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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>> AHMED FARAG: Channel 4. Okay. Channel 4, and they will bring the headsets.
I think we are on channel 4. Thank you for attending this NRI collaborative session. Today we will focus on our regional experience on the governance of emerging technology. Let me first introduce myself. I'm Ahmed Farag. I'm of the north African IGF. I'm a member as well as the African IGF MAG.
Today we will talk about the new and emerging technology which hold both promises for the driving innovation, economic growth, and advancement on the global scale. However, the benefits of the offered are not, unfortunately, distributed with the developing countries often facing a barrier to efficiently utilizing these technologies compared with their developed counterparts.
The digital divide increase their existing inequality and hinders the ability of developing nations to fully participate in the digital economy and realize the potential benefits of technology progress. Through today's session we will exchange our experience, our practice with our different regional, national IGFs, and share together to focus on regarding ways of emerging technologies and govern (inaudible) of the society.
This session is co organized by about 40 (inaudible).
(Audio cutting out).
We will talk about RGF, Caribbean, RGF, China IGF, Colombia IGF, Dominican Republic IGF, Ecuador, IGF, okay, Ghana, Ghana youth, Hong Kong, Iraq, Italy, Lebanon, Libya, Maldives, Mozambique, North Africa, Pakistan, South Africa, Iraq, Sudan, Cambia, Uganda, youth of Colombia, youth of DRC, youth of IGF, and youth of Pakistan IGF. Forgive me if I missed in.
>> You missed Kyrgyzstan.
>> AHMED FARAG: The most important one. Sorry. Okay. Today we have our distinguished speakers. Let me start first with Ms. Renata Mielli. She's the coordinator of the steering committee in Brazil. Mr. Eliamani Laltaika, judge of the High Court of Tanzania. His Excellency Mr. Ano Jawhar, Minister of Transportation and Communication in Kurdistan region, Iraq, and Ms. Lin Lin, director of users and market research. Thank you for participating with us today.
Also, I would like to thank our online moderator and rapporteur Ms. Carol Ndosi, Ms. Aliko Matola, Umut Pajaro. Let's talk with Mr. Ano. He will talk with us about what emerging digital technology are priorities for the Kurdistan region and how you can see the wide gap between developed and developing countries.
>> ANO JAWHAR: Thank you very much, Mr. Ahmed. Thank you for all of you. I think my Arabic is better than your English. We are obliged to speak English today.
First of all, I want to extend my gratitude to the leadership and the people of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia for supporting and organizing such a world class event. I'm thankful for their hospitality and dedication to build bridges with all nations worldwide.
Also, I want to extend my gratitude to IGF Secretariat and to IGF Kurdistan region and Iraq, and his dedicated staff for their efforts. Thank you very much.
Kurdistan region, government and especially after the declaration of KRGs, digital transformation strategy and the vision of 2025 of His Excellency prime minister, which is a comprehensive strategy aimed at creating a digitally inclusive society. Through this initiative we are focused on advancing technologies such as AI, block chain, 4G, hopefully 5G, and IOT.
A cornerstone of our work has been the development of high speed infrastructure, including nationwide broadband expansion and the deployment of 4G and full preparement for 5G networks. This ensures that both urban and rural communities have equitable access to high speed internet and digital opportunities.
Our high speed internet network of fiberoptic cables has reached the villages, even the remote areas. The collaboration of the public sector with the private sector in Kurdistan region has.
Providing high speed internet connectivity which serves as a backbone for other digital innovations, connectivity ensures progress in sectors like education, health care, commerce, et cetera.
Government platforms, digitalizing public services is a strategic priority to enhance transparency, efficiency, and citizen engagement. Systems such as digital IDs, E payment platforms, and service portals aimed to streamline bureaucracies processes.
Artificial intelligence and data analytics is being prioritized for its potential to optimize urban planning, traffic management, and public safety. Big data will drive, inform policy decision and develop strategies, but we must confess that we are still in our very early stages.
Cybersecurity and digital safety, holding robust cybersecurity infrastructure is essential to secure digital system and protect citizens and businesses from emerging threats. There is an excellent cooperation between private sector and public sector alongside the law enforcement agencies in this matter.
