UN World Data Forum 2023 - Host Country plenary session

A recording of these remarks can be found on YouTube and Tencent Video

Thank you Mr. WU Shengfeng for sharing the experience of Zhejiang province in digital governance and the digital transformation of statistics. The digitalization of data and statistics is creating enormous potential to help us to respond to the myriad development and humanitarian challenges we face, and Zhejiang province can serve as an example of how cities, provinces, and even countries, can benefit from this process.

As mathematician Clive Humby said in 2006, “Data is the new oil” and the amount of data produced daily is growing at an astounding rate, with estimates indicating that 90% of the world’s data was generated in just the last two years. The rapid increase in data production creates enormous potential for being able to more rapidly, more effectively and more efficiently respond to the challenges we face: from identifying victims of natural disasters in close to real-time using social media and other types of data, to allowing access to real-time pricing of agricultural goods to food producers, data is a key driver in our shared goal of achieving the SDGs.

At the same time, digital transformation is not a silver bullet. Around the world, 2.7 billion people, or around one-third of the world’s population, remained unconnected to the internet in 2022 and risk being left behind as we digitize many aspects of our lives. This principally affects the most vulnerable groups, who, we must remember, we committed to ensuring also benefit from the progress made by the 2030 Agenda.

We must also ensure that there exists a common, internationally agreed, data governance architecture to ensure that the increasing amounts of data collected is treated in a way that protects the internationally agreed rights of individuals, is used for the common good and does not fall into the hands of bad actors.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am thrilled to see the turnout for the 2023 World Data Forum, as it indicates an immense global interest in finding solutions and innovative ways to use data to promote sustainable development. The example of Zhejiang province can serve to motivate others to follow on a similar path, and as the UN Resident Coordinator in China, I commit to working to promote international cooperation opportunities so that other countries can benefit from the experiences in digital transformation and data that many of our Chinese counterparts have.

Thank you.