Note: The following is the output of the real-time captioning taken during Fourth Meeting of the IGF, in Sharm El sheikh. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the session, but should not be treated as an authoritative record. OPENING CEREMONY 15 November 2009 IGF Meeting Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt >> Ladies and gentlemen, please have your seats. Ladies and gentlemen, please have your seats. Ladies and gentlemen, would you take your seats, please. We need to start and the prime minister will be arriving in the hall in a few minutes. Kindly be seated. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the prime minister of Egypt. Please welcome the prime minister. [Applause] >>NERMINE EL SAADANY: Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you all in Sharm El Sheikh, the City of Peace. I'm pleased to welcome Mr. Sha Zukang, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs to give his keynote speech. Mr. Sha, you have the floor. [Applause] >>MR. SHA ZUKANG: Excellency Mr. Prime minister, excellency minister, my colleague Nitin Desai, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I'm delighted to be here with you in Sharm El Sheikh for the 4th meeting of the Internet Governance Forum. I would like to thank the government and the people of the Arabic republic of Egypt for their warm welcome and generous hospitality. We are gathered here at the IGF to address important public policy issues related to the governance of the Internet. It is clear that we share a common understanding as we progress in bridging the digital gap and building the foundation for our emerging formation and knowledgeable society. The way we deal with the Internet will become increasingly important. Therefore, the overarching theme for our meeting, "Internet Governance - Creating Opportunities for All," is timely and appropriate. It will allow us to reexamine and reflect upon the main theme of the IGF, "Access, diversity, openness, security, and critical Internet resources." Since the time this powerful tool for development was first introduced to the world by the United States, which has continued to lead the world in innovations in ICT and Internet applications, the Internet has brought profound changes. Even in the last five years during the time of IGF, the Internet has continued to evolve every single day, and at a very fast pace. The number of people going online has surpassed 1 1/2 billion, a quarter of the world's population. Ever increasing members are opting for hyped Internet access with fixed broadband subscribers more than tripling from 150 million in 2004 to an estimated 500 million by the end of 2009, according to ITU. There are now 4.6 billion mobile cellular subscribers around the world, some 600 million of them are broadband subscribers. Underscoring the huge potential of mobile Internet around the world. Though the digital divide is wide, with African and Arab states lagging behind Europe, Asia, and the Americas, gains are being made. In 2005, more than 50% of the people in developed regions were using the Internet, compared to 9% in developing regions, and only 1% in least developed countries. By the year 2009, the number of people connecting in developing countries had expanded by an impressive 475 million to 17.5%, and by 4 million to 1.5%, while Internet penetration in developed regions increased to 64%. Against this backdrop of rapidly changing Internet demographics, there are questions about how best to manage critical resources, expand access, and fully integrate all the world's languages. These issues and other aspects of the Internet governance must be addressed for the sake of development, especially in light of 2015 target of achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The IGF serves to first dialogue by giving voice to a wide range of views. As you know, the IGF brings together diverse cultures, the nongovernmental Internet community with its tradition of informal bottom-up decision-making, the dynamism and inventive spirit of the private sector, the networked world of advocacy groups that make up civil society, and the politically sensitive world of governments and intergovernmental organizations. The IGF works through voluntary cooperation, not legal compulsion. IGF participants come here to discuss, to exchange information, and to share best practices with each other. While the IGF may not have decision-making abilities, it informs, and it inspires those who do. It can identify challenges and issues of concern, issues that may need to be tackled through formal processes. The IGF, thus, provides a neutral space where all actors have a chance to express their views, and to be heard, and to create a momentum for mobilizing decisions and actions. In this dialogue, the voice of the developing countries must be heard. Good and a democratic Internet governance is a means of achieving development for all. I would like to invite each of you, regardless of country, role, or status, to express your views, to make yourselves heard, and understood, and to understand the views of others in the spirit of inclusion and open debate. This brings me to a critical decision that we will have to make about the future of IGF. The World Summit on the Information Society recognized that the Internet needed new ways of addressing governance issues. Heads of state and government gathered in Tunisia in 2005, carefully considered some of the finding principles of the Internet. From this perspective, they decided to ask the Secretary-General of the United Nations to convene a new multistakeholder platform to discuss public policy issues related to Internet governance. What we now know as the Internet Governance Forum. At its inception, the IGF was given provisional life span of five years. The Tunisia agenda specifically called on the Secretary-General -- I quote -- "to examine the desirability of the continuation of the forum in formal consultations with forum participants within five years of its creation, and to make recommendations to the U.N. membership in this regard." End of quote. These important consultations will be held at this meeting in Sharm El Sheikh later this week. I encourage you to participate fully in these meetings and to share your views. If you believe the forum is valuable, I would encourage you to say so, and tell us in what ways. If you believe it can be improved, I would encourage you to say that, too. And tell us how. If you believe that IGF has fulfilled its purpose, I would encourage you to speak out against our extension of the mandate and tell us why. I invite all of you to create a checklist against IGF mandates as set out in the TUNISIA agenda for the Information Society, and tell us precisely to what extent has the forum addressed its mandate successfully, partially successfully, or unsuccessfully. The last, but not least, question is: Whether we should continue to discuss enhanced cooperation as a part of the forum. Which is a non-decision-making platform. Or should we, instead, enhance the cooperation in other platforms? And tell us what platforms, if it should be. Let us be open and honest with one another, as is the IGF custom. Based on the consultations, I will report back to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. He will then make his recommendations in his annual report to the General Assembly next year on WSIS follow-up and implementation. In closing, let me reiterate that the Internet is a powerful tool. It will assist us to reach the Millennium Development