Five nations have launched the Digital Cooperation Organization to accelerate digital transformation in the region. Its founding members include Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Headquartered in Riyadh, the organization aims to grow the digital economies of its members and advance digital transformation. Also, it seeks to strengthen social stability and contribute to the global digital economy.

The organization’s vision is “achieving prosperity, social stability, and growth of the digital economy by unifying efforts to advance digital transformation and promote common interests.”

The initiative will work on empowering women, youth and entrepreneurs as well as “leapfrogging with innovation”. In addition, the group will collaborate on several issues including social welfare, the digital divide, ethics in technology and privacy.

“We are joining hands together towards a commitment to drive consensus on digital cooperation to make sure that we seize an opportunity for our youth, our women and our entrepreneurs with the ambition to grow our combined digital economy to one trillion dollars in the next 3-5 years,” said Abdullah Amer Al-Swaha, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology.

The organization says it is open to welcoming new members beyond governments from both the public and private sectors. This includes private companies, academic institutions as well as international organizations.

To launch the Digital Cooperation Organization, representatives from the founding nations hosted joint virtual video conferences. During these calls, they were joined by the heads of the World Economic Forum and the International Telecommunication Union. Also present was Dr. Ayedha Khanna, an AI, fintech and smart cities expert based in Singapore.

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