The Digital Cooperation Organization (DCO), the world’s first independent international organization focused on accelerating the inclusive and sustainable development of the digital economy, has announced that the candidacies of nine new countries for membership in the organization have been approved.
According to information provided by the DCO headquarters to FED.AZ, based on a decision by the DCO Council, Albania, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Zambia and Tajikistan have been granted candidate country status to join the organization as member states.
With the approval of these countries’ memberships, the number of DCO member countries is expected to increase from 16 to 24, while the organization will represent approximately 980 million people.
Commenting on the expansion of the organization, DCO Secretary-General Deemah AlYahya said that when the DCO was established by five countries in 2020, the idea of an independent organization built around the digital economy outside traditional political and economic blocs represented a new approach. According to her, the expansion announced today demonstrates that this approach has proven successful.
The Secretary-General noted that one of the main reasons countries are joining the DCO is that the future rules governing the digital economy are currently being shaped. It was particularly emphasized that rules being developed in areas such as data, artificial intelligence and cross-border trade will have a significant impact on countries’ future digital development.
“These prospective memberships demonstrate how change takes place. It is not about demanding better terms, but about creating opportunities to jointly shape those terms. Digital sovereignty looks exactly like this in practice – having a membership base large enough to determine one’s own future,” the DCO Secretary-General said.
According to the DCO, the next stage will be to expand the organization’s scale. Policies, platforms and partnerships developed over the past five years are expected to cover 24 countries in the near future. This, in turn, is expected to enable digital cooperation to advance to the level of infrastructure, investment and the development of common rules.
It should be noted that Azerbaijan’s inclusion among the candidate countries seeking to join the DCO is considered an important step toward strengthening the country’s international position in the fields of the digital economy, artificial intelligence, innovation and digital cooperation.