Goals and improve the lives of millions of people by 2015. With its overarching development perspective and cross-cutting priority of capacity-building, the IGF fully complements one of the United Nations' central mandates: To promote higher standard of living, full employment, and conditions of economic progress and development. We in UNDESA, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, will be listening very carefully and humbly to what you have to say over the next few days. I wish you all have stimulating and fruitful discussions. According to the IGF practice, the host country has the chairmanship of the forum. Thus, let's endorse this tradition with acclamation. [Applause] >>MR. SHA ZUKANG: Now, I have the honor to hand over the chairmanship to His Excellency, Dr. Tarek Kamel, the minister of communications and IT of Arab Republic of Egypt. Thank you. [Applause] >>NERMINE EL SAADANY: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome with me His Excellency, Dr. Tarek Kamel, Minister of Communications and Information Technology of Egypt. Dr. Tarek. [Applause] >>H.E. MR. TAREK KAMEL: Your Excellency Dr. Ahmed Nazif, prime minister of Egypt, Your Excellency, Mr. Sha Zukang, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, honorable ministers and delegates, respectful audience, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great honor that I stand here today addressing your distinguished gathering for the 2009 meeting of the Internet Governance Forum in Sharm El Sheikh. Allow me to start by welcoming you to Egypt and specifically to Sharm El Sheikh, the City of Peace, which has witnessed many historic meetings of world leaders. Today, I am proud that Sharm El Sheikh is witnessing, again, the opening of yet another historic meeting, a meeting of Internet governance world leaders and pioneers. Namely, the 4th Internet Governance Forum. As I look around this hall, I feel especially excited to be welcoming from all corners of the world fellow ministers, heads of international organizations, private sector leaders, civil society activists, as well as professors and parliamentarians. A special welcome is also due to Egypt's prime minister, Dr. Ahmed Nazif, who has honored us with his presence here today. [Applause] >>H.E. MR. TAREK KAMEL: I'm also extremely excited to see so many old friends and familiar faces from the Internet experts community who have long contributed to the development of the Internet worldwide. Their achievements during those earlier phases are not confined to technology and innovation, but they go far beyond that to Internet public policies where many years ago we have put together the very first bricks in place. Today, I look back to those times. I feel proud to be coming from that community of experts with whom I shared very special memories. I still remember the first Internet workshop that ISOC has organized in Palo Alto during INET 1992 with Vint Cerf, Larry Landweber, and George Sadowsky from the U.S., where they had invited us at that time young pioneers and entrepreneurs from the developing countries, to work in introducing connectivity to the developing world and to our countries. I do still remember the early African birds of feather meetings in INET conferences in Cotonou with Nii Quaynor, from Ghana, Pierre Dandjinou from Benin, Lamia Chafei and Kamel Saadaoui from Tunis, as well as many other African friends. They all exerted an effort which evolved to the establishment of the necessary Internet infrastructure and the AfriNIC that today satisfies the needs of Africa for registering IP addresses. I still do remember activating the first digital link across the Mediterranean with Internet traffic and my frequent visits to Dr. Nazif's office, both of us in our previous capacities, asking him for financial support and political support for my new endeavor to introduce Egypt to connectivity with 64K around the Mediterranean. I equally recall receiving an e-mail from Lynn St. Amour approving the first ISOC chapter in the region in Egypt at IDSC/RITSEC. This all has happened with collaborative efforts of many supporters like Dr. Hisham El Sherif, Dr. Adeeb, Ms. Azza Torky, Ms. Nashwa, and then another generation following with Mostafa, Christine, Manal and Baher, as well as Nawawy, Azhary, Bichara and many other friends, who all contributed heavily to the development of the Internet in this country and in the region. All these memories, I feel proud about, but I feel even more proud to stand here hosting and chairing the IGF of this year, and witnessing how Internet public policy has evolved. It has extended from discussion within a small group of experts to a multistakeholder process among a wide range of professionals representing various sectors and fields. Indeed, the IGF has proved only over four years that it is not just another isolated parallel process but it has rather managed to bring on board all the relevant stakeholders and key players as evidenced by our gathering here this week. Ladies and gentlemen, the development of the Internet in Egypt has also evolved from gradually being led by a group of pioneers in the early '90s to an overall national agenda only a couple of years later. Facing the same challenges as in other parts of the world, Egypt encountered the changing dynamics produced by the evolution of IP technologies. The whole communication model, which was changing from a legacy structure led by PTTs to a new and innovative user-centered model imposed new policies, new business model, and new service delivery frameworks. Empowered by the political support of President Mubarak back since 1996, the Internet community in Egypt managed to achieve a breakthrough of Internet evolution in the country through a deregulated framework for service provision where strong private sector involvement. The political support was not only restricted to that, but it continued to have Egypt enjoy a free and open Internet platform as elsewhere in many developed places in the world. This has encouraged continuous investment in infrastructure and enabled us to enjoy double-digit growth in Internet as well as in the ICT sector at large. It wasn't very long before we realized that this deregulated framework is not only suitable for the Internet but that it could be applied in other disciplines as well as in other services. Hence, in 1999, with the formation of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, the development of a complete strategy for the ICT sector had started. The it was clearly to base an Information Society in Egypt as positioning the country as a regional communication hub. Today, after ten years, it is no surprise that Egypt managed to position its ICT sector as a competitive sector within the region and beyond. It is also no surprise that this sector is significantly contributing to national efforts exerted in raising productivity in other sectors. Ladies and gentlemen, innovation in broadcasting and streaming technology, as well as the evolution of user-generated content, are transforming the Internet into a true platform where we communicate, work, learn, and be entertained. Hence, the crucial developmental role of the Internet is now more than ever well recognized globally. This is especially true in developing regions of the world, where the next billions of users are expected to emerge, especially using mobile Internet facilities and service. The Internet is thus becoming for developing countries a space of opportunities that should be handled with due attention. While