Constance Bommelaer, Director, Public Polic, Internet Society
7-8 August, St. Petersburg
Mr. Chairman, Honorable Ministers, Excellencies, distinguished delegates:
It is a great pleasure for the Internet Society to be here, in St Petersburg, for the 9th Telecommunications and Information Ministerial Meeting.
We would like to thank the Russian Federation, all member economies, the APEC Secretariat and all observers who have contributed to bringing us together today.
We welcome the commitment of APEC economies to cooperate at the international level. At this point in time, it is critical to take into account new economic, social and technological developments – such as the Internet and the digital revolution.
ISOC is a nonprofit organization founded in 1992. Its mission is to facilitate open development of standards, protocols, and the technical infrastructure of the Internet. ISOC also supports education and public policy development, especially in developing countries.
Or organization is embedded in a fabric of organizations forming the Internet technical community, such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Regional Internet Registries. We work with governments, national and international organizations, civil society and the private sector to pursue our objectives in a collaborative and inclusive manner.
As we heard from many different speakers in the technical forum, the Internet is successful in large part due to its unique model:
- Shared global ownership,
- Collaborative engagement models,
- Permission-less innovation,
- Development based on open standards (and those standards being openly developed),
- Key principles such as end-to-end and freely accessible public processes for technology and policy development.
Together, these elements have become known as the “Internet Model”. It relies on collaboration and processes that are local, bottom-up and accessible to individuals around the world, whether they be from academia, research, governments, business, or civil society. The openness and transparency of the Internet’s technical development and its associated policy development processes, are intrinsic to the success of the Internet itself, and to maintaining this single, interoperable system of networks – the global Internet. This openness and accessibility drives much of the value of and in the Internet.
As APEC economies elaborate their policy frameworks, we invite them to engage with all stakeholders to ensure that the human capacities that are enabled by the Internet are preserved.
Specifically, we encourage the APEC economies to fuel creativity by:
- Promoting universal access and encouraging innovation and ongoing development of the Internet by supporting research programs and infrastructure deployment.
- Partnering with all stakeholders to help to develop ICT skills.
- Enabling private sector investment and competitive innovation, which are essential components of an effective and efficient Internet policy framework.
- Opposing undue governmental or non-governmental restrictions on the evolution and use of Internet technology.
- Defending and promoting standards or practices that allow all citizens to use the full range of Internet applications to innovate, to create and to expand economic opportunities.
Together, we can join efforts to foster Internet access and use, online innovation, investment, competition, and the free flow of information across borders.
Thank you very much.