30th September 2025
The Minister of State for Trade Promotion, AI and Digital Transformation Niamh Smyth is in Cape Town, South Africa, to represent Ireland at the G20 Digital Economy Ministers’ Meeting and also the Taskforce on AI, Data Governance and Innovation for Sustainable Development Minister’s meeting on 29-30 September 2025. This two-day event brings together digital ministers from G20 members, guest countries and international organisations. The focus of the discussions will be on the following 4 priorities, (which also form the basis of a Chair’s Statement that Ministers will sign up to):
- Universal and Equitable Digital Inclusion;
- Digital Public Infrastructure as a key element for Digital Transformation;
- Digital Innovation ecosystems; unleashing the potential of Micro, Small and Medium enterprises (MSMEs); and
- Equitable, inclusive, trustworthy and sustainable Artificial Intelligence (AI) for good and for all.
The meetings will reaffirm the G20 commitment to harnessing digital transformation for inclusive, equitable and sustainable development, aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Chair’s Statement places human rights, trust and international cooperation at the core of digital policy.
An emphasis will be placed on the need to mobilise investments from various sources to bridge the digital divide; the importance of collaborative action to close funding and skills gaps and to promote an inclusive and equitable digital transformation for all.
Minister Smyth said:
"I am delighted to represent Ireland at this year’s G20 Digital and AI Ministers’ Meetings. I will highlight that strong data governance, with a focus on data quality and the ethical use of data, are the key foundations for the successful adoption of AI. I welcome the focus on collaboration, partnership and multi-stakeholder cooperation. I will also highlight the need to address the digital divide, both within and between countries, as an area of focus for Ireland."
Notes for editors
The G20 digital events will take place from 29 – 1 October 2025 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, South Africa.
- The Digital Economy Ministerial Meeting: 29 September 2025.
- The AI Task Force Ministerial Meeting: 30 September 2025.
- The AI for Africa Conference High-Level segment: 30 September.
While in Cape Town, on Wednesday 1 October, Minister Smyth will meet with Business Ireland South Africa (BISA), a longstanding valued partner of the Irish Embassy, who are an association which facilitates networking and provides a platform for sharing business experiences between Ireland and South Africa.
She will also attend a presentation around the Irish Tech Challenge, an Irish-supported competition/programme which aims to support innovation and entrepreneurship by fostering connections between the South African and Irish tech ecosystems. It seeks to identify a number of high-potential impact-driven South African tech start-ups each year and provide them with a curated mentoring and acceleration programme in the Irish tech ecosystem. The Minister is also planning to meet with members of the Irish diaspora, the association for which, ISAA, are coincidentally holding their AGM in Cape Town that evening.
The G20 countries collectively represent approximately 85 percent of global GDP and account for around 75% of global trade as well as two-thirds of the world’s population
Safe, secure and trustworthy AI is acknowledged as a transformative tool for public service, economic growth and social progress. The commitment to ethical, inclusive, transparent and accountable AI governance will be reaffirmed.
The G20 AI Principles adopted in 2019 will also be reaffirmed. These principles highlight the importance of international cooperation for AI human rights based, development oriented, innovation-friendly inclusive and multistakeholder AI policy and governance approaches and to ensuring that AI is developed and deployed in ways that are ethical, transparent, accountable, equitable, fair, responsible, safe, secure, trustworthy and consistent with applicable legal frameworks and national values.
The G20 leaders’ commitment to halve the gender digital divide by 2030 will be reaffirmed. The ongoing efforts of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and other relevant organisations in identifying key barriers and actions to bridge the digital divides and achieve universal and meaningful connectivity will be recognised. The Universal and Equitable Digital Inclusion Framework (Annex 1 paper) will be endorsed. The Framework aims to enable policymakers to identify possible gaps and to prioritise actions that could be taken to address the digital divide.
According to the UN's International Communications Union (ITU), an estimated 2.9 billion people globally – approximately one-third of the world's population – remain without internet access, facing significant barriers to participation in and benefitting from the digital economy.
The role of inclusive and sustainable multi-stakeholder governance mechanisms, enabling regulatory and policy frameworks, innovation driven ecosystems and sustainable financing models in accelerating inclusive digital development will be reaffirmed during the Ministerial meeting. An emphasis will be placed on the need to mobilise investments from various sources to bridge the digital divide; the importance of collaborative action to close funding and skills gaps and to promote an inclusive and equitable digital transformation for all.
To address the challenge that digital divides may limit the benefits of AI particularly for economies, specifically in developing countries, there will be support for:
- open-source AI and representative datasets;
- mitigation of algorithmic bias and promotion of explainability and human oversight;
- capacity building in developing countries and inclusive global AI governance;
- development of local language models and sustainable AI practices.
There is a recognition of the risks from Generative AI, which includes deepfakes and misinformation. There will also be support for watermarking, labelling and user awareness to enhance online safety.
ENDS
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