the Internet emerges as a tool for creating opportunities and opening up new horizons, the larger Internet community should actively engage and concert effort to remove any implied barriers and stimulate those emerging markets. As we innovate in technologies and services on the net, and in our attempt to strengthen its outreach and accommodate the needs of the new user segments, it is vital to ensure that the unique structure of the Internet is preserved, maintained, and built upon. The IGF has, with no doubt, through its first three meetings laid a strong foundation for the policy dialogue needed to address those challenges. The agenda of Athens, of Rio, and Hyderabad were carefully selected to include the various aspects of Internet governance. With this year's IGF under the overall theme of creating opportunities for all, I believe the ground is well set for our deliberations throughout the coming few days. But I am also sure that you all share with me the belief that with opportunities, rights, there are also responsibilities. And I think, ladies and gentlemen, we are here today to address and carry clearly our global responsibilities towards today's and tomorrow's cyberspace. It is our clear responsibility together within IGF to further dig into current mechanisms and propose creative models to address policy challenges as new models for cross-border cooperation on cybersecurity; issues for youth, empowerment, and online child safety; policies that encourage the creation of multilingual content, multilingual domain names and search engines; frameworks that enhance broadband access in developing countries; issues of implications of social networks that are really changing the way our younger generation think and interact. Aspects of privacy with the evolution of Internet mobility using smart phones and others. And many other issues, ladies and gentlemen, that we have on our list. The IGF should, therefore, continue to provide a venue where such new policy issues are surfaced, voiced freely and discussed constructively. The IGF community should equally continue to work on together and collaborate in order to be as creative as our pioneers of the early Internet phases were. Honorable audience, this year's IGF, indeed, is an important one as the past few months have witnessed a number of measured milestones related to the heated worldwide discussion on global Internet governance. ICANN has recently made a significant move towards improving its accountability by signing last September the new Affirmation of Commitments with the U.S. administration. This development recognizes the success of ICANN's multistakeholder model, and marks the start of a new era for ICANN and the global community. However, we, as a worldwide Internet community, still look forward to further international involvement in managing the critical Internet resources through revisiting the current IANA contract, and without affecting the robustness of the global Internet operation. Equally important for our Internet community comes the new decision to launch multilingual domain names in Arabic, Chinese, Korean and other languages, and I am glad, Mr. Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen, that Egypt will make use of the fast-track process starting tomorrow morning by applying for the first country's top-level domain dot masra (phonetic) in Arabic, to be one of the first Arabic and multilingual country top-level domains. This will offer new avenues for innovation, investment, and growth, and hence we can truly and gladly say an Internet which means that the Internet now speaks Arabic. [ Applause ] >>H.E. MR. TAREK KAMEL: It is a great moment for us, and I am happy that this takes place here in Sharm El Sheikh as a recognition of our work with relevant constituencies worldwide over the last three years. Ladies and gentlemen, having witnessed how this process has developed, and where we stand today, one can fairly say in spite of the existence of some gaps, that the IGF has definitely proved to be an excellent venue to integrate and converge views of the different stakeholder groups. Looking at its future, we think the IGF should be allowed to maintain its innovative multistakeholder approach to Internet public-policy discussions. It should continue to act as a venue for policy interprofessional dialogue with more focus in the future on localized needs of the various emerging regions as in Africa, Latin America and Asia. The IGF should build upon the momentum it has produced on national and regional levels while broadening participation and linking national and regional policy dialogues to the global. Ladies and gentlemen, in conclusion, let me proudly say that through the IGF process, all of us are together shaping the civilization of our modern age. From within Egypt, the land of civilization, we are adding here another brick this week. And while I'm sure that many people have been working around the clock to make this meeting a success, I believe special thanks should be extended to Ms. Sha Zukang and the whole U.N. team, to chairman Nitin Desai, Mr. Markus Kummer, and all members of the IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group for their continuous effort in preparing for the forum. And I would also like to thank our local team in Egypt, especially Hoda and Nermine, who put an outstanding effort to make this meeting a real success. And on behalf of the entire IGF participants, our sincere gratitude goes to you, Mr. Prime Minister, for taking the time to share with us your valuable thoughts about our topic. Am allow me to present to you, on behalf of the participants, a small gift as a token of appreciation and to you, ladies and gentlemen, I wish you a very fruitful meeting and hope you will enjoy our stay in our beloved country, Egypt. Thank you very much for your attention. [ Applause ] >>NERMINE EL SAADANY: Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to introduce our keynote speaker for today, the Prime Minister of Egypt, His Excellency Ahmed Nazif. [ Applause ] >>H.E. MR. AHMED NAZIF: Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to welcome you all in Egypt on the occasion of the opening of the fourth Internet Governance Forum. I consider this forum as an excellent opportunity in its venue, its subjects, and its timing. Sharm El Sheikh is a symbol for peace. It is also a clear proof of how peace can be translated into development and progress. I urge you not to miss the chance to explore the beauty it offers outside this conference. We meet today in the heart of Sinai, where history has been made spanning several millennia. This should inspire us all, as we witness the turn of a new millennium, and remind us of our responsibility to build a better future for coming generations. The magnitude and importance of issues that you will discuss, both in the forum and in its workshops, show the vitality of this event. We are four years ahead after the creation of the forum as one of the important outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society held between Geneva and Tunisia. Looking back, we can see the big progress which has been realized and the tremendous potential and opportunities in sight. Today, we meet at an important moment where cautious optimism prevails that the world is getting out of the devastating recession cycle. For ICT, such a moment carries a window of great opportunities, as this sector is ready to resume its accelerate growth, globally, after the slowdown. In addition and by nature, the ICT sector will