Smart infrastructure and IOT, internet of things, integrating IOT in transportation, logistics, and public utilities will facilitate smart urban management and reduce inefficiencies. Even this sector is brand new to Kurdistan and Iraq, but efforts are ongoing in this regard. Thank you.
>> AHMED FARAG: Thank you, Minister. Now we will go to Ms. Renata. She will talk with us about the strategic how strategies can be implemented to ensure equal access and responsible governance of the new and emerging technology in the countries with limited resources and infrastructure.
>> RENATA MIELLI: Thank you very much. Thank you for the invitation, for being here to discuss this important theme. I believe we are at a particularly challenged moment to discuss the governance of emerging technologies, such as AI, IOT, technologies, among others.
My first point is that it would be a mistake to start building governance structures for each type of technology because if you want to be inclusive, if you want to be all the stakeholders having voice in the structures of the governance of all this kind of technology, if we fragmented this for each kind of technology, we are difficulting the participation and the incidents or all the stakeholders in this process. In this regard, we made significant progress at Net + 10 in Brazil and San Paolo in April by seeking to define a new framework for the scope of the governance, such as internet governance and digital policies in emerging technologies. Why not? In practice, this is what we have been doing for years by including a variety of workshops and sessions that address this topic and discussions of both here in the IGF and the regional forums.
In Brazil our regional forum, the Brazilian Internet Forum, are discussing this kind of new technologies in terms of governance and how to build safe, secure interest for new technologies for the good of people since, I don't know since the beginning of our IGF.
Well, in this regard we also the CGI.PR are investing knowledge and investments in terms of money in trying to address the gap in knowledge and innovation about AI. We have five research centers for artificial intelligence. We had seven sessions discussing this topic that lasted two editions of our Brazil edition of IGF.
We also lead discussions on exacts (inaudible).
(Silence).
about the necessity of diversity in multi language systems of AI. In our CGI.PR we are also host of the Brazilian Authority of Artificial Intelligence bring into the CGI the discussion on the development and employment and use of AI in Brazil.
Besides another variable, other activities is the impact of artificial intelligence on the web led by alongside other (inaudible).
technology, sovereign chain, sustainability. That have the whole to promote multistakeholder discussions and analysis of public policies focused on the development of emerging technologies, applications, and innovations emphasizing their impact on digital sovereignty and autonomy, sustainability in Brazil, economic development.
We are proposing guidelines. We are going to propose guidelines, plans, and actions to encourage the development and adoption of local technology infrastructure and applications as well as reducing dependence on foreign platforms and solutions. And facilitated debate on the impact of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, Cloud computing, and IOT devices and propose solutions to minimize energy and resource consumptions.
For now we are partnering between academia, government, and private sector to encourage research and development of emerging technologies and software/hardware solutions. This approach aims to promote national technology production and Brazil's global competitiveness and also collaboration with other countries in this regard.
Monitored global and regional and the development of emerging technologies and their applications identifying opportunities and risks for Brazil and propose mitigation measures to safeguard the technological environmental sustainability. That's it. Thank you very much.
>> AHMED FARAG: Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and updates, and let me now move to Mr. Eliamani, the High Court judge in Tanzania. How can the framework keep pace with the rapid evolution of the emerging technology, such as AI, block chain, and quantum computing?
>> ELIAMANI LALTAIKA: Okay. Thank you very much, facilitator. Like itself introduced, my name is Eliamani Laltaika. Apart from being a judge, I'm actually an academic. I teach at the African institution of science and technology. That's what I was doing before Her Excellency, president, president of our country, appointed me a judge. Many people now are forgetting that I was a teacher before. In many capacities I'm invited as a former professor.
I will center not only as a judge, but also as an academic, and I will give the interventions we are doing first from the academic point of view and second from the legal point of view. You.
First, we know that bringing it to African development is to bring it to the young people through science. Africa has invested heavily in STEM, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The Nelson Mandela Foundation has assisted Africa to establish four centers of Excellency in regions (inaudible). There are four universities spread across Africa. In Nigeria, in Tanzania, in Wagadugo and in South Africa. These are all named after Nelson Mandela, and they are pioneered. They are really cutting edge universities when it comes to research.
