The innovation meeting “Blockchain technology in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” was successfully held at the United Nations on January 15th, 2020. The event is part of a series of meetings aimed at discussing the benefits and potential applications of blockchain, following the call of the UN Secretary General António Guterres to embrace technologies like it which have the potential to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs.
BAI Founder and Chairman, Mr. Alexandru Cujba, opened the event and announced the launching of the new non-profit, non-governmental organization – Blockchain Alliance International, an entity tasked with promoting and facilitating sustainable and inclusive development through the use of new technologies. The keynote speaker, Mrs. Milica Pejanovic Durisic, Ambassador of Montenegro to the United Nations, congratulated participants with a timely initiative and reiterated the importance of new technologies in achieving the UN’s strategic objectives. Furthermore, Mr. Amir Dossal, Founder and President of the Global Partnerships Forum, and Ms. Anna Fälth, Policy Advisor at UN Women, presented their organizations’ visions regarding technological development and welcomed the multi-stakeholder approach to the deployment of technology for advancing the SDGs.
Circa 40 ambassadors, senior diplomats, and representatives from Member State Missions of Montenegro, Belarus, Tajikistan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Honduras, Paraguay, among others, multilateral organizations including the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission, UN-Women, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, as well as academia, private sector and civil society organizations including China Ethnic International Economic Cooperation Co., the Chinese Institute of Digital Assets (CIDA), Singapore Tai-E Cyber-Tech Pte. Ltd., Davox Technology AG, Tesra Supernet, ChainDD, Achain, and Zhongdu High-tech attended the meeting.
Participants discussed the use of blockchain technology in the implementation and monitoring of the SDGs, technological trends and realities for the global economy, and multi-stakeholder partnerships in developing new financial solutions to achieving SDGs. Prof. Jiaming Zhu, a well-known economist and CIDA director, made a keynote presentation highlighting the importance of blockchain as the infrastructure in bridging the gap of trust crisis and trust deficit in global development. During the event, BAI also successfully enrolled a number of institutional and individual partners for the deployment of blockchain technologies around the world.
The forum is a major step in the BAI’s collaboration with the United Nations. The outcome of the Forum and of future BAI events will complement UN efforts as defined in the UN Secretary General’s Strategy on New Technologies towards the use of these technologies to accelerate the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and to facilitate their alignment with the values enshrined in the UN Charter and the norms and standards of international law.
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