have a chance to play as a catalyst to support a robust exit from the recession to all other sectors of the world economy. This moment carries also with it a clear challenge. As the ICT sector should provide us with the tools to ensure that the coming growth is robust and sustainable. And it should also enable us to take measures to avoid the recurrence of the elements that led to the previous crisis. Ladies and gentlemen, Egypt has succeeded in dealing with the world financial and then economic crisis with the least possible negative impact. Our bold and ambitious economic report program which started in 2004 has helped us in achieving unprecedented rates of growth in the three years before the world financial crisis. This enabled our economy to face the strong impact of the crisis, which was clear on sectors connected with the outside world, such as tourism, Suez Canal and trade. We succeeded to maintain growth during the crisis at the reasonable rate of 4.7%. In addition, our banking reform program succeeded in minimizing the impact of the world financial crisis on our banking sector. It is important to note that a substantial component of our banking reform program aimed at capacity building and increased utilization of ICT in the operation, governance, and regulation of our banks. It is also worth noting that the ICT sector in Egypt kept its growth curve during the year of the crisis at a double-digit rate. This is a clear indication about the rich potentials it entails. I would like to share with you some insight about the successful experience of Egypt in building its ICT sector as a base for the knowledge society in the last decade. Our approach was based on three pillars. The first was to create an appropriate institutional framework that could govern this sector. That was realized by the establishment of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, with a mandate to grow and follow up the implementation of an ambitious plan of action for the future of ICT in Egypt. This was followed by the creation of several subsidiary institutions to support the functions and activities of the ministry. Examples of those are the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, and the Information Technology Industry Development Authority, ITIDA. One of the important tasks of the ministry was to observe and realize the adhesion of Egypt to the international frameworks and agreements that enhance our global participation in ICT developments and to guarantee intellectual property rights. The second pillar aimed at laying the foundation for a strong domestic ICT industry. Our task was to stimulate the initiation and development of a competitive ICT environment in Egypt, with the participation of domestic and foreign private sector operators. Our indicators in these regards are reassuring. I will just quote a few. The sector has attracted over 8 billion U.S. dollars of investment over the last four years, and has contributed positively to public proceeds and to our job creation programs. Mobile users have jumped to 54 million subscribers in Egypt with a penetration of 70%. We are still adding 1 million new subscribers each month, one of the highest growth rates in the world. Internet penetration also rose to almost 20% with over 15 million users in 2009, turning the Internet into a real tool of empowerment and enabling the dissemination of different sorts of e-applications among our citizens. We achieved 750 million U.S. dollars of export proceeds from the ICT sector. Our goal is to reach $1 billion next year, and exceed $2 billion of exports by 2013. The third pillar was to promote initiatives that help in the dissemination of ICT technology benefits in our society. We are happy that ICT has contributed directly to the well-being of our population by increasing their access to basic e-government services. We are availing the technology to support the reform of our social and health care programs by issuing smart family cars. We embarked on a new Egyptian education initiative that has been recognized worldwide by UNESCO in 2008 for its unique model of governance which reflects public-private partnership in infrastructure development with an integrated reform program for schools. The e-content industry in Egypt is also serving the needs of millions of Arabic speaking cyberspace users. Egypt's role in reaffirming cultural diversity as a core value of Internet governance through dispensing of Arabic content is both influential and effective. One of our numerous projects in this area is the memory of the Arab world, a specialized Web portal to collect heritage materials, including oral histories from all around our region. Ladies and gentlemen, the challenges we face for the future are the challenges of growth. On top of those is the country's ability to create and breed highly qualified ICT professionals and experts according to the global market needs and standards. Equally challenging is the development of innovation and entrepreneurship as a priority on our ICT agenda. Our efforts here are directed towards expanding and facilitating research and innovation through several means, including the establishment of research centers of excellence and technology incubators linked to the ICT businesses. Ladies and gentlemen, I trust that the distinguished community of experts present here today will be following a similar path on the international level, as the strength of the IGF lies in its all-inclusive, all-comprehensive nature. I believe that only through an open and consistent dialogue can we maximize the true potentials of the Internet as a tool for growth, and a herald of economic and political freedoms. Your forum is a valuable space for continuous education on the prospects of the Internet and the global cyberspace. I'm sure that the knowledge you generate will be used as precious learning tools for the young generations, and I see the continuation of this forum as a real priority. Through the process of regular evaluations, I am confident that we will be able to expand and administer the global cyberspace in forums that mirror our aspirations for freedom of access, usage, and expression at one side and equality of opportunity in education and research allocation at the other side. Finally, I hope that this round of the IGF will be a leap into a more prolific and assertive dialogue, and that Sharm El Sheikh will offer you the atmosphere required to bring out the best this dignified congregation of minds has to offer. Ladies and gentlemen, once again, I wish you a pleasant stay and a productive outcome of the forum. Thank you. [ Applause ] >>NERMINE EL SAADANY: Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in thanking the Prime Minister of Egypt for his keynote speech and please kindly remain seated until His Excellency leaves the hall. We will resume in a few minutes. Thank you. [ Applause ] >>NERMINE EL SAADANY: Okay. May I now call up the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union, Dr. Hamadoun Touré, to give his keynote address. Dr. Touré, you have the floor. [ Applause ] >>MR. HAMADOUN TOURÉ: Your Excellency Prime Minister Dr. Nazif, Excellency Ambassador Sha Zukang, and the Secretary-General ECOSOC, Ministers, Ambassadors, leaders of industry, CEO of ICANN, I also recognize in this room the presence of Dr. Tim Berners-Lee and Dr. Bob Kahn, two of the fathers of the Internet as we know it today. Distinguished colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, I am very pleased to join you here in Sharm El Sheikh, and I