The following are the outputs of the captioning taken during an IGF intervention. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>> Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We'll start in some time. Let's give two minutes because we do know that people are coming down from another session that just finished. So thank you very much for being with us here today. We have our esteemed panelists and we'll conduct this meeting in two rounds. So ‑‑ and we'll try to make it interactive at the end if we have time. Try to finish on time. So please do ‑‑ give us one minute before we start the meeting. Thank you very much for being here.
[PAUSE]
>> We can see that our audiences are now joining in. I think the meeting in the other room has finished. So thank you for your patience and we'd like to start the session now.
So this high level dialogue will focus on multistakeholder partnerships, driving digital transformation. And multistakeholder has been at the heart of the WSIS process since its inception. I see many familiar faces. It's really nice to be with the WSIS family and the IGF friendly WSIS forum are always occasions to get together to renew our vows and to work together to make sure that we are building an inclusive knowledge and information societies. So I see there are gender trend setters here, welcome. I see several prize winners. You're doing a great job at the grassroot roots level. It's so nice to see you. Bazu, our friend from Bangladesh, many others. Also our UN partners, Fao, UN pension fund and so many of you here. So thank you very much for joining us today. Also a big thank you to the Japanese government for organizing this and for actually helping us materialize this session which we had in mind since a long time. So thank you very much for making this possible. While we are waiting for our secretary general Ms. Doreen, maybe we will move on to the video message by Mr. Utsumi, former secretary general of ITU. Very excited about this session but unfortunately could not join us today due to some reasons. So if I'd like to please invite the logistics team to play the video. Thank you very much.
>> Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. It's a great honor for me to give a speech at this session. I organized two phases of the world summit on the information society in Geneva and in Chile as the secretary general of the summit. The summit was originally proposed by Tunesia at the ITU conference in 1994. Just three weeks ago here in this conference hall. It was only one year after released for commercial use and only a limited number of people ‑‑ therefore, the proposal was quite abrupt and ‑‑ so the conference couldn't make a decision on this proposal. Right away I was the chairman of this. Four years later I was elected secretary general of ITU. At that time many people have started using the Internet and ICTs have become ‑‑ for the business activities. I thought it was a good time to discuss the potential of ICTs. Comment ‑‑ summit no specialized agencies have succeeded in organizing the UN summit. It was a true heavy responsibility for RTU but the counsel easily accepted my proposal. Preparation was extremely difficult and challenging because ITU had no resources for it. Furthermore, Tunisia and Switzerland competed to host the summit and each of them insisted it was charity. It took many months to obtain a compromise which was a unique summit of two faces. I thank Tunisia and Swiss government for the strong support for the government. WSIS was very different from other UN summit. First it was organized by a specialized agency, not by UN New York. I'm very proud of the fact that WSIS is only 1UN successful summit organized by charged agency. Second, with our two phases with many advances and regional and secretary meetings, introduced multistakeholder approach for the first time in UN summit. This unique features have shaped all the process and activities even today. I think they come from the very nature of the information society itself.
First of all, it was quite technical. Therefore, ITU specialized agency that dealt with ICT's initiated the process. Second, the information society comprehensive arena where everybody's included, therefore multistakeholder approach was taken and every UN organization was involved. And last but not least the information society was quite a new concept but not all people shared a good thing. The multistakeholder approach could guarantee the participation of all the players that make up the information society. Tremendous number of proprietary meetings could make people share a common concept of the information society about the importance of ICTs and could make them commit to building the information society. A small special section of ITU requested other UN agencies to participate in the process which taking creation of implementation mechanism. It was this heavy complicated organization that could make possible the success of WSIS. However it led to ‑‑ it required lots of time energy and money.
The first face of the summit achieved an understanding of the key piece that have come in our ability to harness the potential of ICTs. World leaders shared the vision of a people‑centered and inclusive information society where everyone has a right to freedom of opinion and expression. They recognize that the education knowledge information and communication are at the core of the human progress and well‑being. They recognized further ICTs have an immense all aspect of our lives, the progress of these technologies opens completely new opportunities to attain higher levels of development.
These technologies to reduce many traditional object tackles of time and distance was the first time in history makes it possible to use them for the benefit of millions of people in both lines of the world.
In Geneva but the essence was as follows. Recognizing importance of ICT world leaders ensure that by 2015 more than half the world's inhabits have access to ICTs within their reach, connect villages with ICTs and establish community access points. Eleven action lines were identified.
The outcome was the world leaders reaffirmed their agreement in Geneva and renewed their commitment to building the information society. And they confirm that much stakeholder implementation should be organized taking into account action lines in Geneva and should be moderated or facilitated by UN agencies. They offered a list of facilitators or moderators. ITU UNESCO and UMDP should play leading facility roles.
They have lead to enhance the existing financial mechanisms for the ICTs but they couldn't agree to establish a new one. Concerning issues on how the Internet should be governed, decided to continue to discuss it through a new forum that Internet Governance Forum.
To the case we all look forward to seeing ICTs open new opportunities. Are we now in the world we envisioned? I think that the WSIS goal to connect people to the Internet by 2015 has been achieved. At WSIS we increasingly imagined that we were connected by optical fiber. However, thanks to technological progress realize the access to the Internet down to the individual level surpassing the goals such as connecting villages. Therefore, as far as the connectivity is concerned we can say that we have realized the WSIS goals. Of course I know ITU her excellency Ms. Doreen Bogdan‑Martin is working hard to help the left behind, the issue of the digital divide is still a real challenge.
