International Day of Science, Technology and Innovation 2025

[Video message]

Excellencies, distinguished delegates, dear friends,

Today, for the second time, we celebrate an International Day of Science, Technology and Innovation for the South.

I want to thank the Chair of the Group of 77 and China for the invitation to join this commemoration, and I also want to send a special greeting to the Cuban delegation, whose chairmanship of the G77 in 2023 led to the creation of this day.

We meet, friends, at a time of great contradiction.

With only five years to 2030, too many of our shared goals remain out of reach.

Inequalities deepen, divides persist, climate impacts intensify. And yet – alongside these difficulties – we see breakthroughs: clean energy expanding faster than anyone predicted, digital tools reshaping services and commerce, research collaborations opening new frontiers on health and knowledge.

That is the paradox of our moment: regression and acceleration, fracture and connection, crisis and possibility – all at once.

In particular, frontier technologies are experiencing incredible growth.

Our latest Technology and Innovation Report estimates that their combined market value may grow from $2.5 trillion in 2023 to $16.4 trillion in 2033, a sixfold increase in the next 10 years.

But the question is how this new wealth will be shared.

We know that science and technology can widen gaps but also close them. That innovation can concentrate wealth but also broaden opportunity. That the rules of the future are not given – they are made, and they must be made with development at the center.

This International Day is therefore more than commemoration.

It is a commitment: to ensure access to knowledge, to build capacity for innovation in every region, and to secure participation of the South in shaping the global technological agenda.

It is a reminder that when we cooperate – North and South, but also South with South – we do not merely catch up; we leap ahead.

At UNCTAD, we remain committed to supporting countries through policy analysis, capacity development, and multilateral dialogue on STI collaboration, including on data governance.

We are supporting the “Working group on data governance at all levels” established under the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development.

Indeed, UNCTAD is proud to have been serving this commission as its secretariat since 1992, while also being a key player in this field in both the Second Committee and the Financing for Development Agenda.

On this second birthday, let us celebrate the South as a source of ideas, solutions and leadership.

I thank you, and I wish you an inspiring and fruitful event.