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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>> MODERATOR: Maybe we should start very quickly. Okay. So I hope my microphone is on. Good morning, everybody. And probably good morning, good day to online participants. Thank you very much for joining us in this session which will talk about the Internet Governance and also the future of IGF.
So I have a very wonderful line of speakers joining us, so let me quickly introduce the speakers in person and also we have one online participant here.
So from this side, Ms. Strategy and policy coordinator from international communications union. Thank you very much to join us. And second, lady from International Chamber of Commerce who is always active in IGF. Thank you very much for joining us.
And the third person is from the department of states U.S. Government and she's also very active in Internet Governance. I always call her Marianne, I don't know her official title, but okay, yeah. We are all at one with the stakeholders in this field.
And last but not least, of course, we have Ms. Yuri founder of the youth Internet global. Thank you for joining us online.
When you see it, we definitely expect very active discussion today.
So just quickly to overview what was happening over the last few years, this year was actually the very busy year for us as we are aware, United Nations discussed Global Digital Compact, and the outcome came out in General Assembly in December. And we believe these are quite well organized and probably satisfied most of us.
But the (poor audio) but the real (poor audio) will be the follow up. We have to discuss how we can bring these outcomes in the document into the reality in the next coming months.
So in next year, 2025, will you have the GDC of course plus the review. And this will discuss how and what IGF will be continued as Internet Governance (poor audio quality) under United Nations. Next year we will have next IGF in Norway in June, which is quite early compared to regular timing.
We need to be very much high up and busy after this IGF completed, but all of you must be very much aware that this IGF in Saudi is beautifully organized and very I don't want to keep you too much too long in the session, but I will give you more time to walk around and look around to see people here.
But please be a little bit patient to see and what the speakers will talk about IGF in the future.
So the Japanese government has been also very active in this field, and we invited IGF last year to Kyoto where more than 6,000 people gathered in perp and more than 1,000 (poor audio quality) person joined online. So it was very much successful, but of course we have to think about the follow up and the outcome and materialization of outcomes in Kyoto.
So let me invite those speakers to my questions. So first question, what are the major achievements of Internet Governance Forum up until now? And also the outstanding challenges in the Internet Governance for different stakeholders, including the government businesses, Civil Society, academia, international organizations, and when we think about the upcoming the discussions and argument.
So first I will invite Melanie to share your views.
>> MELANIE: It's nice to see everyone here in the room and hello to stakeholders online. I think I just start out by saying the United States strongly supports IGF as a preeminent global venue bringing together all stakeholders in a bottom up process to discuss solutions on Internet public policies that are innovative and empowering.
And we are reflecting on past years in IGF (lost audio) for inclusivity. And it's a testament to the importance of the IGF.
One of the challenges that we see that many stakeholders face in Internet Governance is the ever growing and expanding international landscape dealing with these issues. And IGF provides an excellent platform on an annual basis to sort of pull all these threads together.
And as was mentioned in the introduction, we see this is a pivotal time with the IGF of what just happened for the summit of the future and as we're in the outset of the WSIS+20 review.
As we look forward and think about IGF in the future, we very much support efforts to continue strengthening the IGF and increasing participation of stakeholders, particularly from developing countries. And we will, of course, in the WSIS+10 review process advocate strongly for the IGF's mandate.
>> YOICHI IIDA: Thank you very much for very strong comment, probably from the government point of view. And so now let me ask invite Kenya to share the same question from probably in particular business perspective.
>> KENYA: Thank you very much, Yoichi, and thank you for inviting me here and it's really great to see each other and stuff in the great session early on Day 0. I hope we will be successful in ensuring some light on the IGF and the path forward.
Looking a little bit back, because we're talking about the IGF's achievements and what we've done this far. As what was said, the main achievement of the IGF is being this instrument to foster inclusive stakeholder dialogue on intergovernance, bring all of us together from Civil Society, academia, all the communities, and it has established itself as the premier path for this opening constructive discussion. Not only the Internet and its governance, but also on the array of technologies than enable the Internet or are enabled by the Internet. 20 years in from where we started on Internet Governance.
The other major contribution I see from the IGF or what business sees from the IGF is creating this global awareness of digital issues. Whether we're talking about access to digital inclusion or cybersecurity or emerging technologies, really being here and having this conversation encourages having a shared understanding and collaboration between all the stakeholders. And to this we can add the outcomes that come from the IGF intercessional work, such as best practices work, the policy networks that have allowed stakeholders to collaborate across the year around specific issues that they're interested in. And then bring their contributions to this forum.