The driving force that made ‑‑ build the information society at WSIS was a hope that with the help of ICT northern countries left behind could improve development and this potential for ICTs to achieve their hope must reaffirm 2015 year digital summit and big progress has been made since then. Yet ‑‑ we must work hard to make the best use of the potential of ICTs for the higher level of development. It is also difficult to say as this was confirmed at WSIS, such as freedom of speech and free flow information have been fully realized. In more specific domains such as digital divide, capacity buildings, security and cyber crimes, much progress has been made thanks to the effort of the facilitators and stakeholders however, there remains many issues to be solved. As a whole, I don't think that we have realized the commitment of WSIS to build the information society.
Furthermore, many new programs not anticipated at the time have a vision such as smartphone addiction, fake news, and ‑‑ as ICTs have been used heavily for activities and weapons ‑‑ completely changed. And recently the rapid development of AI is becoming a menace to humans. AI is a double edge sword. While we may get many benefits from it, some critics say that it may damage creativity and could lead to destruction of man kind.
Once humanity has enjoyed the benefit of ICTs, it cannot live without them. The problems are complex, diverse, and global. Some of them we have discussed for more than 20 years and we understand the issues quite well. But others other very new. Humanity has never experienced them before. And they cannot be easily solved by one government or international organization alone. For new challenges such as generative AI like ChatGPT, I believe we should make the best use of the multistakeholder approach so that each stakeholder can share the nature of the issues and participate in the problemsolving efforts.
On the other hand, for issues such as cyber crimes privacy protection and security, where programs have become clearer we should have open‑ended fruitful discussion. Although we have been in these areas for years in various ways, we should more equative organized approach that is focused on program ‑‑ every organization should be working intensively with clear mandates and fortified experts. They are expected to play a greater role. We have experience for 20 years ‑‑ I think it is time for us to be viewed in terms of efficiency the nature of the issues.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to conclude my speech by expressing my belief that with our effort a commitment led by world leaders are bearing fruit and we will soon see a people centered government oriented and inclusive information society in which everyone has the means to express their ideas and be heard.
Thank you very much.
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>> Moderator: Thank you. We really miss you here today. We wish you could have been with us. That was a wonderful video that took us through all the memories and the entire time line. So you can see that the spirit ‑‑ I don't think you'll be disappointed with us because the spirit of cooperation and multistakeholderism which was the heart of the WSIS discussions even at that time it still remains. So thank you very much and participants just to let you know that he has made this video on his own. So that was an incredible effort. Thank you very much for your dedication to this session.
I'd like to remind you that we also have remote participation. So there are many WSIS stakeholders who have joined us remotely today. Thank you very much. For some it's really early and for some very late but they are all there due to their commitment towards the process.
Without any further delay, I'd like to invite our secretary general. The secretary general of ITU, Ms. Doreen Bogdan‑Martin to please provide her keynote and opening remarks.
>> Doreen Bogdan‑Martinrene: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for being here and special thanks to the government of Japan who is coleading this session today. It's kind of a tall order to follow Mr. Usumi. I loved those photos. It was sort of a walk down memory lane as many in this room can remember. Of course we haven't aged since then, right, Henriette. But really it was a nice recap of what happened and how and why and also good to get his sense of what we have achieved. So I'm happy to be part of this session which focuses on something that is really important to me. One of my key priority which is is partnerships. And of course it's about multistakeholder partnerships to actually drive digital transformation. So look forward to hearing from our brilliant panelists.
I have just come from another session looking to the future of the WSIS process and it kind of ended with where I think we're sort of picking up here which is the interlinkages between the WSIS and, of course, the SDGs and I think the goal for all of us is that we achieve the 2030 agenda. We achieve those 17 goals and we know that the 2030 agenda is not on track and we believe that leveraging the WSIS process and leveraging in the community leveraging digital technologies we can achieve those SDGs. Rob and I were together in New York a couple of weeks ago where we launched our SDG digital acceleration agenda where we demonstrated that 70 percent of the targets can be accelerated if you actually use. So I hope ‑‑ we of course are at that ‑‑ SDG particularly throughout the high level week. It's half time. We have to win it in the second half and of course it's going to take all hands on deck to actually win it and to win it we need strong multistakeholder partnerships. When we look of course at the SDGs they do carry the hopes. They carry the dreams, the rights and the expectations of people everywhere and I think that's really what happens. That will ‑‑ that's what we're up against if we don't get the SDGs back on track and I think with our work here today we can make progress. I think it's fair to say that the WSIS has been a sort of hot bed of collaboration. Collaboration that brings together governments, UN organizations, other international organizations, the private sector academia and of course civil society: Each year at the WSIS forum we celebrate great achievements. We have our WSIS prizes which is always something very exciting for us and Patanjali has the leadership in that process.
How can empower women and girls.
To detect breast cancer and of course much, much more and I think it really shows the power of digital to impact lives of ‑‑ so again I think 2030 is our litmus test and failure I think for all of us is not an option. So I urge you to roll up your sleeves, work with us, let's partner, let's get it done. Join us next year where we're going to be back to back with AI for good at the WSIS forum and I'll let Gitanjali share more with us later necessity session. Thank you.
>> Thank you, very much, Doreen. Yes, indeed we look forward to welcoming you all of you from the 27th through the 31st of May in Geneva for the WSIS plus 20 forum high level event which will be held in the same would he be as the AI for good summit as well which Doreen had mentioned.