would like to thank the government and the people of Egypt for the beautiful location and the warm hospitality provided to us for this important fourth IGF meeting. This is a major milestone in the IGF process being which will both take stock and look ahead. Taking into account the experience acquired during the last three IGF meetings, framing the decisions which will be taken concerning the future of IGF, looking at the best ways of serving the needs of the global community and engaging strongly in the process of enhanced cooperation. And seeing which aspect of the IGF mandate still need to be thoroughly considered so we can collectively share the same sense of accomplishment. Ladies and gentlemen, the IGF was created as an outcome of the World Summit on the Information Society, organized by the ITU, which was the most wide-ranging, comprehensive and inclusive debate ever held on the future of the Information Society. For the first time the governments, the private sector, and civil society and international organizations worked together hand in hand. At the close of that summit in Tunis in November 2005, we agreed on the importance of strengthened cooperation among all stakeholders. ITU continues to believe in the spirit of the agreement made at Tunis, and has been an active participant in the IGF process. We are here in Egypt this week. We have a delegation of 14 ITU officials organizing or co-organizing 11 events, and funding the participation of some 40 delegates and experts attending this meeting. Over the past four years we have been implementing both the letter and the spirit of our WSIS commitment in areas as diverse as accessibility and climate change, and cybersecurity, and we have redoubled our efforts over the past 12 months. In today's world, ICTs are part of the solution, not part of the problem. They are playing a key role in addressing the financial crisis. It is no coincidence that many of the world's stimulus packages include ambitious broadband infrastructure initiatives. These will help us to bridge the emerging broadband divide, and they will help us to meet the millennium development goals. This can only happen when the right regulatory environment is in place, an environment that favors content generation. In Beirut earlier this week in our most successful global symposium for regulators to date, ITU worked together with over 750 CEOs and policymakers from around the world to discuss these issues. ICTs will also play a crucial role in helping us address climate change issues. And ITU is lobbying hard ahead of the Copenhagen conference next month for this to be widely recognized. ITU is also playing a lead role in coordinating global cybersecurity efforts. I launched the Global Cybersecurity Agenda, or GCA, in 2007, and the GCA is now in its operational phase with a physical home in Malaysia at the headquarters of IMPACT, the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats. Within the GCA, we also launched the child online protection initiative this year, and this is now in its operational phase as well, with guidelines available for all stakeholders. Distinguished colleagues, the IGF is a unique forum where all stakeholder can share their opinions on an equal footing. In the spirit of paragraph 72, 72c of the Tunis Agenda, IGF is a place where we can make progress on certain topics, and introduce those mature topics into other more formal processes, arraignments and organizations for further consideration. We welcome the new arraignments, the affirmation of commitment, AoC, as the opportunity to increase ICANN's accountability and enhance cooperation among all stakeholder groups in the management of Internet critical resources. I take this opportunity to congratulate my friend, Rod Beckstrom, on his election as CEO of ICANN, and I wish him success in his new function. ICANN is recognized as a center authority for Internet names and addresses. ITU is the recognized organization for communication infrastructure that also support the Internet. We have to look at ways to eliminate frictions between our different organizations and between all stakeholders during the IGF process. We have to work together, as I said before. In closing, I would like us to remember to look at the bigger picture and what we are trying to achieve here, which is established set forth goals and principles and ask us to meet tangible targets by 2015. The IGF is a clear part of that process. And as we take stock and look ahead this week, I would like all of us to focus on the bigger goals and to work out how we can best meet the WSIS targets and the millennium development goals and make the objectives, to make access, use, creation, and sharing of information as it is stated in the Tunis Agenda, in the preamble of the Tunis Agenda, making access, use, creation and sharing of information a basic human right. This is when we can safely say we have come from the Information Society and have entered the knowledge society that we are dreaming of. But time is running out, and we have to work together in a win-win mode. I thank you. [ Applause ] >>NERMINE EL SAADANY: Ladies and gentlemen, now we are going to have the keynote address by sir Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the World Wide Web, director of World Wide Web consortium, W3C, of United Kingdom. So Tim. [ Applause ] >>SIR TIM BERNERS-LEE: Wow! This is an exciting world in which we live. Your excellencies, distinguished ministers, guests, ladies and gentlemen, it was in 1969 that the first packets flowed across the Internet, and the Internet came into existence. So we're looking back now -- from my point of view, it had been 20 years already that that had been happening when I came along and decided that while Internet was exciting and it was just spreading to the point that it was becoming politically reasonable to use it in Europe in 1989, that was when I felt with the Internet was an exciting possibility of a platform on which one could build an information space. And we really needed an information space. So back in 1989, there was no World Wide Web, and -- but we had all the pieces. I was working in a place where people had machines on their desk connected to cables that went into the walls and were eventually connected to Internet machines. So it was then that using the very strong structure of the Internet, which had been built by people beforehand, that I proposed the protocol of HTML, the language HTML, http protocols that produced the Web. That was 1989. 