While they're not binding on the IGF, they do provide insights and practical guidelines for both policymakers and businesses very happy always to see these outcomes come to life.
And then last but not least about the achievements of the IGF, we shouldn't forget the national regional network that the IGF managed to build over the past 20 years that really brings the global discussions back down into the local practice, but also makes sure that our conversations at a global level are informed by the local realities and the engagement that these communities can have to these networks.
We hear them saying it's only a talk shop, but I think it has accomplished quite a bit in 20 years and there's a good report that came out from the UK government so maybe my colleagues can present it to you later on.
But all this doesn't come on its own. We do have a lot of challenges that we need to address. Both as an international community, and then the IGF itself. And in the context that we are in today, Melanie, you alluded to that, it's an ever changing world. And right now digitally and other conversations, I think the fundamental challenge, one of it is budgeting the Internet divide. We've done a lot over the years, but there's despite the global progress, the gaps in access, the gaps in connectivity that gets deeper and deeper with the fast with the fast evolution of technology.
So the gaps in connectivity, when you look at them as data gaps or as gaps in AI, it's actually deepening and widening and we have to make sure that we can address that. We can only address that together. Both in a multilateral and a multi stakeholder setting.
The other challenge that I see is what some have dubbed the crisis of [?] that we are living today. We see it with other negotiations in the united nations, we really are facing a moment where it's very difficult to reach agreements. It's very difficult to have trust in global conversations. But I think that impacts a lot, the conversations that we have about the IGF, the conversations we have about digital.
So the multi stakeholder approach can actually help us build back that trust, trust in the multinational system, but also the trust between the various communities. And I think that is an element of the IGF that we need to bring forward as we look ahead and what we want to do about the WSIS+20, we need to tap into the stakeholder energy of the IGF to try and bring back that trust in global cooperation and in the multilateral conversations.
So perhaps that's where we should start, and then we can go into a lot of the smaller challenges that the IGF itself has. Which small secretariats and unstable funding and operational issues that perhaps the WSIS can also help address going forward.
I'll leave it at that.
>> YOICHI IIDA: Thank you very much. Very comprehensive comments, including various points of achievements and also risks, challenges.
You touched been the risk of splitting out the world into [?]. From the international perspective, you may have also some views on the same question but also if you could catch up on the total conference. Because ITU, I believe, was playing a very active role in Kyoto IGF.
>> Thank you very much and thank you for inviting us and convening us for this important conversation.
The idea remains crucial due to its multi stakeholder and inclusive nature. The previous panelists have emphasized on this fact. It's dialogue on governance that brings together the governments, the society, communities, all of us together to have to facilitate global collaboration and cooperation on important issues like data privacy, cybersecurity. And I think one of the impressive aspects of ideas has been the involvement of the youth. I think my previous panelists have covered most of it, but I can emphasize on the fact that IGF has been recognising the youth both as a future user and innovators of the Internet. That's a very important aspect.
Dedicated platforms have been created. The youth IGF, the youth tracks, to ensure that their voice is captured and included.
Another innovation, of course, is the local chapters bringing in the regional and local perspectives into global discussions and dialogues. Very important.
IGF 2023, as you alluded in Kyoto was a key milestone to the WSIS+20 process. The discussions feed into the joint process that we are currently, you know, working on with ITU, UNESCO, the CSTD secretariat. And we've been having weekly meetings to consolidate the outcomes since IGF 2023 on different perspectives of the WSIS+20.
So unlike the WSIS+20 in 2024, indicated there should be a summary that captured these aspect.
And as the UN, we have also been contributing very, very frequently to the GDC process. So as the UN, we've been emphasizing on the importance of WSIS, the continuation of WSIS, and that with platforms like WSIS forum, IGF, remain important multi stakeholder platforms to bring in perspectives on which there will be cooperation.
So we stand ready. We have the frameworks, very functioning frameworks to complement and implement the GDC.
Again, I would also like to conclude saying that in Kyoto we also had multi stakeholder dialogues on cooperation. Very important. We had one of the founders of WSIS USA, so it was a very important milestone in driving the transformation and addressing the digital divide.
Thank you so much for organizing such a great event and we look forward to the idea here in Saudi and we look forward to the outcome.
Thank you.
>> YOICHI IIDA: Thank you very much. And I recognise you have to leave in the middle of the session, but thank you very much for this very helpful comment.
