Annual Meeting of the Arab Internet Governance Forum Opens

UN Undersecretary-General and ESCWA Executive Secretary Rima Khalaf today said that good internet governance, as good governance in general, was an important tool to achieve sustainable development goals in all of its aspects. Utilized wisely, information and communication technologies could contribute in the fight against poverty, unemployment and social exclusion. They could also create decent job opportunities for youth, women and marginalized groups in any community. The optimal use of technology should be ensured for this end and to spread knowledge and benefits. Arab countries have set strategies and policies that are essential to put ICT into practice, and have employed advanced means in e-government, cyber legislations and smart services. Nevertheless, a lot of work remains to be done in order to put these policies and strategies into implementation. Khalaf was speaking at the opening of the third Annual Meeting of the Arab Internet Governance Forum (AIGF-III), which closes on Thursday 27 November, at the Movenpick Hotel, Beirut. Also speaking at the opening session were Chief of the ICT Policies Section at ESCWA Ayman El-Sherbiny, Director of Telecom Planning and Services at the Egyptian National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA) Christine Arida, who also delivered the statement of NTRA Executive President Hisham Alayli, Director General of Ogero Telecom Abdulmunim Youssef, Director of the ESCWA Technology for Development Division Haidar Fraihat, Minister of State for Administrative Reform Nabil DeFreige, and Lebanese Minister of Telecommunications Boutros Harb. Media figure Mounir Al Hafi introduced speakers. El-Sherbiny In his statement, El-Sherbiny expressed commended the progress of the forum, and its status within the Arab and the international scene comparatively with other forums. The Arab forum was modeled after the international forum and held three large-scale meetings, which increased the community of stakeholders interested in governance in the Arab region. He added that the most important challenges are the uncertainty of the global forum for internet governance after 2015 and the international pressure to develop the global forum this year. The biggest challenge remains the limited participation of Arab governments in the forum. Arida In her statement, Arida commended the work of the AIGF, and the current session of the forum. Delivering the speech of Alayli, she noted that changes in the internet have never been faster than they are presently, with the Arab world at their heart. Pointing out some numbers, the statement compared the Arab region with the rest of the world. While internet traffic is set to triple between 2013 and 2018 by an average of 23 per cent annually, traffic in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region is expected to increase fivefold in the same time frame, which translates into a 38 percent increase. The statement also commended the work of the AIGF, speaking of the necessity of narrowing the digital divide and the importance of governance for development. Youssef For his part, Youssef noted that the Internet could be utilized as a main pillar in the coveted Arab economic integration, and may be among the most important contributors to the effective implementation of said integration. Speaking of the AIGF, he said it was one of the most important meetings on the regional level, with the participation of the League of Arab States (LAS) and under its umbrella, and in the presence of all concerned stakeholders, to discuss ways to develop the uses of the Internet. Youssef also laid out the status of the Internet in the Arab region, as compared to the rest of the world, saying that only 155 million out of the 3 billion Internet users are from the Arab region. He also revealed that 60 percent of the world population remain without Internet access. Freihat Freihat indicated that Technology for Development Division in ESCWA works on several issues related to policies and strategies of the information society and of the knowledge-based economy. The division as also worked on developing a global system for top level domains on the internet that uses Arabic letters. It has supported LAS on this issue, and has been supporting the Arabic digital content on the internet since 2003. DeFreige Minister De Freige said that internet governance is a hard and complicated process, as the players involved aren’t well-defined. Hence, it represents a new opportunity to come up with creative ways to tackle human, social and economic development that would reap benefits from the big possibilities offered by cross-border technologies. Harb Minister Harb concluded opening speeches, highlighting the position that Lebanon has been striving to maintain as a pioneer in freedom and privacy protection and a platform for thought and knowledge, despite security threats, the presidential vacuum and the emergence of terrorist groups. He said that sensitive information made public by Edward Snowden and the ensuing individual, community and state privacy infringement, have created major distrust among Internet users, operators and managing parties. He announced that the Lebanese Ministry of Telecommunications will be working the necessary study and conduct preliminary discussions to launch the Lebanese Internet Governance Forum, pledging that the ministry will continue to support the forum at ESCWA and follow up on post-2015 scenarios.