The following statements were given at the presentation of the UN High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation and transcribed from the video recordings^[1].

Melinda Gates, Co-Chair of the UN High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation

Statement at the launch of the Final Report, New York, June 10, 2019

“The future is being created literally every day and it's changing. It’s changing so fast, we can't predict where digital is going to take us 30 years from now.”

[In the panel] we“ talked about the incredible opportunities that technology gives us in the future to create the world that we want: a more just and humane world. And we also talked about some of the downsides and we started to ask: What needs to be done to create the future we want? …”

“The Internet should be for everybody but today it's not; women are 40% less likely around the world to have access to the Internet and so we have to look at special programming for women.”

“We need to be investing in human capital and infrastructure. But infrastructure today is not just roads and water and electricity, those things are absolutely important, we still need to push those; but it also means access to information …”

“Our exciting panel [enquired how to make] ]human-centered design fit the digital future, how do you make it inclusive, so that it really changes everybody's life so that we can imagine a future in 2030, where all people are digitally connected. I keep going back to an example of a woman. So many women who are marginalized and pushed to the edges of society, who are out in remote places, when they have access to a digital phone, they can reach for help, they will tell you saving a dollar a day or two dollars a day, they have power in their family … .”

There are concerns for good reason. We all have a right to our privacy and to our data but there are challenges and misuse. But what you're seeing is that the tech sector comes together, [like in] artificial intelligence. They are working together to say what are the standards we want to use for AI, what's the transparency we want to have for AI and they're starting to self-govern. … We need smart regulation around that.”

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcB_aIq1OwA

Jack Ma, Co-Chair of the UN High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation

Statement at the launch of the Final Report, New York, June 10, 2019

“It is a great honor to get involved because this digital age … will be with us the next 30 to 50 years. We had a great panel and people from different backgrounds. … I think it's important that we should not worry about the future. Nobody is an expert of the future, we should learn, we should embrace it and we should change our mentality to embrace this revolution and have confidence in ourselves. There are problems, but we can solve the problems when we work together and face this challenge. It's the cooperation between governments, small businesses and technology companies and even universities, that changes the way of thinking.”

“I think the most important element of this digital period is inclusiveness. It helps women, helps small businesses, helps developing countries. ... For my site we have over 10 million small businesses selling on our site .... Nobody really cares about whether you’re a woman or a man, whether you are well educated or not, as long as your product is good. Woman can do much better jobs on the Internet because this is not an arena of competition of muscles, it's a competition of the heart, brain and wisdoms. Today small businesses can compete everywhere with anybody. In the digital age small is beautiful and small is powerful.”

“It's just the beginning. … globalization is not inclusive enough.”

“On privacy, not only government should [be concerned].Business should be worried as well. If the private sector thinks about jobs, about inclusiveness, about the security and privacy, your company will be sustainable, will be welcome in this century. Otherwise you'll be out. If you do not pay attention to privacy, you do not pay attention to data security, if you do not pay attention to human rights, if you do not pay attention to the interest of the society you will disappear also very quickly. I think in the digital age big companies means big responsibility - the bigger you are the bigger responsibility you have.”

“I think this report is just a beginning. … [Today] we teach our kids to memorize, to calculate faster, to learn facts. But the next generation needs an enabling education system. The young people have to understand the digital age. Let´s adjust our educational system”.

“There is a difference between information technology and digital technology. IT makes your stronger, but DT is empowering others. If you want to be successful in the digital age, you have to empower others. ...Every technology company should do good things.”

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcB_aIq1OwA