Opening Session

Mr. Hamadoun Touré the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union summarized his 20 page long speech to a few bullet points where he urged the audience to work towards bridging the digital divide. He referred to it as “a monster” that was not only growing bigger but also growing faster. Whereas the ITU works on standardization, development issues and capacity building, it’s probably the latter that is the most important to join the Information Society. All countries need to work together to build a concrete and all inclusive Information Society.

This proposal was repeated throughout the session by various speakers. As Ms. Anriette Estherhuysen, the Executive Director of the Association for Progressive Communications stated access is vital; 5 billion people (so almost 80% of the world!) do not have access to the Internet regardless of the progress that has been made. So far Internet access has been promoted through wireless solutions, private sector involvement and various initiatives from the governments. Yet, these solutions have failed to reach out as required. The IGF needs to prioritize this issue.

But governance per se is not sufficient. According to Mr. Guy Sebban, spoke on on behalf of the business community from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), there has to be cooperation between the governments, businesses and other stakeholders to achieve this goal. All people should have access to the Internet, not just for business but also to enjoy the other various benefits of the Internet.

Ms. Lynn St. Amour, President and CEO of the Internet Society said that we have to think globally and act locally. Capacity building and local content development is of priority. The Internet can improve the quality of life for all future generations. However, there must be relevant content to encourage the use of the Internet among these people. Ms. Lynn stated that the IGF must encourage fundamental change at the local level and that there has to be support and development of the Internet at this level to ensure that the Internet is useful to all.

H.E. Ms. Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, Minster of Communications of South Africa pointed out that the existing challenge of eradicating poverty still remains critical and that we must consider how the Internet can be used to address under-development. If you don’t use it, you lose it. However, in Africa, the Internet can’t be used because the majority of the population does not even have access to the Internet! So what can the IGF do for those who don’t have access to the Internet? How can e-health, education and e-government services be delivered to those who can’t access the Internet? It is crucial we address this now. It is crucial for overall development.

H.E. Mr. Kiyoshi Mori, Vice-Minister for Policy Coordination from the Ministry of Communciationin Japan made a firm statement that stakeholders must cooperate with each other to deploy the Internet further even though it won’t be easy. However, learning and sharing experiences with each other at the IGF will certainly make the task less difficult. He also emphasized the importance of establishing proper policies such as the “e-japan” strategy in Japan and promoting competition policy in the telecommunications market which lead to the ITU identifying Japan as the country with the most inexpensive and fastest Internet access in the world.

Overall, there was consensus that ICTs and the Internet contribute to economic, cultural and social development of countries and that supportive, transparent, pro-competitive policies were required for their development. So it appears that there are a lot of expectations from the IGF this year with regards to access. Let’s see how it goes… : )