UNIS/SGSM/1402
16 May 2024
On World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, we celebrate the power of communication tools to change lives for the better.
This year's theme highlights the key role of digital innovation in promoting sustainable development and achieving the SDGs.
Digital technology can help educators reach their students and doctors communicate with their patients. It is fundamental to designing smart transport systems and sustainable cities.
These innovations cannot be confined to rich countries. Developing economies bear the brunt of growing inequalities, climate change and environmental depletion – but they often face obstacles in accessing the digital technologies that could help to mitigate these challenges.
Innovative technologies and policies, from broadband infrastructure to digital literacy training, can help bridge the digital divide and secure connectivity for all by 2030 – a key goal of the International Telecommunication Union. Global support and coordination also have an important role.
This is also the spirit of ITU’s AI for Good initiative, in line with the interim recommendations of my High-Level Advisory Body on AI, which calls for investments in enablers and responsible governance frameworks to ensure that AI benefits all.
At the Summit of the Future in September, countries will agree on a Global Digital Compact aimed at safeguarding technology as a force for human wellbeing. This will be a unique opportunity to harness digital innovation and technology to turbocharge the SDGs and advance effective and inclusive digital governance.
On this World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, let us reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that everyone, in all countries, can benefit from the digital age.
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Thailand has acceded to the United Nations Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts (2005) (the “Electronic Communications Convention”).
"Around the globe, people with autism are making enormous contributions to societies, human endeavours, and individual lives." — António Guterres
"This year's International Day of Zero Waste puts the focus on fashion and textiles." — António Guterres
With the deposit of the instrument of accession at the UN Headquarters in New York, Costa Rica becomes the eighteenth State Party to the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation, also known as the "Singapore Convention on Mediation".