20 years ago now, looking back on that. It's worth remembering that the thing that made the Web work then, the most important thing about it still today is universality. The core value that it is one universal space. Two Webs doesn't work. It has to be one Web. It has to be one Web for all sorts of information, not just polished information, crummy information, ideas people have just had. It has to be one Web no matter what hardware you have, no matter where you buy your computer from. And now more importantly, what sort of device you have, whether you have something like this (indicating) or something like a laptop. Then people tended to have computers which were very similar, but now we realize that it's important that the Web should be one Web no matter which sort of device you use it for, particularly for mobile devices. Then also in the list of things which I put in then, obviously the Web has to be one Web globally. So while back then, the Internet then, from the World Wide Web point of view, did not speak Arabic at that point, because Unicode was not available for me to use, but later on it did. And when XML was created, XML was defined to use Unicode, so at that point the Web, the Internet spoke Arabic. So the universality of the Web obviously includes its universality when it comes to internationalization. That means not just different characters, not just whether or not your letters go across this way or across that way or down that way. It means a lot of things also about how different cultures in the world need to be able to use the World Wide Web. In 1989, to go historically, then was an idea. It went out -- I put it out on the Internet, which existed using -- sending messages out on the Internet, and people picked it up. Very soon it started to grow, and by 1993, we really needed something to coordinate it. So in 1994, we formed the World Wide Web consortium, W3C. That was 15 years ago. W3C, all kinds of people coming together to decide on the future of the World Wide Web protocols. It was sponsored by industry with, unlike most standard bodies at the time, a large technical staff to help things move rapidly. But not just industry. Also governments, individuals, academics, all coming to the table in what we now call the multistakeholder group to produce standards. Originally, HTML, http, URIs, working very closely with the Internet Engineering Task Force, which we put the http process through. But many other areas have been branched out since then, and there are a lot of recommendations that have been produced. In 1997, an important development we realized. We needed to specially recognize the potential that the Web had, for people with disabilities. We realized that the Web was somewhere where, instead of it being more difficult, it could, in fact, be easier, in a way, for people with disabilities, because on the Web you could use -- put out alternative forms of the same material and link them together very easily. So the Web Accessibility Initiative was started back in 1997. After that, we also had an internationalization group, and both the accessibility and the internationalization cut across all the work the W3C has done. So to make the Web progress, to keep it one Web, to keep the things which we felt were most important, we had the consortium, which did standards. And standards were, and are, very important for the Web. Open standards. Royalty-free standards. At a certain point, the consortium fell into a trap, and technology was almost abandoned completely because a member of the working group -- of a working group had hidden the fact that they were going to announce that they wanted to charge royalties. The consortium worked towards what it now has, the royalty-free policy, in the way of working. So being royalty-free was very important. As time went on, though, standards didn't seem to be enough. The Web is very large. The Web has, I'm told, 10 to the power 11 Web pages. That's 10 with 11 zeros. That's about the same number of Web pages out there that there are nerve cells in my Blaine. The trouble is, the number of nerve cells in my brain is going down and the number of Web pages out there is constantly going up. So we realized that we need to study -- we study the brain. We need to study the Web. We don't really understand its complexity and some of the people that we knew that were doing really exciting work didn't have a community in which to share that and publish it, so we started talking about Web science. And three years ago, we started what started as a Web science research initiative and has now recently become the Web science trust in order to get people -- academics -- to think about it. And when we created the Web science trust, we had to think about what would be the objective of this thing. Well, we thought, "Okay, well, Web science surely should be that the Web should serve humanity to its utmost." Well, that actually made us stop and think, because we realized that to get the Web to serve humanity to its utmost, you need more than science. In fact, we realized that all the people who had been working on the standards and all the people who had -- academics, we knew that were working on the science, they're all part of the group who generally aimed at the early adopters. They're the people who had the smart phones, who had -- who were using the Web, and -- but when you talk about that the Web should serve humanity, you immediately have to think about the other 80% of the world at the time who were not using the Web at all. And so we thought more broadly. We realized that not only did we need the standards, not only do we need the science, but we also need to think of society in general. We need to think about society, the people who are less privileged, the people who they may be poor, they may be in disconnected rural areas or they may be poor in urban areas. They may be wealthy but they may suffer from disabilities. They may be illiterate and, while connected, they're connected to a Web which is very text-based. So the conclusion -- our conclusion was that we should create a World Wide Web Foundation to think about these things, and in the time -- and we have been preparing this foundation with -- for a while, and in the time-honored method of sending a message over the Internet, it is my pleasure today, ladies and gentlemen, to officially launch the World Wide Web Foundation here at the IGF. [Applause] >>SIR TIM BERNERS-LEE: I think that tweet has gone out. [Laughter] >>SIR TIM BERNERS-LEE: So that's how we do it now, ladies and gentlemen. So you are part of a social network, and as it's clear from all the cameras around here. Let me just say a little bit about the Web foundation albeit it is early days, we are very lucky to have gotten support from the Knight Foundation which has given us a ground to be getting started. This is just a bootstrap ground to allow the foundation, really, to be built up. So it needs to be built up, both on the side of bringing in funds and also on the side of producing programs. And the main thing which everybody involved in the foundation is doing is learning. Learning about what's needed, learning about all the things which are happening now, very exciting. In talking to many of the initiatives which are happening, many of the people -- quite a lot of the people who are involved in those initiatives are in this room, and in this organization. We -- there will be, tomorrow at 10:00 in the morning, a Web Foundation workshop in a room N5, I think. That may change. Look out for it. One of the numbered meeting rooms. So there will be a workshop tomorrow morning, for people who would like more information about it, but basically from the point of view of the Web Foundation, when you look at the Web, we don't look at it anymore as connected computers. That's what we used to think of as the Internet. Or we don't look at it as connected Web pages, as we used to look at the World Wide Web as a set of connected pieces of information. When you look at the Web, if you want to understand what -- why it happens, why somebody follows a link, why somebody makes a link, you're looking at people. So we look at the Web now as humanity connected. Humanity connected by technology. We want it to empower people, we want it to do the very best for humanity, so ladies and gentlemen, in that, I -- for that, as a tool, I present to you the worldwide foundation and I hope that together we can work together and achieve great things. Thank you. [Applause] >>NERMINE EL SAADANY: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome