(New York, 14th June 2023)
H.E. Ms. Anna Karin Eneström, Permanent Representative of Sweden,
H.E. Mr. Claver Gatete, Permanent Representative of Rwanda,
Excellencies and colleagues,
I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the G77 and China.
With seven years left to fulfill the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, harnessing the great potential of digital technologies is key to deliver digital solutions for achieving the SDGs and to open new pathways for development.
At the mid-point of the 2030 Agenda, only 12 per cent of the SDGs targets are on track, the number of people living in extreme poverty today is higher than it was four years ago, hunger has also increased and is back at 2005 levels, inequalities are growing as also are the levels of indebtedness of developing countries.
The digital divide persists, with 2.7 billion people still offline worldwide, conditioning the ability of countries to effectively use digital technologies and solutions as an implementation tool for the SDGs. In this regard, the first step must be to bridge this divide and turn it into a digital opportunity for all. Inclusion should be at the center of the digital development agenda to truly achieve the principle of leaving no one behind.
Digital technologies can expand learning opportunities and development of skills; improve healthcare access, including through enable real-time monitoring of patients; increase financial inclusion; enhance agricultural productivity; optimize resource management and support climate-resilient farming practices. Digital solutions can enable monitoring and optimization of energy consumption and integration of renewable energy sources. Digital platforms and tools can also facilitate disaster monitoring and coordination during emergencies.
However, developing countries lack the required infrastructure, computer capacity, human resources and expertise to make use of these tools.
The Global Digital Compact should call for a resilient, affordable, and accessible digital infrastructure, including digital public infrastructure for digital inclusion and connectivity for all. It should encourage investments to improve capacity of infrastructure to address imbalances of connectivity between rural and urban areas in developing countries.
The Compact should also encourage research and development, and the expansion of viable strategies that could result in further competitiveness and rapid reductions in the cost of information and communication technologies. Enhanced international cooperation is needed to improve affordability, digital education, capacity-building, multilingualism, cultural preservation, investments and technology transfer.
The Global Digital Compact should recognize the detrimental effects of the unilateral coercive measures against developing countries, impeding their peoples from the benefits and potentials that digital technologies offer and the realization and achievement of SDGs. Therefore, the GDC should reaffirm its firm rejection of the imposition of laws and regulations with extraterritorial impact and all other forms of coercive economic measures, including unilateral sanctions, against developing countries and reiterate the urgent need to eliminate them immediately.
A dedicated international mechanism on technology development and transfer to developing countries is required to ensure the harnessing of the benefits offered by advances in science and technology by the South on equal footing with the developed world. In that regard, the GDC should aim at strengthening assistance from developed countries to developing countries, with special emphasis on supporting R&D and innovation ecosystems.
International Financial Institutions and other investment partners should also be required to engage in the provision of long-term financing, including through low-interest funds for digital infrastructure development in developing countries.
The Global Digital Compact should be instrumental for creating an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for digital development, thereby boosting stronger global digital economic cooperation and giving full play to the role of the digital economy as an engine to global economic recovery and development.
In short, the Global Digital Compact must focus on addressing the major structural impediments that developing countries face in engaging with and accessing new and emerging technologies. In this regard, the Global Digital Compact should outline concrete actions and specific initiatives, in order to secure meaningful results. This, is the pathway to achieve the SDGs.
I thank you.