Business priorities for digital economy focus of ICC meeting
The biannual meeting of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Commission on the Digital Economy identified next steps on priority topics for business including Internet governance, privacy and cybersecurity and trade facilitation.
Gathering 34 business experts representing companies and organizations leading ICC’s policy work on information and communication technologies (ICTs), the biannual meeting identified next steps on priority topics for business including Internet governance, privacy and cybersecurity, trade facilitation, and linking these specific priorities to overall strategic ICC messages. The event took place at ICC global headquarters in Paris on 30 September – 1 October 2014.
Participating remotely, Joseph Alhadeff, Chair of the Commission, opened the meeting emphasizing the cross-cutting nature of digital economy issues and their relevance to all sectors of the economy.
In his opening remarks, ICC Secretary General John Danilovich emphasized the leadership role ICC plays in the Internet Governance Forum through the ICC Business Action to Support the Information Society (BASIS) on behalf of world business and the role of this commission in making this possible.
“While attending the last Internet Governance Forum in Turkey, I was able to see first-hand some of the issues carried by this commission and how, through your work and that of the BASIS initiative, ICC is able to lead global business engagement in the forum,” Mr Danilovich said.
“The unique and coveted position that ICC has managed to create for itself in the digital economy and Internet governance space owes much to the dedication and hard work of the people in this room,” he added.
The commission will also seek opportunities to inject an ICT vein into the 2015 Business 20 (B20) and G20 discussions, to be hosted by Turkey.
At the meeting, the ICC Secretariat announced the appointment of Elizabeth Thomas-Raynaud to lead the staff team as Project Director of BASIS and Senior Policy Manager, Digital Economy.
In the context of a strategic discussion on Internet governance, Mr Alhadeff and Eric Loeb, Chair of the commission’s Task Force on Internet and Telecommunications, suggested that the preparation of the commission’s Global Action Plan – a compilation of business positions on digital economy policies – should strive to highlight the relevance of these issues to all sectors, as well as their relevance to the work of other ICC commissions and top-line ICC messages.
On the second day of the meeting, the commission discussed avenues for cross-commission work such as ICC’s involvement on post-2015 Millennium Development Goals, and the ICC Commission on Trade and Investment policy statement on localization requirements. The discussions emphasized usefulness of the Global Action Plan for setting out principles to address trade-related digital economy issues and an overall approach to providing policy recommendations on digital economy-related issues in collaboration with other commissions.
The ICC Commission on the Digital Economy develops ICC policy on digital economy issues on behalf of users, providers and operators of information technology.
ICC launched the Business Action to Support the Information Society (BASIS) in 2006 after the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society. BASIS advocates policy positions prepared by the ICC Commission on the Digital Economy.
