Global forum on big data adopts Beijing declaration to accelerate SDGs

The Fourth International Forum on Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals in Beijing concluded in Beijing on Sunday as the Beijing Declaration on Partnership for Accelerating Sustainable Development through Digital Technologies was released.

During the forum, experts from United Nations agencies, research institutions of home and abroad and universities exchanged views on how digital technologies in various fields can promote the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The declaration is the consensus they reached on global cooperation and technological innovation to promote sustainable development.

The declaration calls on global stakeholders, especially experts and scholars from United Nations member states, to collaborate in using digital technologies and big data to accelerate the achievement of SDGs.

Specific measures include co-developing open digital infrastructure and AI tools, enhancing global collaboration for digital transformation in SDG initiatives and Initiating big science programs.

Guo Huadong, director of the International Research Center for Big Data and Sustainable Development and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that 2024 marked the beginning year after the mid-term of the UN's "2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development", which signified a new phase of reevaluation and accelerated realization of the SDGs. The declaration embodies the international consensus on promoting cooperative development through technological innovation, he said.