So now we'll move on to our panel discussion. We have a multistakeholder panel to give us different perspectives. We've divided it into two parts because we wanted to include as many voices as possible. So the first question to this panel would be around the topic of identifying achievements and gaps in the implementation of the WSIS process in these 20 years, the WSIS action lines in particular for achieving the sustainable development goals and developing a common vision for the future beyond 2025. So Doreen I'd like to invite you to provide a context around this and then we'll move on to the panelists.
>> Doreen: Thank you. So if I look to achievements, I think we can kind of proudly say that okay only a third of humanity is not connected. We made a lot of progress since 2003 but that only third of humanity is also a gap we must address. I think it's also when we look to this issue let's keep in mind what happened during the pandemic. I think the pandemic put digital technologies on the top of everyone's agenda. The pandemic is behind us hopefully for good but let's remember those lessons and let's keep digital at the top of agendas and, you know, because of the pandemic we actually had in the course of one year we call it the COVID connectivity boost. We had 800 million actually come online during that period. That never would have happened. So we don't like to say thanks to the pandemic but we recognize because connectivity was a sort of lifeline, it happened. So let's put that urgency in our work so we can actually get out there and connect those unconnected.
Thank you.
>> Moderator: Thank you Doreen for setting the scene for this topic and I'd like to first invite excellency Mr. Hiroshi, vice minister Japan who is the co‑organizer of this event as well. Mr. Yoshida, in your opinion what have we achieved and what are the real challenges and gaps that we really need to focus on?
>> Thank you. I'm very happy to join you here. And first of all I'd like to welcome to you Kyoto and it is a very great season, unfortunately it is raining but I think you can enjoy the very beautiful scenery and traditional city of Kyoto. Having said that, yes, I think that one of the significant features of WSIS is the point that they said the WSIS action line. Of course we know that WSIS action we all know now but at that time everyone didn't know what we should do and we knew at that time what we should do not just at that time but in the meantime and long‑term. So that every stakeholder all over the world knew what the issue challenge and what is the goal we should aim at. And so every stakeholder made actions from ‑‑ the closest different and the way of doing it different, but everyone had the same common goal that it's a very important point and so mentioned so there are many achievement, including building ‑‑ I'm sorry, building digital divide or capacity building and so improving of application of services. And so that in that process played important role and for multistakeholder discussion. That idea how to enlighten WSIS process and we ‑‑ so we have now made great achievement. On the other hand, it's often pointed out still 2.6 billion people remain unconnected and so every country, every other stakeholder also IDU had very hard work, had made very hard work to achieve this issue, achieve this goal to talk ‑‑ but still remained. So what we should do now introduce new technology. As you know, mobile technology allowed leap frog for many countries to let people connected and also we have other technologies, including the nonterrestrial network and those technologies can be an effective way to connect in that area. So that we should not ‑‑ introduce new technology. So we are going to have debut in 2025 and so it was very important to know what was discussed in the very beginning of this WSIS process thanks to Mr. Usimi. But we should take that ‑‑ starting point in our mind and but of course we should go look forward so that technologies advancing changing very rapidly in this field. So introducing those new technologies we should still go further to achieve this action line.
Thank you very much.
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>> Moderator: Thank you very much and for also reminding us about the WSIS ‑‑ 11 action lines that still remain. Very important framework for global digital cooperation. Thank you very much. We'd now like to move on to excellency, Mr. Nizar Ben Neji, ministry of information and communication technologies, Tunisia. Everybody knows Tunisia had the vision of the WSIS process and initiated it by proposal in 1998 and this is how we are sitting here today. So thank you very much for the role that Tunisia has played in the process.
So minister, what are the specific action that is we still need to take to achieve the WSIS goals and what are the main role of the governments all around to increase confidence in the securities of ICDs. Over to you.
>> First of all, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for these two questions and I would like also to thank the Japanese government for the hospitality and for the good organization of this event. I'm really happy to be with you in this session. Regarding the specific actions, I think we need at this moment we need global effort in order to ‑‑ in the development of the IT and ICT in general. And we have several levels, several factors of disparities. The first one is about the ICT legislation. So we need to have a complete current up‑to‑date ICD legislations at national level in each country in order at the beginning in order to develop the ICT sector and also to not block the new initiatives and new forms of ecological development. We need major efforts in order to update our ICT legislation.
