Summit of the Future Interactive dialogue 3 “Towards a Common Digital Future: strengthening inclusive innovation and cooperation to bridge the digital divides“
Co-chair statement by H.E. Alar Karis, President of the Republic of Estonia
23 September 2024, New York
The theme of this dialogue resonates deeply with my country’s journey and our deep commitment to exploiting digital technologies for the betterment of society. Estonia has focused on digital innovation to accelerate the fulfilment of sustainable development goals, to bridge digital divides, and to empower all individuals.
Our success story, if I can humbly say, is a great remainder of how digital technologies can transform a society, any society. Because of our difficult history, we are now fully committed to transparency, openness, and innovation.
It has allowed our economy, especially our startup ecosystem, to flourish; made our public governance more efficient, accessible, and liable; and it has certainly put our education, healthcare, tax and elections systems’ quality to a new level.
All of this can be copied or shared, if you embrace open-source and interoperable solutions to make digital options adaptable and scalable, so that all countries can benefit.
Estonia’s approach has been to build holistic digital public infrastructure that benefits both public and private actors.
One example of this is our data exchange platform, what we call ”X-Road”, it enables us to securely exchange data between different actors, from private banks to public offices.
Today, X-Road is implemented in over 20 countries around the world.
X-road, being developed and managed by the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions, is also a great example of cross-border cooperation among states, enabling data exchange between Estonia, Finland and Iceland.
We believe in the benefit of co-creating, reusing and co-developing already existing solutions to save resources and avoid duplication. This should be our common guiding principle, to bridge the divides faster.
Multistakeholder cooperation and partnerships, both domestically and globally, are the foundation of an open digital society.
Collaboration is important, to mobilize resources and to engage in capacity building, it is the fastest way to ensure that no one is left behind, especially in developing countries.
And this is especially true when it comes to artificial intelligence that holds immense potential for accelerating the Sustainable Development Goals, but we can all only leverage the benefits, if all stakeholders are around the table.
In conclusion, the journey towards a common digital future is something we must take together. And luckily, we now have the Global Digital Compact to guide us on that journey.
Estonia stands ready to continue sharing its experiences and working to ensure that digital technologies are exploited for the benefit of all.