BEIJING, May 29 (APP):The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) chief has stressed on the need for its member states to cooperate in the areas of digital, information and communication technology amid the COVID-19 global pandemic while lauding Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group for its efforts towards promoting digital entrepreneurship and innovative solutions during the ongoing crisis.
“The pandemic has made it clear that digitization and information and communications technology are essential for the continued functioning of the economy and society as a whole. The modern world is on the verge of unprecedented, might say, revolutionary technological changes,” SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov said.
“Thanks to innovative thinking and a visionary approach, the Alibaba Group has been able to quickly implement new technologies and modern solutions to prevent the spread of the virus, assist the public and protect medical personnel,” he said while delivering the opening speech at the Agora online conference, organized jointly by the SCO Secretariat and Alibaba Business School and co-organized by SCOLAR Network and SCO Youth Council with the support of SCO Business Council Secretariat.
“The SCO Secretariat strives to work closely with the Alibaba Group and other companies in the field of digital economy to help young people in the SCO countries, whose total number exceeds 800 million, to make extensive use of information and communication technologies, to develop digital entrepreneurship and electronic commerce,” Norov said.
The SCO is an Eurasian political, economic and security bloc comprising eight member states (China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan), four observer states (Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia) and six countries as dialogue partners (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey).
Highlighting some of the measures taken by Alibaba to respond to the COVID-19 crisis, Norov noted the group provided humanitarian assistance to many countries around the world, including the “SCO family.”
SCO taps into Alibaba for a digital future amid COVID-19 pandemic