So far Nelson Mandela institution of science and technology, AI has been used in agriculture. Nowadays it is very easy to predict the harvest. It is very easy to just get a lift put on your phone to know which kind of medicine you need or which kind of fertilizer is needed.
Artificial intelligence has been used to improve health, access to health. Students of the Nelson Mandela institution developed a number of apps that assist with many detecting sicknesses and what time to reach to the hospital. Artificial intelligence has also been used to count one life and get the real number of problem animals. It has also been used to detect when a Lion is about to come to a village or not, and that has brought about safety.
Now legally, African Union has its own mandate after establishing in 2000 an instrument establishing the African Union sorry the African Union has pioneered laws that address emerging technologies.
For example, the Malaba Convention was adopted by the African Union to protect data and personal data protection even before this was very common. At the moment we are launching a center for artificial intelligence like we had yesterday from the United Nations Commission for Africa that there are deliberate efforts to ensure that such technology goes down. How do we quickly enact a law to address and to keep pace with emerging technology? The formula is pest. Like the honorable minister from Kurdistan has said, connectivity is everything. If you get connectivity, the internet is okay. That is when you can now say you want block chain, you want internet of things, you want so first is connectivity.
Now, our biggest deterrent (inaudible). You can see that a lot of people are coming to assist us in getting a law that has been used in some country and customize it with our own and it moves on.
Another way that we use is first to sensitize the politicians. Like I said, the formula pest. P stands for political. If politicians are well indicated, they know that this is block chain. We need this block chain in order to enable women to access finances. We want to empower women to use their cell phone to access bank services. They will agree to enact a law.
E is economic. We must tell them that you have the power to generate more money through data than even agriculture. For example, in Tanzania now we have a law to sell spectrum, and we are putting spectrum or frequencies on the market. People come and say, I need to buy frequency in order to run my radio or my television, and they pay the government more money than farmers. So we tell them that economically it is important.
S is social. We tell that socially you can reduce women empowerment, crime against women. If you use these technologies, you will stop women oppressing women.
T is technology. This technology does not replace people. The minister will tell you that they don't like technology for massive unemployment. A politician doesn't want to hear that to become unemployed, so we want to balance between employing people and adopting technologies.
>> AHMED FARAG: Now we will go to Ms. Lin Lin. Let me ask you, Ms. Lin, based on your experience on user and market researcher, what can be established to facilitate knowledge exchange and trust building initiative between developed and developing countries? The floor is yours.
>> LIN LIN: Thank you. I think it's to set up joint laboratory just like AI joint laboratory to bridging the AI divide. There are many aspects to consider when such an actor joins the laboratory. First, all the partners need to make clear their common goals. Such questions as do we focus on the research and the breakthrough of specific technologies or in promoting and improving the existing experience.
Second, give full opportunity for the full advantage. For example, leading (inaudible). While local enterprises can make use for their market inside advantages in labor costs.
Reasonable cooperation includes the (?) And resource improved in sharing them and results in transformation and so on to guarantee the rights of all in the joint laboratory.
China has signed a deal with Indonesia group to establish an AI joint laboratory. The benefits of setting up a joint laboratory is, well, for one thing it can speed up the spread and trust of technology knowledge a lot. Secondly, advanced countries help gain plenty of (inaudible) can you hear? Gain plenty of experience in computing power, data, and many other aspects. With joint laboratories this experience can be passed on to other countries. There are more direct and efficient way.
For another it was international research cooperation and innovation. Joint laboratories unite force from all walks of life, such as research institutes and universities in different countries. It makes the governance of research among countries. Thank you.
>> AHMED FARAG: Now, let me go back to Mr. Ano, and I would like to ask him about how can governments and private sectors and all stakeholders, actually, cooperate to ensure the transparency in the governance of emerging technology? I appreciate if you can keep answer in three minutes. Thank you so much.
>> AHMED FARAG: (Inaudible) civil society. Collaboration should focus on one. Developing inclusive policy framework. Governments must establish clear, inclusive, regulatory framework that defines the ethical use of technologies. These frameworks should include privacy concerns and for things like AI and block chain.
