The third meeting of ‘G20 Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG)’ concluded today at Pune. The three days’ agenda of the meeting included the Global DPI Summit and Global DPI Exhibition as the side events and closed-door meetings among the G20 delegates, invited countries and IOs on the priority areas.
The Global DPI Summit (12-13 June 2023)
The Summit was attended by over 250 delegates in-person, out of which, there are around 150 foreign delegates from 50 countries. More than 2000 persons attended virtually. India signed MoU with four countries namely Armenia, Sierra Leone, Suriname and Antigua and Barbuda on sharing INDIA STACK i.e. successful digital solutions implemented at population scale.
The summit provided the global platform to discuss sector agnostic (foundational) and sectoral DPIs that inter-alia involved leadership, policy & practitioner level insightful, thought provoking and future shaping discussions among overall 60 Global Experts on DPIs, who participated in 10 important sessions viz. ‘Overview of Digital Public Infrastructure’, ‘Digital Identities for empowering people’, ‘Digital Payments and Financial Inclusion’, ‘DPI for Judicial Systems and Regulations’, ‘Digital Document Exchange for efficient service delivery’, ‘Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for DPI’, ‘Digital Education and Skilling’, ‘DPI for Digital Health and Climate Action’, ‘Digital Agriculture Ecosystem’, and ‘Building the Global DPI Ecosystem’. By providing the global platform on DPI to digital decision makers from 50 Countries and multiple International Organisations, India took the lead and further strengthened its role of acting as a strong bridge between Global North (G20 members) and Global South (Developing and LMIC countries). The recording of the sessions, organised during the Global DPI summit, can be seen at https://www.indiastack.global/global-dpi-summit/
The Global DPI Exhibition (12-14 June 2023)
The Exhibition showcased 14 experience zones comprising successfully implemented DPIs related to Digital Identity, Fast Payment, DigiLocker, Soil Health Card, E-National Agriculture Market, Unified Mobile App for New-Age Governance, Open Network for Digital Commerce, seamless travel experience at airport, language translation, learning solution, tele-medical consultation, and Digital India Journey. It was visited by the delegates attending the summit and G20 DEWG meeting. The people from the city of Pune comprising professionals, youth and senior citizens also visited the exhibition.
The Closed-Door Meeting of G20 DEWG (13-14 June 2023)
The closed-door meeting of G20 DEWG meeting began on 13 June 2023 with participation of 77 foreign delegates from G20 Members, 9 Guest Countries, 5 International Organizations and two Regional Organisations. The discussion under Indian Presidency was led by Shri Sushil Pal, Co-Chair G20 DEWG. In the meeting, discussions were held on Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and the concept of “One Future Alliance & One Future Fund’ for DPI, enabling principles for good DPI, and recognition of the need for financing opportunities for DPI in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC). Thereafter, Digital skilling, upskilling and reskilling, capacity building & awareness , building a mutual recognition framework for digital skills and information sharing were discussed.
On the last day of the meeting i.e. 14 June 2023, the security for a safe, resilient and trusted digital economy and various aspects such as capacity building for children & youth, and countering potential security threats were deliberated.
Over the last three days, several cultural programmes were organised, and the delegated were treated with the experience of Indian culture, Indian cuisine, Indian arts, Yoga, and folk forms of India. Government of India acknowledges and thanks the state Government of Maharashtra for providing full support and coordination in organizing this event.
As a next step, the fourth in-person meeting of Digital Economy Working Group and Digital Economy Minister’s Meeting is planned to be organised in the month of August, 2023 at Bengaluru, Karnataka.