The second level of about development of the network IT and ‑‑ so in many countries around the world we have white areas not well connected with the IT infrastructure and also the ID services since it requires huge investment, it requires financial resources. So we need to help countries in order to well develop their IT intercom infrastructure. Third level or point is about the digital literacy. Regarding digital literacy this is mainly the inability of people to benefit from the ICT services. In many countries around the world they don't have good education where to teach and to teach people how to use smartphones, Internet, how to benefit from the ICT services in ‑‑ so I think at this moment we need major effort to address these three sectiones so we need to update the ICD legislations for each country to not have these disparities between countries, regions and continents. We need to also develop the IT and telecom infrastructure and to benefit from all kind of ‑‑ types of connections, satellite connections and also need to spread digital culture and also need to teach digital for everyone. And regarding second question about confidence and trust about ICT and intercyberspace in general let's say we have ten layers of trust and ten layers of confidence we need to set in place. The first one we need to ‑‑ at the beginning additional content, additional documents. We need to have legislation and legal framework to organize for example the electronic transaction, electronic voices, electronic notifies notifications. At the second level we need to recognize electronic groups like signature, like for example time stamping and third example legal framework for litigation for technical improvement of the ‑‑ hardware solution either imported or developed locally at the national level and also at the national level set in place framework in order to organize the hosting services especially the cloud service providers for example in Tunisia we have simply set in place in order to give two types of ‑‑ in order to organize the hosting capabilities the hosting services at the national level. Also need to think about trust at the network level because we need to consider always trust when we select operators, when we select ‑‑ need to consider trust at the network level. After that we have the digital services or electronic services we need to have specific legislation for each sector for health for e‑commerce, and also need to protect the consumers of the services and need to set in place also legal framework in order to periodically control the security of the services and in case of incidence of course we need national computer emergency response teams and in case of cyber ‑‑ we need information for the cyber attacks and for the sanctions and digital ‑‑ so we need a stack of rules and a stack of operators to enter each level in order to ‑‑ from the documents to the cyber connect to the cyber attacks. Thank you.
>> Moderator: Thank you very much, excellency.
[APPLAUSE]
>> Moderator: We look forward to working closely with Tunisia in the review process and do know you will be a strong voice in the vision beyond 2025 as well. So thank you very much for your guidance and vision. We'd like now like to invite Mr. Rob Opp of UNDP, very close partner of the implementation process in coordination with more than 32UN agencies. So Rob, it's a pleasure to have you here in our panel. So my questions to you would be that what are the key priorities for us for WSIS beyond 2025 and how can we ensure that WSIS remains relevant and impactful in the years to come? Over to you.
>> Rob: Thanks. It's great to be here despite the jet lag. Do my best to be articulate if I can.
I think your second question which is how do we ensure WSIS stays relevant, I think Doreen you spoke to this a bit already. I think the key to this is really aligning with the SDGs and other processes that are going on right now. We have a big year coming up for digital discussions. The global digital compact as part of the summit for the future is a major milestone for the world when it comes to digital and the SDGs at the mid‑way point represent an important inflection point for how we need to accelerate with using ICTs and digital technologies. So I think the key to relevance is to make sure we are aligned with these global processes and supporting and driving the way WSIS has been doing over the last two decades. I think in terms of priorities, I would make a few observations. Maybe a little bit more general in nature based on our experiences as UNDP as we encounter and dialogue with our 170 partner countries many of them on the digital transformation efforts they're making. One of them is we still see a lot of fragmentation when it comes to the use of technologies in countries themselves. Ministries will be very fragmented between each other. There's a lack of a whole of government approach. There's not always a lot of whole of society thinking civil society and other stakeholders and private sector not well integrated and so what we at UNDP try to do is support our countries in thinking through what does a whole society approach look like. So not just individual solutions. It's really moving from solutions to systems or in the case of digital ecosystems. And I think that is also important for the issue of the ‑‑ which is we're starting to see the importance of truly interoperable and open systems coming into play. So for example the digital public infrastructure I would say movement that is emerging due in part to India's recent leadership in the G20 on this issue and it's kind of ‑‑ in a number of countries over the last decade or so countries have been realizing the ‑‑ the right systems thinking and the right governance around that can really unlock the ability for governments to lay down the kind of infrastructure, the sort of digital roads and bridges and for the private sector to be able to innovate on top of that also leaving the roads open for civil society and others to participate. So we really think that this interoperability, this notion behind digital public infrastructures another issue that I think we can take forward in the WSIS platform. And maybe the last thing I would say is that I think that WSIS needs to really double down on the people centered approach. We must understand how ‑‑ I think the original action lines, you know, paid attention to some of the issues around the information society and potential negative effects but as Mr. Hotsumi said in his video we're starting to see some really important trends that are really quite negative for humanity. So we have to understand that everything we do with technology has to be accompanied by the right governments and people centered approaches. This includes for example the safeguards that need to be in place and related to that very important as minister Neji just said is the issue of Internet capacity. We're obviously not going to get to a point where people ‑‑ where the work that we do with technology is people centered unless people are really actively able to engage, they understand what their rights are, understand how to engage safely and meaningfully with the connectivity and government systems and societal systems that are available.
[APPLAUSE]
>> Moderator: Thank you Rob and keeping in mind the entire digital ecosystem very important. Also the digital finance component which we have been talking about also in the SDG digital was highlighted, thank you very much. I'd like to now move on to Agne, strategic planning, APC association for progressive communication. Have been associated with the WSIS process also right since its inception bringing the voice of civil society into the process whenever needed. So Anrietta, my questions to you what have been the summations in your opinion that the framework of the WSIS action lines have brought in the last 20 years. Of course, the gaps and you had a very interesting session yesterday about the gender inclusion, so how do you look at that also the GDC and WSIS process moving together? Over to you.