Two, public/private partnerships. PPPs. That's my skillful academic Kurdistan is a positive example, as I mentioned. The gap that is really created is that governments in developing countries interfere in the market and that leads to the suffocation of the private sector.
But there is an exception. PPP policy is a priority. We have one example. They just manufactured me that they have (inaudible) factors. It's the best operators for providing internet, and also, they are working to establishing a tier 4 data center that spans over 12,500 square meters. This is the policy of Kurdistan region and the policy of the Prime Minister for the collaboration between private sector and leveraging technology for transparency. Emerging technologies, such as block chain and AI monitoring system, can improve transparency by reducing corruption, automating processes, and ensuring accurate tracking of public funds and services.
Five, multistakeholder dialogue establishing forums for regular dialogue among governments, tech developers, civil society, and academia can ensure that all voices be heard. This dialogue should be prioritized aligning innovation with ethical principles and sustainable development goals. In this we depend on our young creative partners in Kurdistan, such as the IGF Kurdistan Group (inaudible), Tableau and Akhmed and their colleagues.
>> AHMED FARAG: Thank you so much. Let's go back to Ms. Renata, and I will ask her about how are the new emerging technology can be governed in different regions, and what is the role of regional and international organization? What is the role that we can play to assure a fair governance of this technology?
>> RENATA MIELLI: Thank you. Are you listen? Okay. Thank you very much. As I said before, I think we have to find a way, first of all, to connect all this space because we need to be more collaborative, to be more strengthening in our regional IGFs in terms of how we can address, discuss, and achieve consensus about core values that have taken into account when we are talking about governance of emerging technologies.
Of course, we need to have important focus on that data governance because all these technologies are using our data, and we have to build transparency. You have to build a trustworthy environment in the way (inaudible).
(Silence).
and 5G and others, block chain in a safe, secure way because this is in the center of the agenda. I think government has a pivotal role in this regard because the governance is a space to build consensus and to deliver outcomes pointing the very important issues, but governments have the responsibility to transform this kind of recommendations into laws and regulation.
So I think that is the role of the IGF's, regional IGFs, and the government. Be a space where everybody can stay together to talk about these things, taking to the trying to achieve something that is in the best of the public interest.
>> AHMED FARAG: Now I'm back to Mr. Eliamani. How can policy and decision making make the regulation and laws between technology progress and the end user safety? There are always benefits and challenges and risks. How can we make this balance?
>> ELIAMANI LALTAIKA: Thank you very much. First is to subscribe to international standards. No country is an island. So if we say ITU, International Telecommunication Union has said this is the standard for radio receivers, we should all follow. That is how we can protect our consumers.
Secondly, we very much need to train our people. I am so much for training. I don't know if I were not a judge, I was probably going to be appointed a Minister of Education. No, I'm joking. I believe so much in empowering, if taking young people to study engineering in Europe, in America, and in Arab countries. They will build the next generation of our scientists.
Also, coming to laws, we need laws to be there. For example, I want to talk about the counterfeit. Counterfeits, if you don't have laws in your country, the market is growing. Someone will come and sell you very cheap things, but they are just dumping you think someone is giving you computers for free for schools, but looking closely this is which cannot be dumped in Europe. They pretend they are giving an NGO in your country, and then you bring them, and they become hazard to the health of your people. So you need very strict laws, including international conventions to protect the people.
For us in the court we don't take things for jokes when it comes to protecting the health and the environment much the people. We want laws which are very restrictive. It they are not strict enough, I can borrow judgment from Iraq, from Pakistan, from USA which has explained the concept about human rights and the environment and use it to make sure that my government also enacts laws. We should not use poverty as an excuse to raise the standards of safety of the consumer and our people. Thank you.
>> AHMED FARAG: Now I will go back to Ms. Lin Lin, and I will ask her about how can we ensure the responsible and end user centric deployment of emerging technology, and what is the role of the end user in this process?
>> LIN LIN: Okay. I think to answer this question we know now that to set up a user centric deployment, it's a problem. First, it calls for the engagement of multiple stakeholders and their possession of consensus. At the same time in a national organization should play a leading role in we're in different countries and stakeholders in the formulation of standards and establish globally unified ethical and technical standards. Such is key (inaudible) security and the privacy protection.