And your comment, there was a stress emphasis on the role of youth in the community. Now we have [?] from youth IGF online. So I would like to invite her to make some response to my question. So you are up.
>> Thank you so much, Yoichi San. Thank you for inviting us to this important panel this morning.
I'm very happy to see everyone on the panel, and thank you for in some essence introducing, actually, what I was about to say. Of course I will be speaking right now today from the perspective of of the youth communities, of the presence of the young people.
I think the major achievement of the IGF is actually the presence and the recognition itself of the community of the young people and of the future leaders.
And actually the existence of the youth track itself in the program of the IGF. It was just mentioned that it's very important to recognise the group, I do remember how it started. When back in 2011 we're sitting at the internal MAG meeting, right, discussing in one of the posts you have introduced to do something for the young people.
It started in 2011 with the very first meeting and that stayed actually slowly. And suddenly, boomed in 2016 when we first organized the open forum together with the European Parliament delegation to the IGF. It was a full house. And somehow from that time, it started to boom.
And I think because also the community, the multi stakeholder community started to be ready to recognise the voice of the young people. And of course their presence.
And from there, would say that, you know, they started with the creation and formation of the new leaders in IG. And of course a number of young people found the role, found their passion, but also professionally speaking, but also of course, personally speaking I think so.
And so if we speak about the future of the IGF, and I think it will be developed later in the discussion, of course the future of the IGF and the whole process will go now together with the presence of the young people, of the young communities, and actually it's one of the booming stakeholder groups. And I can imagine we can't imagine anymore the IGF and the future of the IGF without the presence of the young leaders. Yoichi San, you have the mic back.
(Audio echoing).
>> YOICHI IIDA: So apparently, the multi stakeholder approach and its development or promotion, it's one of the major achievements from IGF at this point.
So let me ask the remaining three speakers how are you engaged now in promoting approach, how are you engaging in promoting open interoperable but safe, secure Internet, and what are you doing? And probably if I may, how you are envisioning the future of Internet at this moment. If you look over the next coming month or one or two years.
So unfortunately, our one panelist had to go to the next session, but now I'd like to invite Kenya to respond to this question.
>> KENYA: Thank you very much. I'll try to address the two questions in one. Perhaps we can also save some time.
So what about (static on mic) ICC is a global business organization and represent over 45 million businesses of sectors and I'll kinds of sizes (poor audio quality).
What we do is try to be a hub for input and gathering understanding what businesses all around the world think about the most pressing issues, policy issues around Internet, trying to gather their views and then try and put those views back out into multinational, multi stakeholder international discussions.
We really believe firmly that open global (poor audio quality) for economic growth, innovation and progress. We try to do what we do in the spirit of advancing this credo.
And we do believe that the Internet must remain a path for communication, trade, and (poor audio quality) enables businesses small and big and everyone to benefit from the economy.
So what we did to try and promote this, we work on issues like universal meaningful connectivity, trying to promote a holistic policy framework that looks at expanding connectivity at all its layers, starting from infrastructure, but including also the applications and services that are necessary for people to want to connect to the Internet, as well as the skills that are needed there to interact with that content.
We work a lot on cybersecurity. So we advocate for strong cybersecurity framework. We're looking at cybersecurity as a shared responsibility between governments and businesses. So of course we believe that there's a lot that the private sector needs to do to enhance the resilience of the Internet. But rely only on the defensive capabilities of the private sector is not enough. We need to work hand in hand with governments to turn on the malicious cybersecurity that the governments can do to protect the populations and businesses that (poor audio quality).
Enforcement frameworks that hold bed actors accountable, international cooperation, and invest also at the national level.
And then (poor audio quality) which we believe are fundamental to interconnected global operation of the Internet, and support the businesses operating on using the Internet. And we try and make sure that it's clearly understood that (poor audio quality) that that underlines the scope and nature of the Internet and relies values to business and (poor audio quality) and develop over the Internet.
These are services that the people sought for the Internet. So what we're looking forward to is one that's open, secure, inclusive, resilient, one that fosters innovation, economic growth and social development. One that is built on trust, transparency, and security. And that has a universal access to services, connectivity, infrastructure, and digital scales.
(Lost audio).
To be shaped by the range of perspectives of all the stakeholders from governments to business to Civil Society and we need to ensure that policies [?] from the ground and they are diverse enough to accommodate local realities, but also that fosters collaboration, mutual understanding, and capacity building to be able to find really the shared solutions to these global problems that cannot be localized to one level because that creates the problem of fragmenting policy frameworks but also fragmenting the Internet itself (poor audio quality).
