GLOBAL EXPERTS DISCUSSED PRIORITY AREAS OF DIGITAL COOPERATION
Ministry of Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry of RK in cooperation with "Zerde" Holding JSC hosted an online session: "Towards Sustainable Development: Making World Digital by Default". The meeting was held within the 75th UN General Assembly session.
The Deputy UN Secretary-General Fabrizio Hochschild; Head of GIGA project, Senior Adviser Christopher Fabian; Minister of Digital Development of RK Bagdat Mussin, political leaders, international experts, representative from the international organizations shared their views on recent and emerging trends of digital development.
Digitalization leaders concurred in the opinion that in the context of pandemic the world faces a common goal, which is provision of secure, qualitative access to the Internet and communication. During the meeting, leading startups from Kazakhstan, Guatemala, India, Nigeria, Mexica, Argentina and Bangladesh presented digital solutions aimed at unleashing a full potential of digital technologies and data to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In his welcome speech, Bagdat Mussin noted that the world needs to adapt to a new reality and new challenges posed by the pandemic.
“The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that the world has changed and became “digital” by default. That is why, considering the lessons learned due to the pandemic, changes were initiated to the “Digital Kazakhstan” State Program pursuant to which we identified five priority areas for digital development of the country: development of ICT infrastructure and digital government, increase of digital literacy among citizens, provision of safety as well as protection of rights within digital space, and also digitization of economy sectors and implementation of big data” Minister added.
Bagdat Mussin also presented the key “digital” indicators of Kazakhstan: 97% of Kazakhstan citizens have access to the Internet; digital literacy level equals to 82.1%; number of automated public services increased up to 83% and Kazakhstan ranks 29th among 193 countries in the UN e-Gov Development Index.
Fabrizio Hochschild sounded a note of warning for those, who do not have access to state-of-the-art technologies due to the pandemic.
“3.6 billion people around the world still do not have access to the Internet and 360 million among them are the youths aged between 15 to 24, i.e. 10%. The COVID-19 pandemic can cause severe consequences related to aggravation of various forms of inequality and not only in the developing countries” Deputy UN Secretary-General told.
Along with that he highlighted the importance of Kazakhstan accession to the Giga initiative on implementation of recommendations stipulated for by the UN Secretary-General's Roadmap for Digital Cooperation on provision of communication as well as access to the Internet, expansion of digital inclusion and development of digital potential. Fabrizio Hochschild expressed his gratitude to UNICEF, ITU and Kazakhstan for being the first ones to implement Giga on their way to achieve global goals.