ITU Digital World 2020 launched virtual proceedings, welcoming highest level influential participants from public and private sectors and across the information and communication technology (ICT) industry onto its virtual event platform, where discussions will focus on the critical role of digital technologies and public-private sector collaboration in the COVID-19 era.
The three-day programme began with the opening ceremony, in the presence of H.E. Vu Duc Dam, Deputy Prime Minister, Viet Nam; Nguyen Manh Hung, Minister of Information and Communications, Viet Nam; and a distinguished audience of Ministers and invited guests, and included a special video message from Houlin Zhao, Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
“COVID-19 has generated a huge demand for more ICT services and more advanced technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence and cloud computing – but it has also revealed deep digital inequalities between those who are connected and those who are not,” said ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao during his opening video message. “We need a new strategy based on smart and innovative policies that can attract more investments in ICT infrastructure, and we need a new way of working together.”
Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam then welcomed ministers, regulators and C-level executives from across the world and all sectors of the digital ecosystem to the opening of the Ministerial Roundtables, the first such high-level ministerial meetings to be held on this topic since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying: “For the last few years, digitalization has become an irreversible trend that provides every country, economy, organization and individual with unprecedented development opportunity, as well as corresponding challenges that lead to changes in habits and personal life. Digital transformation is not only technological transformation, but more importantly, transformation in terms of design mindset and policy formulation of micro and macro scales.”
In opening the first ministerial roundtable ITU Deputy Secretary-General Malcolm Johnson said: “ICTs will be a key part of building back better for a safer, more connected, and more sustainable world ─ a world where everyone can have access to digital technologies and services that are safe, attractive, and affordable. This is why we are fortunate to have such a distinguished mix of public and private sector representatives here with us today to help define a faster way for economic recovery through digital technologies.”
In addition to ministerial roundtables, forum webinars will delve into policies, technologies and trends driving the digital economy. They include Bridging the broadband gap: stimulating public and private sectors to connect the unconnected; Entering the 5G era: demand, deployment, and disquiet; and Cybersecurity and privacy solutions: safeguarding our digital world. A global virtual exhibition, organized by Viet Nam and supported by ITU, will showcase the tech innovations of more than 100 virtual exhibitors from Viet Nam and around the globe.
Registration is still open, free of charge, for ITU Virtual Digital World 2020, taking place from 20 to 22 October 2020. Co-organized by ITU and the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) of Viet Nam, it is part of a dynamic online programme ahead of the physical ITU Digital World 2021, taking place in Ha Noi, Viet Nam in Q4 2021.