I'm glad to talk about all of this with you later.
>> YOICHI IIDA: Thank you for that comprehensive comment and for what you are doing now and what you are trying to do in the future.
We have (poor audio quality) but we still have a lot to do. What you mentioned in your comment, the interoperability government frameworks not only data, but also for AI and other policy, I think it will be very, very (poor audio quality).
Thank you very much for the comment and now I'll go back to you for the same question.
>> So looking at what we're doing now to promote a global, cooperative Internet, we see it as a success as a global platform for communications, commerce, and innovation. We engage in a variety of fora to support the multi stakeholder system, and we want to encourage multi stakeholder input in policies and discussions addressing Internet public policy issues.
I know the GDC has come up a lot this morning. But I think if you look back in the GDC, that was one of the recent things I did to promote the Internet. And Paragraph 26 describes as open, global, interoperative and secure. I like Paragraph 27 even better which has really strong language on the multi stakeholder model of Internet Governance. It uses the word multi stakeholder, it list out the stakeholders, talks about the technical community and recognises them as a separate stakeholder group. That's something that's a recent thing that many of us in this room have worked on together.
And then I'd also just point back to another thing that the U.S. Government has been very involved in is the declaration for the future of the Internet, which has I believe more than 60 signatories and talks about it as a open, free, reliable, and secure. So that's sort of what we've done recently.
But then sort of looking ahead to the future, you know, we support a global multi stakeholder approach to Internet Governance that provides building capacity, technical assistance, and support for implementation, inclusive, human centric, sustainable Internet and we see that the active and meaningful participation of all stakeholders is essential to inform our discussions on policy making and to promote transparency accountability and to strengthen implementation.
And so really we see the multi stakeholder model as the best way to ensure the Internet continues to innovate and help all. And so we welcome and we know there's a lot of active conversations with stakeholders about ways to continue to improve multi stakeholder processes. You know, I think that would be WSIS+10 was one of those examples of that continued dialogue.
As we talked about already today, there's going to be a lot more dialogue as homework, the GDC gave us homework, the WSIS review is going on. All this so say we think these topics are going to keep coming up and we keep coming back to multi stakeholder is really the way forward.
>> YOICHI IIDA: Thank you very much for your comment. Paragraph 23 and 27 reminded me of the very busy (poor audio quality) the outcome is okay, but I also am aware that, you know, some of the people probably on the floor today or others on the online might be a little bit frustrated with the process.
That will be one of the homeworks for us for the next year. Thank you very much.
Now I'd like to invite our online panelist for the same question. What are you doing and also what you'd expect for the future of the Internet.
>> Yes, thank you, Yoichi San. Very quickly, I think the promotion of of the Internet Governance and the young people are the greatest one of the greatest groups of promoting. In fact, for the young people to be present, that's a great promotion itself.
Of course, because they are one of the strongest groups together with others. So now of course the voice needs to go from the voice itself to the pipeline solutions and also start having an impact on the policy development.
But in order for us to fully, you know, give them the opportunity to promote the process of the additional cooperation and be strongly present in the Internet Governance area, we really need to all work together ensuring the capacities. And capacities are for the open, sustainable, and reliable Internet.
So that's why actually we have four priorities that we have identified, and we work in the particularly on these four priorities, which is the online safety, cybersecurity skills, and digital cooperation. In order to have these, just as I said, voice being stronger and be present in a more stable way, really need all together work in developing the enforcement capacity the young people in different regions all over the world.
Yoichi San.
>> YOICHI IIDA: Thank you very much for the comment and, you know, I think it's always really important to have active young people engaged in the Internet Governance and not only in Internet Governance, but also all other digital policy making.
So we always welcome your contributions and we always are open to work together.
So now I'd like to invite maybe one were to questions from the floor or participants online to these wonderful speakers. One of the things that you may have been aware is surprising us is, you know, we have four women on the stage, you know, one has already left, but we have (poor audio quality).
We have been talking about the digital gender divide, but you know, what is that? Maybe for next year we have to talk about the digital gender divide from the different perspectives. Maybe the other way around.
So I would like to I didn't exclude boys, men, from the speakers when I invited for this session. But I, you know, all volunteers were women. So it's surprising.
I would like to now, you know, ask boys, what we are doing. But anyway, now the question is open to girls and boys or whoever. Yeah, please.