>> Thanks, Gitanjali. I really think the importance of the WSIS actually strikes me year after year and I think it shows you how often one feels that a process that you've invested in might not have achieved enough once member states have agreed on the small print but I think in the case of WSIS it has proven to really endure and that's why I think what Robert and others and Doreen have said about updating. I think why it's so important and why it provide add good framework even though not all the goals have been met is that it combines over arching principles. People centered. I absolutely agree with Robert on that. It's one of the strengths of the WSIS, human rights and in the principal participation. And we've heard anything else that has actually been as strong on bringing those over arching principles together. And then it combines them with the action lines. And therefore it creates a framework when you as soul society are collaborating with government or holding governments accountable, sometimes government updates policies in some ways that are not so good and that's the role of civil society and WSIS creates a framework where you can engage in specific people such ‑‑ food security, media freedom, very specific level, E governance as well. Considerations around the rule of law, respect for human rights and inclusion. And I think there are very few frameworks even within the UN system that brings civil and political rights as one of social and economic development and cultural rights together and for civil society which is immensely diverse strength of civil society that it's so diverse that also then creates a framework where you can have a very wide and diverse range of civil society organizations participate. I think the other strength really has been that it has focused on the positive potential of ICTs. And I'm not saying that we should not consider harms, others have said that but I think we've now moved into a paradigm that is not only not people centered; it's digital centered but it's also overly concerned with the harms and to less of the potential and this is particularly problematic because as Doreen said, a third of the world are not yet connected. And of those that are connected many do not have meaningful connectivity. I think just in terms of civil society participation, I would agree that and you asked about gender, I think there is a need to rethink one thing of the agenda and that's in their respective roles and responsibility I think there was a vision of the agenda that came not from member states which reduced the role of civil society very much to being a partner in implementation, not necessarily a partner in policymaking and shaping. I think civil society's role also needs to be at the level of policymaking and then of course at the level of holding states and other actors accountable for human rights but also an implementation. So I think if we look at the future of the WSIS follow‑up and monitoring, let's look at one where these different roles in different context depending what's at stake and can be accommodated from the different stakeholders. I think updating the content is necessary. I think it can be done. I think climate change is extremely important. I think financing and gender. And I think the WSIS framework gives us the granularity to be able to update it without having to come up with a brand‑new framework. In the same frame as Doreen pointed out in the earlier session really harmonized with the SDG framework. I think the global digital compact I also see it actually reflected within the WSIS. I think the WSIS gives us strong both at the level of broad principle and specific framework. Finally I would just say as we take this forward let's work with the WSIS forum, let's work with the IGF, commission on science and technology for development, UNDP, bring UNDP even more into the process, commission into the process so the strong family and few agencies that have been driving WSIS I think could benefit from bringing more UN agencies into the table. I think working with the G20 process on digital public infrastructure is also an incredible opportunity as Robert said. One last comment I think for civil society as well and for member states, let's not reinvent our forums or processes. Let's improve, let's build on what we've achieved in terms of models for collaborative policymaking and implementation and I think what I would like to see most is to really use this notion of the WSIS principle of participation of multistakeholder participation as a mechanism for deepening and including more actors and doing it more effectively rather than has a brand. I think too frequently these days multistakeholder has become a brand rather than approach which has transformative potential.
[APPLAUSE]
>> Moderator: Thank you, and we really appreciate your support. We'd like to invite the panelists of the first round to please join the audience and the panelists of the second round to please join us. Please do bring your name plates with you. And request secretary general to stay back with us.
Please do not leave panelists from the first round because we will come back to you at the end.
So please take a seat.
So also recognizing so many civil society activists and partners in our session today which highlights the relevance of the process among civil societies members. So thank you for being here with us. So while we are waiting for the second round of our speakers to join us, I'd like to invite of course Doreen to please provide a context and set the context of this group. In this group we are going to focus on strengthening digital cooperation. So of course multistakeholder cooperation. Global partnerships and creating an accessible and equitable digital landscape for all leaving no one behind. Please join us here. You can take this seat.
Our Umirbek from youth envoy.
We'd like to start with the vice minister of Indonesia. Oh, sorry, yes, sorry, okay. Please go ahead.
>> Doreen: Thank you. So I was asked to say a few words in terms of content setting and actually I think Anrietta you said it better probably than I can. WSIS is digital cooperation in action, I would say and as you were alluding in the whole panel before, we don't really need to reinvent it because there's a framework there that we can build upon maybe picking up again, Anrietta, if we were to add in environment, finance, more gender. I mean, there are things I think that we can improve and it is a process. Yes, it's multistakeholder but it's also very much a working as 1UN process. Of course, close ties with Unesco, Untad, Undp, I think we also have our friends from UNU, UNSCAP, FAO, of course DESA. We are working also very closely with UNHCR, OHCHR and I think those partnerships we will strength then as we look to the future of WSIS plus 20. And of course we work closely with the cofacilitators for the GVC. Thank you also for being here. I think it's important also to consider, we do cover a range of issues. So be it from healthy aging in the digital era which is more and more of an issue, to looking at digital service design, tech entrepreneurship for women and youth and here I just want to commend the IGF because you do such a great job in getting young people commend the ITU generation connect young person who's here but I think that's really important especially as we look toward the future process, the future framework that we recognize and we do include young people. Because at the end we want to ensure that no matter what their age, their gender, economic means or location that we want to bring the benefits of technology to everyone everywhere. I think our task what we would love to hear from this panel is how we can find new maybe or more creative means so we can double down. We heard from the previous panel. We do have to double down to make these meaningful ‑‑ make sure no one is left behind. We want to ensure that the WSIS process of course is closely synced up with the summit of the futures and ultimately to shape a digital future that's meaningful, accessible. Rob, you mentioned the skills piece, I think that's a fundamental piece we need to strength then and of course it's affordable, trusted and we can access local content which is something come across in the session today. Back to you.