Then the second focus is on the construction of the government system. At the national level it's significant to formulate a relevant policies, laws, and frameworks while retaining flexibility.
Additionally, a professional risk assessment should be built. Promote an enterprises to take social responsibility. In the process report back, and enterprises should revolve around user needs, expectations, and behaviors, and develop policies to protect users' rights. This should include regulations on the legal use of (inaudible) quality control.
Furthermore, it's indispensable to get public feedback. Through those channels we can correct users' openings and suggestions on the application of emerging technologies and basic knowledge and risks to users. Thank you.
>> AHMED FARAG: Thank you so much. Now I would like to go to the floor. This is the interactive part of the session. The fun part. The part that you are weighing the most important thing that you are sharing with us, your experience or sharing with us your question for our panelists.
So let me give you the floor. If you have anything that you would like to share about your experience in your region, subregion, national. Yes, please.
>> Hello. I am here as a representative of one of the leading telecom comes in our region, Kurdistan region, northern of Iraq. We are providing one of the latest services of technology, 4G advanced. As His Excellency, Mr. Ano, mentioned that we are now the leaders leader of the telecom services in our region by net zero. We continue to maybe we can provide the new technology, such as 5G in our region.
Also, as His Excellency mentioned, we as a telecom has we are working on to produce a tier 4 data center, which is for the first time in Middle East. This data center is 12,500 square meters, which is one of the biggest in the area. We can not only provide international telecommunications, which are in this field. We really are proud of what we are doing at the moment. As I said, we keep continuing for the best and providing the cutting edge technologies, of course, by using His Excellency's support and collecting our private sector for the public which really helps and shows the way that our company wants to provide the services to that area. Thank you so much.
>> AHMED FARAG: Thank you so much for sharing this information with us. Thank you very much. Now we go to first chair in the region. .
>> (Inaudible) such activities and initiatives that we heard. I will talk from the start and where we reach right now, and let me take this opportunity to announce that we are going to at our next meeting on the 25th and 26th of February. This is where the next (inaudible).
The nature of our activity, it's a mix between capacity building, taking initiatives, facilitating policy making, and really bringing the community and all stakeholders together. (Inaudible).
From your experience and from how you analyze development, what do you see specifically talking about analyze for all the IGFs and other global IGF, is it more in facilitating policymakers, policy making, or more into capacity building or taking initiative, or we need to focus on bringing the community or the stakeholders together? What do you think we should more focus or we should more put our efforts for the diverse activity? It's just a hypothetical question.
>> ELIAMANI LALTAIKA: Thank you very much. From the perspective of Tanzania, for us we very much focus on capacity building, but recently we have started initiatives to bridge the gap between the poor and the not so poor, the rural and the urban to bring connection.
Our president of ISOC won an award and also got projects to turn into secondary schools in very, very rural areas. We are not yet good in policy influence. We are more in capacity building and also projects that empower community at grassroots.
>> RENATA MIELLI: Thank you for the question. I think in Brazil I will talk about the regional, like IGF too, but in Brazil we are focusing in capacity building, but also in sharing perspectives and seeking for how to understand the different approach of each sector regarding specific and important topics of regulation of artificial intelligence, for example. We are dealing with this in our IGF regional IGF. Besides, we don't use our IGF to do policy making, but at the end of the day all of the discussions we have has an impact on policy making not only the regional IGF, but the sessions we have in terms of we have data protection seminar, for example. All the discussions we made for 15 years builds the community, private sector, government, civil society, and academia for data protection in Brazil. I think these two things walk together hand by hand.
Regarding the regional IGF, the Latin America IGF I think we are in this moment focused more on capacity building. I am certain that we are going to move for the next level briefly. Thank you.
>> ANO JAWHAR: (Speaking non English).
With our IGF in Iraq and in Kurdistan region and also the Middle East and Arabic IGF, we are also more focusing on capacity building and also for regulations. What I can do, as I mentioned, there are some difficulties in our countries and not specifically to Kurdistan region, but to other parts of our country, about what's the role the main role of government? Is it regulation or operation?
