Regions prepare for Internet Governance Forum

  • 21 October 2008

Members of the International Chamber of Commerce and its Business Action to Support the Information Society (BASIS) initiative participated in a meeting this week in Strasbourg convened to focus on European stakeholders’ perspectives on main themes of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). The IGF is due to take place in Hyderabad, India in December.

The European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) enabled all stakeholders –governments, business, civil society, technical experts and international organizations – to openly discuss issues such as security, privacy and openness at this two-day event ahead of the global discussions at the IGF.

Speaking in the opening session, BASIS representative Peter Hellmonds, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at Nokia Siemens Networks said: “The underlying assumption in many business models is that the open, innovative and interoperable Internet as we know it today is going to remain more or less as it is. If this model changed, so would many business plans and earnings projections.”

Mr Hellmonds stated that the IGF had proven to be the right place for business and other stakeholders to express such opinions and to exchange views and experiences for the betterment of Internet governance.

EuroDIG serves to accelerate momentum in the run up to the IGF in December. ICC BASIS plays a salient role in such regional events raising awareness of the importance of the IGF, underscoring the necessity of business input in discussions on Internet governance policy issues at national, regional and global levels, and promoting a truly multistakeholder approach.

ICC-BASIS supports regional dialogues because they provide open platforms where issues such as Internet security, privacy and openness can be freely discussed.

“Informed policy approaches emerge from mulltistakeholder discussions and the involvement of business and relevant stakeholders in their development,” said ICC Senior Policy Manager, E-Business, IT, and Telecoms and Executive in charge of ICT Policy Ayesha Hassan. “Regional dialogues prior to the IGF will help strengthen communication between governments, business, technical experts and civil society, vital to a successful IGF.”

In August this year Laura Altamirano Lopez, Head of Commissions, ICC Mexico, participated in a regional dialogue for Latin America and the Caribbean. A regional meeting for East Africa will also take place in Kenya in October. Other ICC-BASIS members will participate in the EuroDIG including Francisco Mingorance, Business Software Alliance, and Ilkka Lakaniemi from Nokia Siemens Networks.