>> Moderator: Thank you for settling the scene. I'll move first to deputy minister from Indonesia and Indonesia was really record breaking to the WSIS prizes everywhere. Thank you so much for that for galvanizing action in Indonesia. Received so many that it's always very difficult to the action line experts to decide on the different winners. So thank you so much for bringing the local action into the process and show cases them every year at the WSIS forum and prizes. So my question to you again would be where do you see this process going? What are the specific actions that need to be taken to ensure that everybody can benefit from the digital revolution and how can we ensure digital collaboration and partnerships prioritize needs and aspiration of local communities? Over to you, sir.
>> Nezar: Assist with tell GATT, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. First of all, I would like to extend my appreciation to the government of Japan for hosting Eiffel GF in this beautiful city, Kyoto. The choosing of the IGF theme is not just timely but also accurate in depicting our current Internet solution and configuring the situations today. Internet usage, our perception and our discern in responding Internet has grown as well. So depending on who you are, where you are, when you start to use Internet, your dream on Internet will differ. However, such difference must not set us apart. To achieve such dream, allow me to address on what are the specific action that need to be taken to ensure that everyone has access to the benefit of the digital ‑‑ the actions we need to take in Indonesians are first the need to prepare our society for the future destruction as a result of the emerging technology. With rapid adoption of technology in business we will see a lot of impact of the emerging technology in our daily life, not only from the threat of harmful content such as disinformation, technologies that enable child pornography but also from the economic side such as disruption of conventional business model to online model. To the danger of loseing jobs to working auto medications. The second aspect establishing a level playing field with Indonesians. A digital transformation has risen, the creation of a new competition local and international players compete for dominance within a country ‑‑ unfair competitions while many sees business competition is normal thing, I firmly believe that the advent of digital technologies should be harnessed as a potential catalyst for fostering collaboration the benefit of people in the frame of competitions I come to the check point that this condition should be for governance to support the interoperativity of Internet utilizations. With the current complex dynamic within the Internet ecosystem marked by conflicting interest among stakeholders, it is imperative for countries to stab governance that able to balance the diverse interest in technology utilizations to foster conducive and secure and mutually beneficial environment. And for the second question how can we ensure that digital collaborations and partnership prioritize the need and aspiration of local communities imposing one size fits all solutions. The answer in Indonesian opinion lies on the collaboration between different stakeholders facilitated by a specific platform acting as the pool of knowledge resource for policies and governance related to digital issues at multinational level which with IGF plays such important role. However we cannot stop there. Such platform must also optimize its unique feature as the platform for stakeholders to brainstorm policies and approaches that are tangible and impacting the society positively. Indonesia believes only through cooperation we can solidify our position especially on digital Internet realms. Let's walk together hand in hand to enable collaboration that brings us closer to achieve the Internet that we want, an Internet that brings us not just for us but for the next generation to come. Thank you very much.
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>> Moderator: Thank you very much, sir. I'd like to now bring in excellency deputy minister, ministry of transport and communications Lithuania. Thank you for being here with us, ma'am.
So my first question is how can we strength then cooperation and global partnership among stakeholders and what are the challenges and opportunities in your opinion to create this equitable and easy to access digital landscape for all?
>> Agne: As always, congratulations for Japanese government for IGF for creating such an amazing opportunity for us to be here and of course for secretary general Noreen and ITU for raising those very important and timely questions I would say at the moment. So I would like to share with you several aspects from Lithuania side. And first of all, I would say that we fully support current multistakeholder model when digital collaboration is based on truly cooperative approach. This is the model that worked well so far and we are proponents of 2025 WSIS process and not revolution. The word partnerships is instrumental here as it was mentioned many times before today. Strong partnerships held to Ukraine sustaining against aggressors, strong partnerships‑implementing number of digital projects such as team Open/Secure initiatives and this is the way how global north and should help to reduce and close the digital gaps. Another example which I would like to mention and comes into my mind in this regard is the ITU's initiative partner to connect. There were over 200 pledges which all together make a difference in meaningful connectivity and digital connection globally. Another example I would like to mention is from the European union perspective. We know very well how multistakeholder approach works in the EU. It takes months if not years to adopt any piece of legislation starting from impact assessments, public consultation, commission proposals and all other procedures. All these stakeholders play or could eventually play an important role in the process. Therefore we trust our legislation as it is based on the strong involvement of all the parties concerned and therefore we see big potential in sharing our experiences with our partners across the globe. And touching upon challenges and opportunities in this regard I would like to mention how it is crucial to identify long‑term vision and common goals and answer that all stakeholders share a common understanding of the goals and objectives of their collaboration and division self. This alignment is essential for success. Clear governance should also be mentioned. It is necessary to define roles in decision‑making processes within the collaboration. It seems we're on the verbal of reshuffle so we need to take into account our experience and lessons learned. This is our strength. And one very important challenge from my perspective is possible digital gaps we need to avoid. Urban versus rural population, young versus old, regions, countries, ethnicities. Digital inclusion should be sustainable. With new emerging technologies such as AI it is rather easy to leave someone even unintentionally. We should think always have this in mind, listen and consult others as many as we can.
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>> Moderator: Thank you very much excellency. We'd now like to invite ambassador Thomas Schneider, ambassador and director of international affairs ‑‑ ambassador Switzerland has also played an important role, Geneva plan of action provides the framework for the WSIS action lines. So what are your impressions, ambassador? How have we done? We did hear today that we are not all that bad. We are working together to provide a safe environment for digital inclusive society. However what can we do better and what's your vision for the cohosted WSIS event we are doing next year together? Ambassador.