As our partners mentioned, in our region it's more government going toward regulation than operation giving private sector companies, such as First Link, Dell, 7 net layers, CERT, and others companies (inaudible).
(Silence) the other implications. We need IGFs, national and international IGFs. Their role is very important. Thank you.
>> AHMED FARAG: Now I will give the floor to our colleague from the internet online participation.
>> CAROL NDOSI: Questions here. We have a couple of questions here. (Inaudible).
Oh, sorry. We have a couple of questions here, and this is not it's Judith Hellerstein. First, from Eyob in Ethiopia who is interested in the strategy to advance 5G in Africa, and also from Tawhid, he was interested in finding out how geopolitical tensions impact the safeguarding of critical infrastructure beyond borders. And if we could add one more, which you could choose also, do you have any recommendations for local and regional IGFs to better follow the themes from policymakers?
>> AHMED FARAG: Thank you so much.
>> ELIAMANI LALTAIKA: Like I said, in Africa, our biggest is PPP. I'm happy that the minister is here. It's a wonderful picture. I think our minister should learn from you that you are doing practically. You can ensure that these other guys that are doing it. That is one. We are inviting everybody.
I want to be specific to my country. Last week our president, Dr. Samir, made a shuffle to our cabinet, and she said specifically to the minister of communication that I'm reducing information or journalism issues in your ministry to allow you to focus on ICT, so it is a whole ministry on ICT. The minister is here. I think you'll see him around. He has been tasked by our president to explore every possible means to bring us cutting edge technology, G5, block chain, or, anything that will cut apart us. I know the minister is a young lawyer, very energetic. If he comes and rubs shoulders with fellow minister here, I'm sure something will happen. We may probably be visited by my brother there to take us to G5. Thank you very much.
>> ANO JAWHAR: 5G. By the way, you have an open invitation to Kurdistan.
>> ELIAMANI LALTAIKA: Thank you.
>> ANO JAWHAR: All of you. We still have different perspectives. Kurdistan region government believes that the government must be more pro regulation. This is not the case with our partners in Baghdad. In Kurdistan region we are ready for deployment of 5G technologies since two years ago, but unfortunately, we are banned from deploying 5G technology because of regulation from the government in Baghdad.
Even this is not a constitutional decision, but constitution of Iraq does not give the authority of this field only to the federal government. What is now known to us is that there is a federal decision by the federal government for creating the fourth company of telecommunication and it will be run by the government, which is really 100 percent different from other perspective in Kurdistan region.
In Kurdistan region we support, we empower to have big, powerful private sector with powerful small public sector that is regulating and supervising the private sector. Still we are negotiating that with our colleagues in Baghdad.
>> AHMED FARAG: (Inaudible).
>> RENATA MIELLI: Hello. Just about the question that mentions the geopolitical tension and how can we as internet governance, digital governance and governance of emerging technologies, how we deal with this context. I think, first of all, we have to find a way to build some recommendations regarding these aspects in this kind of space like IGF. That's maybe a starting point about how we build some common ground and framework to bring to our government and to multilateral spaces regarding the risks and the opportunities in terms of regulation and development, use of these technologies.
And I think we have our own problems in our countries. Each country has his particularities in terms of political and cultural and social aspects, and we have to have wisdom in how to use this common ground we build together and to in the benefit of a good best practice and use of this kind of new technologies.
>> Can you hear me? Good? Thank you so much, everyone, for the excellent presentations, and I think it was a very good opportunity for everyone to share experiences, and we have been learning actually from other contexts that there will be a lot of lessons learned to incorporate into our system as well.
I had one question to His Excellency, Mr. Ano, regarding the promoting accountability for the companies like Meta, TikTok, for example, that they usually run the platforms remotely because they have regional offices over sighting the operations in Iraq.
Now, the latest data that the percentage of Iraqis having access to internet is 70 percent with 65 percent, like around that number, using social media. So there are a lot of issues with content moderation. There are a lot of issues with fact checking and all those platforms somehow, especially for Kurdish language, which is our language in Kurdistan region. I wanted to ask His Excellency how he is envisioning the promotion of accountability in the future and engaging them in addition to the federal government to promote that in the future? Thank you.
>> AHMED FARAG: Thank you very much.