with me Mr. Jerry Yang, cofounder and chief of Yahoo! USA. Mr. Yang? [Applause] >>MR. JERRY YANG: Thank you. It's hard to believe it's been 20 years since Sir Tim Berners-Lee and the Web was started and happy birthday, Tim. Thank you very much. I want to acknowledge Minister Kamel. I want to extend my deepest gratitude to you, the government of Egypt, and the IGF for inviting me to speak at this important gathering. I'm honored to be here in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, with so many people who share a similar passion about the Internet, and the opportunities and the doors it opens for people around the world. I also want to thank the prime minister who has taken a leading role in developing the Egyptian communications Internet landscape. I also want to offer my appreciation to the United Nations and the Under Secretary Sha Zakang for opening an invitation to the IGF and I would also like to recognize all the other delegations from around the world. What I want to talk about today is a bit of reflection on the profound impact the Internet has already had, and the importance of connecting more people on this planet online, especially those in developing worlds and emerging markets, and how all of us as leaders of the business, governments, academia, journalism, civil society and the broader user community, can help to get the next billion people online. Just as importantly, to ensure that we deliver meaningful experiences and content to this next global wave of Internet consumers. As some of you may know, my partner, David Filho and co-started Yahoo! almost 15 years ago in 1994. Yahoo! started out as a hobby. In fact, the first name we called it was Jerry and Dave guide to the World Wide Web, and I'm glad we didn't keep that name. But pretty soon, we realized people had a fun experience when they were looking on the Internet and using for things and they used Yahoo! to find what they were looking for and they were so happy and they called "Yahoo!" and we put an exclamation behind our name and off we went. When we started, there were fewer than 10 million globally on the Internet. That's less than one-third of one percent of the world population back then. The Internet backbone traffic at that time amounted to 17 terabytes per month. Back then, people talked about online bulletin boards, and the mobile Internet was unheard of. But there was a sense among those in technology and engineering circles that there was -- this was the beginning of something huge. We had a passion to create a community of knowledge and information and to connect local communities to the people of the world. We understood from pioneers like Tim and Vint Cerf that there was a tremendous amount of social value to the Web, and we had an opportunity to make big and positive impacts in people's lives. Back then, the Internet was built on the same foundations and ideals as today: Openness, freedom of expression, universal access, global participation, and the power of information. So where are we now? In 2009, as has been mentioned, it's been more than 1.6 billion people on the Internet. About 25% of the world's population. The Internet backbone traffic exceeded 8 million terabytes a month. About a 500,000-fold increase since 15 years ago. Today there are more than 200 million Web sites, 90,000 new sites being created a day, and on Yahoo!, we have over 600 million people visiting us every month and 8 billion minutes spent from those visitors. There are 300 million Yahoo! e-mail users, sending 100 billion messages a month, 11 million on our Yahoo! instant messaging sending 81 billion messages each month. And with 120 million people in what we call Yahoo! groups, communicating across 10 million different groups of activity, everything including local schools, sports, to diseases and support groups. What's astonishing are not just those numbers. It's the impact the Internet has had on so many people around the world. From socioeconomic opportunities to the ability to provide better health care, educating the next generation of students and entrepreneurs. The Internet today is about the intersection of the world we all live in and my world, my friends, my family, my community, my social network, and my work. So the pure of the Internet and the ability of the communities to connect is something amazing. Whether it may be enabling farmers in Africa to bank online and get better pricing for their crops or students downloading curriculum so they can study, I want to share just a couple of examples from our Yahoo! experience that demonstrates the power of the Internet. Like no other medium, the Internet has had tremendous value to mobilize people for the good. A few years ago, Hurricane Katrina devastated the southern coastline of the United States. People around the world wanted to find ways to help and Yahoo! was able to use our Web site to raise over $57 million from 400,000 people in two weeks. The first $42 million came within the first 48 hours. And just recently, Yahoo! in the Philippines used Flickr, Yahoo!'s online photo sharing site to create a database of missing people from the Typhoon Ketsana. This database helped family find friends and family members who were missing in this disaster. In Yahoo! groups, we see 10 million different groups that are serving different needs. One of them is called the Yahoo! group called the development café, which offers job postings and knowledge sharing free of cost which is particularly welcomed by the members from emerging economies. This successful group has been included in a global poverty network listed -- hosted by the UNDP. These are just a few examples and there are countless from other Yahoo! services and other Web services in general. So as we look at all this progress, the question is: What's next? We're still missing three out of every four people that walk this planet online. We need to close this gap and get the next billion people online and then the next billion after that. But before we discuss how to get the next billion, we also must ask: Who are the next billion? Half of the next billion users are expected to come from emerging markets and developing countries. Many will also come from aging populations in both the established and emerging markets. And from those with accessibility challenges. These will very important audiences. Let me just focus on the large underserved audience, those citizens living in emerging markets. Today, there are approximately 325 million Internet users in what we call the emerging markets. And that number is expected to grow 19% annually through 2012. Many will come from less affluent populations in semirural areas, relatively poor, young, and enthusiastic, with a great capacity to learn. Many will need what content -- and want more content in their native languages, and still others won't just be bound by languages and barriers, but have other challenges such as reading, literacy, and other concerns. The Internet can definitely transform lives, societies, and economies in emerging markets but there are three aspects I would say we have to focus on: access to the Internet, content and user experiences, and our responsible engagement in those markets. First, there are plenty of brilliant minds in this room working on the access part. This is critical for introducing more people to the Internet. We need to increase access, whether its broadband, mobile, WiFi, WiMax, to bring the Internet within reach to more people. Historically we've seen that when broadband penetration reaches