>> Thomas: Thank you everybody. I'm very happy to be here also very happy to have seen Mr. Utsumi because we were working very closely with him 20 years ago when we were actually at this stage in October. We were to like one and a half months before a world summit with tens of thousands of participants and also some high level people like presidents and others so it was quite a lot of work back then and yeah, there are some fruits that ‑‑ some tree that is we planted there and some fruits that we can build on. With regard ‑‑ the one is how to build trust and the other one is how to integrate and prioritize the needs on aspirations of local communities. I'll try and give you some views on both because they are actually closely linked first on the notion of trust often we hear like tales of paragraphs in papers and in concepts and strategies about fostering trust. In my experience trust is something that cannot necessarily be fostered, it needs to be earned. We can maybe foster trustworthiness if we look at ourselves as government or industry representatives because if we act trustworthy then people actually tend to trust us. We should act and work on ourselves mutually. And of course different stakeholders need to earn trust in different ways according to the different roles that we have. As governments or government representatives or politicians that are above people like me for instance we should try to actually do what the people want focus on solving problems for our citizens for our people and not necessarily concentrate on staying in power pursuing our own goals as politicians but actually yeah trying to listen to the needs of the people and help them to get what they need. Unfortunately nowadays we often witness the latter is the case and this does not necessarily add to building trust in political systems. With businesses it's actually something like same but different. Businesses they want to trust if the consumers so they buy the products and also they need of course trust of society that they are perceived as good actors acting responsible being competitors in markets but sticking to rules, not damaging environment, not damaging environment et cetera. So also their businesses try to be seen in a good light by the consumers by society and, yeah, this is why we have notions like corporate social responsibility or new version that includes the environment which is now called ESG that you already know all probably. So politicians spent a lot of energy to be seen in a positive light by the public as so do businesses in the help that they ‑‑ in the hope that will give them trust make them trustworthy. This is where we come to the importance of a functioning and independent media system because people need tools to decide who they trust. So they need information that is reliable they can themselves decide who is trustworthy and who is not. And of course the development of the media and social media has given everybody lots of ways to express opinions to influence other people's opinions and this is why it's so important that we do have no matter what the current latest version of media technologies that we do have media that are not manipulated by those in power but actually in the hands of the citizens and that allows citizens to enable themselves to decide who they will be trusting. So this is something that brings me to the needs because also there you need to have ways to communicate needs. First of all, people that get on local level they need to have process to identify their needs, discuss their needs, set the priorities themselves for this again you also need a public sphere where this discussion is possible then they need to have ways to make their voices heard. Again you need processes. Then they need to have ways that their voices are not just listened to but actually followed that this is turned into political decisions. And from somebody that is coming from a country where we have something called direct democracy we do not elect politicians once every four years and subject to what they do but invited to vote on all kinds of substantive issues several times a year. The answer to how to make sure the decision making actually follow priorities and local needs is very simple for inclusion and participation. In solution and debates in discussions in finding out and identifying needs and then participation in political decisions through participatory democracy models and again need spaces to discuss this on all levels. So coming to inclusion we think and this is of the definitely let's say fruits of the WSIS is that in particular fruit this forum is one important channel to give voices to people that may not have access to be heard from all over the world. This is a global opportunity nor people to make their voices heard from all stakeholders so inclusivity is something of course that is at the core of the IGF and at the same time it's not just the core of IGF also at the core of the institutions that were drivers of the WSIS process IE in particular the IDU and UNESCO. Both institutions have elaborated through the WSIS a very intensive multistakeholder culture and inclusive debate in many of the processes and both institutions are leaders to me in fostering inclusive debates on digital issues each of them in their own competencies they try to make all the voices heard and let me close with this that given that the UN general assembly which is purely into governmental structure will take the final decisions about what is going to happen in the UN overall after the WSIS plus 20 review at the end of 25 it is even more important that institutions like the IGF but also institutions like the ITU UNESCO and all other bodies that think it is important to include all voices in their deliberations and in the policy guidance that they develop to include these voices and so this is why we of course support and are very happy to be a key driver in the WSIS plus 20 process in particular this one event that you highlighted the next year's WSIS plus 20 high level forum in Geneva because we want to support all those that try to give a voice to all those needs, all the people not just the ones that normally have access to power and to media. So this is why we strongly support the WSIS plus 20 process like by the UN in particular by the ITU and UNESCO. Thank you very much.
>> Moderator: Thank you ambassador Schneider and thank you for your dynamic leadership and also guidance to all of us in this WSIS plus 20 review process and the vision beyond 2025 and now like to move on to Ms. Maria Garza, international Chamber of Commerce. Congratulations on your appointment and welcome to the WSIS family. So ICC was one of the main business voices in the WSIS process right since its inception. They have been supporting us to bring in the voices of business in each of the WSIS forums, IGF and different consultation process that we hold. So thank you very much for that ma'am and how do you think we can work better to make the process more inclusive to bring the attention of the private sector to the WSIS processes, to the UN process like the WSIS one that actually impact the private sector and also you being the focal point for WSIS over 20 years, how do you see the landscape evolving over the years and what are the ambitions of the private sector.
Back to you.
>> Maia: Thank you very much and on behalf of the international Chamber of Commerce, 4,500,000,000 business in over 47 countries, I would like to thank the government of Japan and IDU and Doreen all for organizing this panel.