>> ANO JAWHAR: Thank you. Thanks to our colleagues at IGF Kurdistan and Iraq, our national IGF and his colleagues, we had a very productive meeting with representatives, with regional representatives, of TikTok. As they informed me approximately 25 million users, active users, in Iraq and in Kurdistan region.
I asked them to visit Kurdistan region and to start negotiations with our law enforcement agencies and also with the ministry in order to address what the challenges that you mentioned. So, of course, it's important to speak, to have relations with the platforms of social media in order to protect the challenges to protect our people, the privacy of our people, and also to address the challenges that's coming with the spread usage of social media.
Thank you.
>> AHMED FARAG: Thank you so much. Now okay.
>> Now I want to ask a question from the different regions that are sitting there for the presentation. First of all, thanks for this great presentation.
So my question is more about internal relation between health and the real internet, let's say, the 4G because now I'm not talking about the 5G because it's not All around the world, so I believe auto that now it's been ten years 4G technology is working around the world. From our, let's say, country, we are facing some problems that some people thinking that this type of technology, this type of frequency are not good for their health. So I want to know if this is the same case in our regions, if it's possible that one of them if any of them has seen any of these situations in their region?
>> AHMED FARAG: Thank you so much. For all different regions here.
>> RENATA MIELLI: Well, I think it's important to understand the 5G is important infrastructure to make to have more quality in regards to access the digital applications and even the internet and connecting all these devices.
I think it's central, and we have to understand the role of because in the Brazilian perspective, I need to say that we have a structure, a governance structure, that we have an agency who deal with the infrastructure and telecom infrastructure, and we have another body to discuss what have been in the surface of the infrastructure. So I think this is a very important thing. Thank you, but we are now we are we now we are developing this 5G and this technology, but in case of the internet governance we don't deal with this a lot in Brazil.
>> ELIAMANI LALTAIKA: Like you said, 4G is the current available resource really, and for us we only get to hear about 5G from investors and big companies, telecommunication companies. Otherwise, 4G is quite enough for middle income companies, for academics, for everyone. So the role of attracting 5G does not affect most of Africa so much because even 4G is not well spread.
So we are waiting, but we are hoping that there will be justice, the geopolitics will calm so that this device or these facilities are deployed everywhere. It's sort of becoming an essential facility. So every community from Kurdistan to Botswana, everybody should be freely able to deploy 5G and continue with development. That's what I wish that the international community starts looking at internet as essential facility for human development and not for some patches because that will increase the depth between the point that we will concentrate powers in one area, so I'm hoping that future IGFs will discuss this so that we can have equity.
>> ANO JAWHAR: As to government we don't look to 5G as a luxury. We look to it as a necessity. Our people, Kurdistan region people deserve to have 5G internet for transportation and many other services in Kurdistan region.
So what we think after good consideration with the Ministry of Health, yes, it is safe to deploy 5G in Kurdistan because our people deserve to have 5G connectivity in Kurdistan. That's the legal and the official position of our ministry. Thank you.
>> LIN LIN: Okay. In China I think this is not typical problem because we have to provide 5G service with five years to the customer. I think nobody concerned about their health for 5G, so I don't think it's a typical problem.
This topic discussed in ITOD department is a topic. We have some research to support to input to their ITOD department.
>> ANO JAWHAR: You need to get her contact information and get the reports, please.
>> AHMED FARAG: We have three more questions. One, two, three. Okay.
>> Thank you, Ahmed. I come from Benin. I come from department of the finance in Benin. For me, when we talk about emerging technology, I don't know if it is normal to talk about 4G. 4G for me is (inaudible). We need to talk about 6G. 6G for me is emerging technology. Not five. 6G is our emerging technology. We need it for precision. We need today to have our women being very freely for us. When I have some problem with my doctors or school. In school, in hospital, in agriculture, I need precision in everything I need to do with technology. Is it normal to have agriculture like we are doing since 100 before now. You don't know. We need today technology we have to do for other women today. It's not for tomorrow. It's for today. Please call our technology to be available for every person in developing country, developed country today, not for tomorrow.
>> AHMED FARAG: Thank you so much.
>> This is more comment. This is about the question. (Inaudible) IGF in Latin America.