around the 20% mark, like Egypt is, we see that tipping point. We see the rapid acceleration in Internet adoption. And there's another benefit. According to the 2009 World Bank report, for every 10 percentage point increase in hyped Internet adoption in the population, there is a corresponding increase in economic growth of 1.3 percentage points. This is an area where government and private industry can partner. Private investments can help build infrastructure, but also must see a market opportunity. Clear and consistent government regulation can also help encourage private investment. Bringing down the cost of access is critical. At this -- as this group is well aware, disposable income is minimal in emerging economies. Providing low-cost service or free Internet at cafés can help drive more people online. Just as important as access, the content and the user experience that we provide to the next billion is important. We are sometimes consumed by assigning numbers to our goals while losing sight of why we set them in the first place. The Internet isn't just about getting as many people online as possible, but making sure that once they get online, they have something productive to do, something to gain, and something meaningful to experience. We must provide relevant, local content. We need to offer communication tools that enable people to connect their community and the larger world. And with the right tools, the Internet can provide online commerce opportunities to help to lift people out of poverty. An encouraging move recently is the ICANN decision to establish the non-English language domain names. This is an important step in keeping the Internet even more global. Internet growth and innovation is enhanced through international participation, and this program has the potential to help bring more people online who don't use Roman characters in their lives. At Yahoo!, we're dedicated to localization, by being global but acting locally, we strive to bring consumers a more in depth, relevant, and positive Internet experience. We were the first to launch Web sites in many international markets. Currently we operate over 40 different countries, in 25 different languages. As many of you may be aware, we also recently acquired Maktoob, the largest Arabic language Internet site. According to the World Bank, there are more than 320 million Arabic speakers in the world, while less than 1% of all online content is in Arabic. The partnership aims to strengthen and support Arabic content on the Internet, adopting current products to the Arabic language, while also working on local -- with local developers to create new and compelling products. So for example, Yahoo! mail and messenger are among the leading communication tools in the world and will be made available in Arabic for the first time next year. Yahoo! also offers user-generated community applications such as Yahoo! groups and Yahoo! answers, through multiple languages and this will also be in Arabic soon. As we develop content for the next billion Internet users, ensuring that we are providing applications and content that work well on mobile platforms is also essential. The vast majority of people in emerging markets will first experience the Internet on a mobile device. This mobile first generation is completely different than those who grew up with personal computers. There's 4.5 times more mobile users than the average PC users in those developing countries. For example, in India, it's up to 8 times. So we need to go beyond just addressing the distribution of smart phones. Inexpensive mobile devices have gained significant traction in less developed towns across Africa and Asia, and those devices are also portals to the Internet and to the vast amounts of information and opportunity. I'd like to talk briefly about how important it is to also engage in all these different markets in a responsible way. We recognize the political, social, and economic environments in markets around the world are deeply complex, a complexity that mirrors in the online world. This presents challenges for any company to a region, especially one in our industry. As an Internet pioneer in these emerging markets, we've gained important insights and experience and we're committed to responsible global engagement. This means being sensitive to local laws, customs, and norms while protecting and promoting the rights of our users. We believe our engagement in emerging markets can be a positive force by increasing access to information, a key IGF theme, as well as by supporting a thriving marketplace and exchange of ideas of bridging local, regional and international communities with innovative communications tools. Our belief in both being responsible in the collective engagement is why Yahoo! is a cofounding member of the Global Network Initiative or GNI, a multiyear effort involving an international group of information and communications companies, civil society organizations, academics, investors, and others. The members of GNI commit to protecting freedom of expression and privacy, partnering with others to ensure collective governance and accountability in promoting the GNI and its objectives throughout the world. All the things I've just discussed -- access, local content, communication and responsible engagement -- are connected, interrelated, and necessary to get the next billion people online and thriving. We all need to be sure that we're educating the next generation of online consumers, whether young or old, about Internet usage and about keeping their kids safe online. This is an exciting time of our industry, and for the growth of the global expansion of the Internet. The Internet can positively transform lives, societies, and economies. It can connect local communities to a much larger world. We have the opportunity to welcome another billion more people to the Internet, and with that opportunity, we also have enormous responsibility to ensure the Internet is ready for this eager group of future online explorers, entrepreneurs, scientists, educators and leaders. We need to make sure that what they have at their fingertips will enable them to prosper and that collectively, we will also benefit. And we can make this happen. And we need to continue to act. I would encourage further development of an Internet based on openness, freedom of expression, privacy, universal access, global participation. I encourage more collaboration between but and private sectors to ensure we can tackle the most challenges collectively. I encourage the development of more local and relevant content. In business, we know the demand is already there, and we will play our part to meet those needs. I encourage Internet users to continue to create local language content. I encourage governments to create rules that allow users to create that content to flourish. In closing, I am certain that this dedicated group of citizens from around the world here at the IGF can think and work collaboratively to create an environment that welcomes the next billion people to a vibrant and global Internet. Thank you again to the IGF for giving me the great privilege to speak with you and thanks to all of you for your commitment to help to shape the Internet in a positive way for the people of the world. Thank you. [Applause] >>NERMINE EL SAADANY: Ladies and gentlemen, we'd like now to adjourn the opening ceremony of the Internet Governance Forum and we'll take a break for 10 minutes and then we will resume with the opening session. Thank you. [Break]