14-15 December 2020 Time: 8:00am – 12:00pm EST

In addition to unleashing unfathomable opportunities for sustainable development, the digital age has also highlighted the vitality of digital solutions allowing societies to function and businesses to continue in the times of COIVD-19 pandemic. Online services and remote working arrangements were among the few of the measures addressing the isolation, keeping people informed and engaged during the COVID-19 response and recovery.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation and underscored its importance for mitigating the economic slowdown, sustaining wellbeing, and speeding up recovery. Governments, smart policymaking, as well as regional cooperation play an essential role in helping to both enable digital transformation to occur and in facilitating access to technology.

In the fight against the pandemic digital connectivity and inclusion have become more critical than ever. The core Internet infrastructure networks takes on unprecedented importance. The capacity of technology to absorb and process big data in real-time and deliver bandwidth-intensive high-value-added services instantaneously heavily depends on the resilience of the ICT network infrastructure. In this regard, new emerging opportunities, challenges, and benefits of regional cooperation in East and North-East and North and Central Asia are rising.