Statement by Mr. KE Yousheng at the fourth session of the Committee on Information and Communications Technology, Science, Technology and Innovation
2022-09-01 21:40


Mr. Chair, 

Distinguished delegates,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

First of all, I would like to thank the ESCAP Secretariat for the introduction of the Asia-Pacific digital transformation landscape. The world we live in is in an information age. In the face of multiple challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, digital transformation is an effective way to address those challenges and promote innovation, giving renewed impetus to regional and global economic development.

The Chinese government attaches great importance to the development of digital technologies by making great efforts to  integrate digital technologies such as internet, big data and artificial intelligence with the real economy. Network infrastructure has continued to improve, with 5G base stations in China accounting for over 60% of the global total. China’s internet penetration rate has reached 73%. Industry digitization is gaining momentum, and China's digital economy has ranked second in the world for several years consecutively. In addition, China continuously improves digital inclusiveness by making internet use more accessible to older persons and persons with disabilities to foster the well-being of all people.

China actively supports regional and global cooperation in ICT and STI. The China-ESCAP Cooperation Program and the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Fund continue to support the ESCAP secretariat in enhancing the digital capacity of developing countries to close  digital divide. China continues to provide support to regional cooperation mechanisms on disaster risk reduction such as the Regional Space Applications Programme for Sustainable Development (RESAP) and the the Regional Cooperative Mechanism for Drought Monitoring and Early Warning, to help regional countries to better cope with natural disasters. The Global Development Initiative proposed by China is aimed at enhancing international solidarity, focus on development and accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. China is willing to work with all parties to implement the Global Development Initiative and conduct practical cooperation in its key areas such as digital economy and connectivity in the digital age to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

Ladies and gentlemen:

Despite positive progress in digital transformation in Asia and the Pacific, digital divide still remains, and the region is still faced with some challenges in digital transformation. It is thus important for all parties to focus on development cooperation through enhancing the ability of developing countries to capture digital dividends, and to bridge digital divide. We need to make good use of the regional cooperation platform of ESCAP as well as other mechanisms such as the ministerial conferences on digital transformation and on space applications, jointly promote the implementation of regional initiatives such as the Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway Initiative, give full play to the potentials of partnerships, and increase experience exchange, technology sharing, policy coordination and capacity building in ICT. At the same time, we should enhance data security and digital governance in a concerted effort to advance the 2030 Agenda.

Besides, China noted that the methodologies and data sources in the Asia-Pacific Digital Transformation Report 2022 launched by the Secretariat have not been discussed among member States, and the alignment and interoperability between the Digital Transformation Index Framework mentioned in this Report and other relevant index systems released by other international organizations needs further examination. We hope the above-mentioned aspects could be improved.    

Thank you!