The focal business input on the world summit on information society in 2035 and continues to observe and provide input on behalf of global businesses in the WSIS follow processes. And 20 years ago this process and vision, the development of global people centered information society where everyone can truly benefit from the enormous opportunities the Internet information communication technologies and digital transformation has to offer. This was a vision not only for the governance of the Internet but for harnessing its unique potential for inclusive and sustainable growth, helping populations everywhere to develop and thrive. WSIS also made it clear that we have a shared responsibility in shaping the inclusive information society jointly cooperating across all stakeholders groups and find meaningful solutions to common challenges. As it has been mentioned we have come a long way since 2003 but our greatest challenge still remains, 2.6 billion people still unconnected and we all know that it takes more than access to the Internet to fully benefit from the opportunities it offers and interoperable ICT system is crucial to offer truly meaningful connectivity that also includes access to services and relevant content available in local languages and the skills and capabilities to transform information into actionable knowledge. Governments alone cannot meet the investment needs and implementation challenges of expanding meaningful connectivity and with each e‑commerce capability. The private sector has been a pioneer and partner in bridging this gap and to continue and upscaled business investment and enabling policy environment is fundamental. It is important that policymakers how the private sector makes investment decisions as well as how political and regulatory decisions impacted technical function of the infrastructure or service. And enabling environment is not a catch phrase or a reason for the regulation or relaxing of tax systems or consumer safeguards. It is substantially much more than that. Ultimately an enabling environment is one that stimulates investment in a way that resolves in sustainable facility or service over time. This means a few things must be in place. First a stable legal and regulatory environment that well comes new entrants and recognizes on‑going development. Values new forms of competitions. Access to stable finance sources and rates that enable a sustainable return and effectively promote the common goals of digital transformation through educations and ‑‑ second, open markets and free flows of data across borders. Digital implementation could be crippled without cross border data flows. Fragment station and increased complexity caused by restrictions significantly complicate global value chains creating burdens and market payers particularly for ‑‑ and third holistic whole of government approach to policymaking policies should take into account the most layered nature of the digital systems and consider economic technical social cultural and governance factors. And last but probably most importantly a multistakeholder participation. Close cooperation with business and other stakeholders is beneficial to ensure that implemented policies pave the way for them to maximize opportunities while addressing issues that are relevant locally respecting local culture and social norms. Enabling environment facilitates public‑private partnerships in implementation of projects but also considers the views of those required to implement policies from the first moments of policy creation. At ICC we work with both public and the private sector to create such enabling environments ensure strong and meaningful dialogues and promote open and inclusive digital cooperation for the prosperity of people and planet.
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>> Moderator: Thank you very much, Maria. The youth envoy. He's come all the way from Kyrgyzstan. He won the competition to be represented here.
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>> Moderator: Congratulations.
And what role do you see in the youth in the whole process of digital cooperation, ensuring inclusiveness and accessibility for young people all around the world what of your views and the voice of the youth in this regard?
>> Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Happy to be here. Thank you so much for kind opportunity. Let me introduce myself. My name is Umirbek from Kyrg republic. Today I'm here to represent global generation connect program. Generation connect all about young people like me, like you, like us use technology to change the world. As we know today as you know 75 percent of all young people in the world they have access to Internet but at the same time should understand that in some parts of the world for example in a low income countries has many people they don't have access to the Internet and today I think generation connect we are solving this problem, problem with Internet ‑‑ with connection and forceable ‑‑ I want to say that the ‑‑ we should give opportunity to young generation to participate for example such high level discussion and this such kind of conference and as we know a lot of people ‑‑ a lot of young people they don't have access to the Internet but at the same time they have really good ideas to change the world and I want to encourage you to give a chance to young generation to realize their ideas and also participate in such kind of conference and, yeah, the last one I'm a little bit confused, just thank you for the opportunity and yeah thank you.
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>> Moderator: Thank you and thank you for also delivering your talk in English. You were not very comfortable but you managed and you did a great job. Thank you so much.
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>> Moderator: Okay, so we'd now like to first of all give a big hand to the audience. Thank you all for being here and for participating.
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>> Moderator. And we have two minutes. So very, very quick, I'd like to go through all the panelists just to say in one sentence what it encapsulate as the vision for us and what does that mean to them. Just one sentence panelists, please. Is there a mic there? Maybe we can start with Rob.
>> Rob: Thanks. One sentence. Maybe just a phrase. People centered and multi partner.
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>> Human centered under the multistakeholder approach. Thank you.
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>> Anrietta: Connecting communities.
>> Moderator: Ambassador Schneider.
>> Corporations so that no one is left behind.
>> Universal and inclusive.
>> Clear vision and balanced governance.
>> Nezar: Collaboration for better world.
>> Doreen: Can I make it a long sentence?
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>> Like so much to say.
I'm going to say inclusion and what I mean is inclusive access. I think inclusive frameworks and whole of government, whole of society. Inclusive participation picking up on Thomas' point. And I think also inclusive processes meaning, avoiding the risk of siloing this from other UN processes I think is so important. So inclusion and inclusive.
>> Moderator: Thank you Doreen. And with that we close the session. Thank you very much for joining us today. We will continue the discussion in the open consultation process meeting on the 11th. So that will give you an opportunity to interact with us. So we are not going to talk on the 11th but we going to listen to you. So please be there and look forward to seeing you soon. Thank you very much.
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