>> This works? Yeah, brilliant. Just like to introduce myself. I work at the science, innovation and technology. First like to thank you for all of your dues and you for chairing and hosting this. I'd like to follow up on about the point made about the independent organization for the DNS research federation based in Oxford.
It's basically a really good report that talks about the tangible impact that the IGF has. I'd just like to highlight two or three of them just now and then share some views and maybe talk about the IGF will continue to help these tangible outputs and impacts particularly as we go into WSIS+20 implementation, things like that.
One of the first one being that the IGF has been a venue for basically creating the next leadership in self and developing country leadership. This platform didn't exist them and now these voices are able to contribute to the process and that makes it a stronger process.
We have the driver of IXPs. I don't remember the exact numbers in the report, but there were a low number of some barely functioning IXPs across Africa. With the health of the IGF, this rose to almost 50 in the space of ten years or so of fully functioning IXPs across a number of cities, which is a real tangible example we can use, all of which go towards the supporting of WSIS implementation.
There's one more as well, it's been a really good mediator on crucial issues such as the transition of ionic functions, which played a crucial role.
I guess the question I have to the panel is what more can we do or what can we do to support the idea in these big decisions that it can have a role in? Particularly after WSIS+20 and implementing that and the likes of the GDC as well. That's my question. Thank you.
>> YOICHI IIDA: Thank you very much. So who would like to make a comment back? Maybe both.
>> KENYA: Thank you so much, Craig, great question and kudos to the developers of that report. It was quite informative. Because we tend to lose sight of what happened five, ten years ago. But we should remember.
To respond what we should do about the IGF, first of all, we need to secure really all of its mandates. That's the first step in the WSIS+20 review.
Secondly, I think we need to make sure that the IGF is recognized in these roles that it's playing, not only for Internet Governance, but also for the various issues that you've mentioned from connectivity to other substantive issues that it can contribute to. So it's not any nor just a intermission on Internet Governance in its purest form.
As mentioned earlier, we have a number of challenges that the IGF is powering through with an understaffed and underfunded secretariat, with uncertainty of its future. I think we could do a bit better in making sure that that is stabilized and that the support to actually fulfill all these functions and potentials is there on the operational level.
So I think that could be something that the WSIS+20 could discuss and perhaps see if it could bring the IGF into a more stable foundation.
>> MELANIE: First and foremost, we're going to make sure that the IGF mandate is extended in the WSIS+20 review process. We heard stakeholders talk about how do you continue to improve the IGF. We see the IGF as a really good thing, but we're looking for ways to improve it and make it more inclusive and participatory. I know that there's a lot of stakeholder discussions out there about the funding issues. I think that that's another sort of conversation that I'm sure we'll hear more about in the future.
>> YOICHI IIDA: Thank you very much. Yeah. IGF has been around on the frontline of this type of, you know, multi stakeholder governance in digital policy making field and every time I discuss, like, mechanism for data flow or maybe AI governance global, every time the IGF was a kind of a reference point for us. A guiding example for me.
I think the success of this framework is very important for all of the global society, I think. So thank you very much for the very good question and the very wonderful comment.
So any other questions or even comment from the floor?
Or any question online?
>> If I can add something, Yoichi San.
>> YOICHI IIDA: I'm sorry. Please.
>> Thank you. I know it's always challenging to be on the side online. I'm from the global youth IGF movement. I wanted to say, I think you don't see me, but that's okay, you have the voice. I just wanted to a lot has been said right now about the, you know, stabilizing and securing the multi stakeholder model and the IGF future. But also I would like as coming from the I mean, now coming with the question of young people being present and as we all agree, that they are now part of this model and represent a very important stakeholder group, of course, would urge the governments and different stakeholders and public sector stakeholders to have consistent, stable support and resources so that they can bring to these youth communities that actually are presented great voice in promoting, they need the existence and the development, right, of the model itself.
And maybe what we can also do all together is really to reinforce, because that's needed for the youth communities have to reinforce the capacities itself in multi stakeholder model, right?
So that can make the system and the model more stable, I think.
Thank you.
>> YOICHI IIDA: Thank you very much for the future looking comment. And you know, we always see some difficulty in connecting with the youth group, in particular in Japan, you know, the young people are very maybe shy, maybe, you know, reserved. So we always having difficulties inviting and make young people engaged in this discussion.
