and the needs of the digital economy, particularly for developing countries.
Impact
It introduced a new perspective on the financial challenges of digital transformation and sparked discussion on the need for new financing approaches.
Overall Assessment
These key comments shaped the discussion by broadening its scope from purely technological considerations to encompass economic, social, geopolitical, and financial dimensions of digital cooperation. They highlighted the complexity of the challenges involved in fostering inclusive digital transformation and the need for multifaceted, collaborative approaches. The discussion evolved from general statements about the importance of digital cooperation to a more nuanced exploration of specific challenges and potential solutions, emphasizing the need for tailored strategies that consider regional contexts, gender equality, geopolitical realities, and innovative financing models.
Follow-up Questions
How can we develop systems that are compatible with both eastern and western digital ecosystems to prevent global fragmentation?
Speaker
Munir Akram
Explanation
This is important to address the potential east-west fragmentation in digital systems and promote global digital cooperation.
How can developing countries acquire and build their own computing power to ensure digital independence?
Speaker
Munir Akram
Explanation
This is crucial for countries to have control over their digital destiny and not be dependent on external powers.
How can we leverage artificial intelligence and digital technology to empower women in the Arab world?
Speaker
Abdallah Al Dardari
Explanation
This is important to address the significant economic losses due to low female participation in Arab economies and to leapfrog traditional barriers.
How can we develop common standards and interoperability for digital identity systems across countries?
Speaker
Josephine Mukesha
Explanation
This is crucial for implementing cross-border identity verification capabilities while ensuring data protection and privacy.
How can we transform development financing models to better support OPEX-based digital economy investments rather than traditional CapEx-focused infrastructure?
Speaker
Alexander Pinot
Explanation
This is important to enable developing countries to access and leverage digital technologies without increasing their debt burden.
Disclaimer: This is not an official record of the session. The DiploAI system automatically generates these resources from the audiovisual recording. Resources are presented in their original format, as provided by the AI (e.g. including any spelling mistakes). The accuracy of these resources cannot be guaranteed.