(Silence).
like you said, coming together and it has an impact that it's making and despite, we are not (inaudible). I think it has an impact. Something that is not just what we are speaking. Each country have a different build of the technology. Now we have 4G and then 5G. We are thinking in 6G. I think that the IGF in each country, in each region have that capacity for some technology.
What we want to discuss about technology, where that technology is affecting our country. Then the countries and in the (inaudible) because there is an opportunity to discuss what is important for each space. Thank you.
>> (Inaudible) it's more a comment than a question. The advantage of having such platforms and our point of view the local IGF was a tool just not just for the capacity building of the campaigns regarding the emerging technologies, but it was the platform for making the multistakeholders the policy process. We have a lot of offices, so we had to have this platform to make the process to the stakeholders. Thank you.
>> (Inaudible) I just want to talk about the context of Africa. Yes, a number of things have happened in our continent. Looking at way back where we started. Let me just see. That's from 2011 up to now there has been a lot of improvement. We need to do more. IGF has contributed a lot within the continent of Africa. Now, we know how technology is growing very fast. Then we also have to when we add that to that changes, so to that changes, the first thing we need to be doing is to look at our educational sector. That is where I think transformation should begin from the next generations that are coming from the educational sector. We need to have a kind of programs, syllabus updates. That when students are coming up from the universities or schools and then are to the workforce, that transfer of knowledge is there. When I get into that workforce, the changes that we are looking for will happen. Now, the other side of it is the regulations and all of that. Now we have emerging technologies coming. Government in our part of the world are quick to formulate rules and regulations and all of that. Also, sometimes I tend to forget about the innovation part of that technology that is coming. . Government can just look at that particular technology that is coming. Look at it carefully and see which part of that needs to be regulated. If you take AI, for example, privacy concerns is one. We all know we have our cultural we have our cultural concerns and all of that, so those are the areas government can look at. Now, things of national security. Those are the areas that government can look at and begin to think, okay, let's regulate. Then those aspects need to go to the community should go to the community to promote innovation and all of that.
>> AHMED FARAG: Thank you so much. Now we will take our last one.
>> Thank you so much. I'm a member of the Canadian IGF. Also long time member of the Arab IGF. From a Canadian perspective and it could be something to get the input from the panel on. We have seen the IGF community quite interested in having a say in policy proposed policies that the government, federal government, intends to put together. For example, regarding AI governance. There is already government structure in place, but how will this impact the internet, how this can be deployed, what are the ramifications? It's something that we have been discussing with experts in Kenyan IGF meetings for the last two and a half years, two, three years. The recent framework on online harms, which is an area to try to regulate and minimize affect on content on social media and online in general regarding child abuse, terrorism, pornography, and so on is regulation being proposed in parliament? IGF is where experts convene. We invite Parliamentarians and sometimes ministers to have open conversation. Youth IGF in Canada recently also invited the Minister of Justice to come. He's a champion of the Online Harms Bill to come and discuss the details and how we can collaborate and perhaps getting the concerns from civil society, from academia, from the private sector addressed. This kind of forum, is it something that is acceptable or can be promoted for the communities in the prospective countries? This would be a question. Thank you.
>> AHMED FARAG: Now we will give the floor. 30 seconds.
>> ANO JAWHAR: I will give you my 30 second.
>> I'm going to share more from the session.
>> LIN LIN: I hope more in this IGF. Thank you.
>> ELIAMANI LALTAIKA: Let's work together, and welcome for Africa IGF next year.
>> RENATA MIELLI: I appreciate. I completely agree, and the Canadian, yes, the regional IGFs needs to be all these things together, but it's each country's reality to regional reality. That's the wisdom we have to share with each other. There is no model. I think that's the message. There is guidelines, but there is no model that fits all. That's it. Thank you.
>> ANO JAWHAR: To sum up, the magical word is collaboration and mutual understanding and it must always be one situation.
>> AHMED FARAG: Thank you so much. Yes, indeed, I think the cooperation between all the stakeholder, okay, is the keyword and keep the dialogue channels between all stakeholders. It will be the only exit door for any situation that we are facing.
Thank you so much. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for attending.