But Global Youth is a very good example, and we believe, you know, one of the things really important for us is, you know, global IGF, we get together, all together, in one place, probably some people online, once a year. And wait for the next round.
So maybe I'm quite sure, you know, you guys always making a best efforts and we are continuing our efforts, but probably, you know, we need to continue this discussion when we are faced with the argument with different stakeholders, different group of people in WSIS+20 review and to continue to stabilize and probably even strengthen the multi stakeholder approach and this mechanism for our future.
Okay, I hope you have a question, please.
>> Hello. Is this on?
>> YOICHI IIDA: Yes.
>> Thank you to the panelist and to the Chair. Very interesting discussion. I'm Patrick Wheatley from the department of science, innovation, technology in the UK. Melanie raised the important inclusion of multi stakeholder language in the Global Digital Compact, and I'd be interested in the panel's views on lessons we can learn from multi stakeholder participation in the Global Digital Compact going forward into 2025 and the WSIS review.
Thank you very much.
>> YOICHI IIDA: Thank you very much. Please.
>> MELANIE: I'm happy to start. I think as we look at the WSIS+20 review and the months ahead of us, it's important for us to see a process that's very inclusive and transparent and encourages stakeholder participation in a way that stakeholders feel is meaningful to them. I think that's a really important piece going forward and I think there are, you know, some lessons to be learned from the GDC process.
And we've heard a lot in the stakeholder community, you know, share their views on how they felt that that process could have been more inclusive. And so I think there is a lot to think about going forward as we look for us to make sure that WSIS is as inclusive as possible and that will be really important in the year ahead.
>> KENYA: Thank you for the question. I think you said quite a bit of what I wanted to say.
We feel and you also mentioned principles and guidelines on from multi stakeholder that we developed earlier this year. They're quite practical advices on how to make sure that processes are inclusive and meaningfully inclusive of stakeholder views.
Stakeholders have said a million times this is not stakeholders wanting a vote in these in these deliberations, it's stakeholders wanting a voice. We need to make sure that voice is not only heard in the sense of a tick box exercise or a moment in time where (lost audio) various stakeholders and governments, which sometimes I think it's lost sight of in various processes.
We have the multi stakeholder conversation and we have the intergovernmental conversation, but that bridge between seems to be sometimes a bit wobbly. So I think that element we could strengthen a bit better and we hope that the WSIS+20 takes some lessons in doing that.
I think the WSIS+10 gives us some good foundation to build on, so maybe we can start from there and see if we can make that better.
>> YOICHI IIDA: Thank you very much. And may I invite Yuria for this question too.
>> YURIA: I think what we can do from our side, the youth perspective, we are leaning on the consultation on what needs to be done. But that actually came together with the consultation with the European Commission that just launched on that. And we will be happy to come with within a month. So that can be the contribution. And as already said, each voice needs to be heard. We hope that the results of that consultation will be will be considered.
>> YOICHI IIDA: Thank you very much.
So I see one more question can be taken and very quickly.
>> So this is not a question there is a comment from the point of end user. So in Kyoto IGF 2023, so it's very (away from mic) very wide range. Myself very impressed.
And the second point is good impact to local community. So at that time, people enjoy that, the ceremony, demonstration with the communities, and also so many young students from the Kyoto from the institute and also MIC, to the local MIC office and also Kyoto city itself.
So in this sense, IGF is very useful to expand recognition, wide range of all segments and also good impact to local society.
So the audience here, invite IGF to your country, to your home, very, very good, I believe. This is just my comment. Thank you.
>> YOICHI IIDA: Okay. Thank you very much for the comment. Actually inside the government of Japan, after we completed the Kyoto IGF, people were, you know, maybe a little bit some of the people were very much tired, of course. But for me and for some others, a kind of intoxicated and okay, let's invite IGF every five years.
I know some people (poor audio quality) I hope we can share this kind of experience and also our passion, engagement for safe, secure, open, interoperable Internet for the future generations and, you know, through the discussion we learned a lot. And to promote open Internet, we need more infrastructure, we need more skill, we need more cybersecurity abilities and whatever source. So on. And we need a lot of cooperation, not between different communities, but also across different countries, different people. And that is how we promote protect and promote this IGF mechanism for the future.
So thank you very much for the very good discussion and I hope the audience also enjoyed the discussion and learned a lot from this conversation and I hope most importantly we continue working together beyond next year.
So thank you very much, panelists. Please join me to thank the panelists, and thank you very much to all of you. Thank you. (Session ended at 11:45 a.m. AST)