Seventh Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum
6-9 November 2012, Baku, Azerbaijan
9 November 2012
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The following is the output of the real-time captioning taken during the Seventh Meeting of the IGF, in Baku, Azerbaijan. 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.
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THE CHAIRMAN: Okay, ladies and gentlemen, after one minute we will start. (Pause)
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to open the closing ceremony of the 2012 IGF meeting in Baku. We will now hear from nine speakers down from all stakeholders group who will make some closing remarks.
It is my honour to introduce the first speaker, Mr Vyacheslav Cherkasov, Senior Governments and Public Administration officer, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, speaking on behalf of Miss Haiyan Qian, Director for Department Economic and Social Affairs.
please, Mr Cherkasov you have the floor.
VYACHESLAV CHERKASOV: (UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs) Okay, good afternoon, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues and friends. It is my great pleasure to deliver the closing remarks of Miss Madame Haiyan Qian, Director of the Division of Public Administration in Development Management, UN DESA, I quote:
“I would like to begin by extending our deep appreciation on behalf of Mr Wu Hongbu, Under Secretary General for Social and Economic Affairs to His Excellencies, President Aliyev, Minister, Dr Ali Abbasov and his excellent team and the people of Azerbaijan for hosting this outstanding Internet Governance Forum in 2012.
Your warm hospitality and extensive financial administration and logistical support, have made this forum another triumph of IGF meeting. During this seventh meeting of IGF more than 1,630 on‑site participants from over 128 countries came here in Baku. While more than 3,800 unique visitors connected visitors connected on‑line there is 429 government representatives, 161 representatives from technical and academia community, 266 representatives from technical, from private sector, 541 from the civil society. 96 representatives from international organisations and 123 representatives including the media. Indeed, IGF has reached yet another milestone within these impressive numbers.
I am particularly pleased to report that we have an unprecedented high level dialogue at the IGF including participation of 42 ministerial level representatives from 19 countries. Including participation of 12 ministers and 11 ministerial level officials from Azerbaijan.
Throughout this week, we continue to explore key thematic areas of internet governance including access and diversity management of critical internet resources; internet governance for development issues; and also, among others such as security, openness and privacy as well as other emerging issues.
As this is my first time participating in the IGF in person, I am fully aware that it is not only during these annual gatherings that the IGF process is put in motion but also throughout the year at regional and national IGF's, MAG meetings, open consultation sessions and multitude of other related activities.
For instance, among many other great initiatives I am impressed by the recent first annual Arab IGF that was held in Kuwait from 9 to 11 October, 2012, covered by the Arab IGF secretariat which was represented by the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Egypt and held under the joint umbrella of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia and the League of Arab States.
Another great initiative was the IGF pre‑event on enhanced co‑operation in internet governance, from deadlock to dialogue which was organised by the association for the progressive communication; Internet Society and International Chamber of Commerce and its business action to support the information society initiatives with the support of the Governments of Brazil, Egypt and Kenya.
Such forward looking initiative in the event of initiative, magnifies the uniqueness of the IGF. Everyday we have more and more people connected through the internet. It makes our work at the IGF much more significant and prominent. We need to take care of responsibility to continue our best efforts in bridging the digital divide and promoting all with the equal opportunities brought about by the internet.
The IGF inclusive, participatory and transparent governance process places a critical role in driving the growth of the internet which is clearly bringing new sectorial, social and economic opportunities to so many people in the developing world.
As the Undersecretary General for Economic and Social Affairs, Mr Wu, has pointed out, every day we see the benefits that technology brings to our collective human, economic and development efforts.
Of course, this same technology brings mainly challenges as well. These challenges must be addressed together by all stakeholders in an exclusive and participatory manner.
This session of the IGF has again provided the value platform for the continuous consensus building and learning opportunities for all. I am sure each one of us will bring back to our respective countries and organisations; new ideas and approaches on how we can best deal with these critical issues.
We need to build capacities to address challenges and implement strategies, not only in our own countries and organisations, but also to assist others, especially those in developing and these developed countries and as well as the countries, with economies in transition.
The internet offers a lot of potential and opportunities for sustainable development.
Moving forward UN DESA will continue to ensure increased support to the participation at the IGF MAG meetings, particularly those from the developing countries. That capacity building, knowledge sharing and outreach efforts will be strengthened to raise awareness at the local, national, regional and global level.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, the disclosure and the exchange of ideas that has taken place over the past week would not have been possible without the support of the international donor community, including the financial support provided to the IGF trust fund.
Allow me to particularly thank those who have supported the IGF in the past and those who are currently supporting the IGF. It is my sincere hope that you will continue to support the IGF and we will have new donors joining the IGF community in the nearby future.
Finally, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all who have, in one way or another, contributed to the success of the 7th IGF. Including the UN dept representative in the Republic of Azerbaijan, Mr Antonio and his team, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Also the United Nations Department of Public Information for their excellent coverage and communication outreach; our dear colleagues from the UN office at Geneva for providing excellent conference services; security; interpretation and the IGF secretariat led by the UNDESA staff whose tireless work over the past years has made these session possible.
Great appreciation also goes to the group of the 27 remote participation facilitators and all live transcript experts for their outstanding work which provided the opportunity for effective communication to all participants, including those at remote locations and those who are physically challenged.
This forum would not have been possible without over 200 committed staff members of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technologies of Azerbaijan under the excellent leadership of His Excellency, Minister, Professor Abasov as well as the great spirit and assistance of over 250 local volunteers.
Last but not least, I would like to extend special and sincere thanks to all of you as an integral part of the IGF community for your active and in depth participation through the past week.
Special thanks to all MAG members for their invaluable contribution to the preparation and organising the 7th IGF.
We also would not forget all of the workshop organisers who voluntarily organised over 100 sessions that contributed to the overall success of the IGF.
At this closure, our work begins with the next IGF cycle. Let us work together to ensure that the IGF continues to grow and prosper, let us strengthen our existing partnership, building new ones and invite new stakeholders to our community.
Let us carry the IGF torch with us as we leave this beautiful country of Azerbaijan tonight or in the coming days and to think about how each of us and our organisation can help ensure that the IGF continues to flourish in 2013 and beyond.
Thank you and have a safe trip home.
[applause]
THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Mr ... for your remarks. Our next speaker is Mr Farid Ismayilzade, founder and CEO Golden Pay on‑line payment of system in Azerbaijan, please.
MR ISMAYILZADE: Before I talk about anything I would like to clear up something, if you see similar names there, we are not brothers with Fariz; we are just friends.
Before I talk about business and internet, I would like to thank you all and welcome you all in Azerbaijan. I hope you had great time here, you had chance to see Baku and Azerbaijan as well. I would like to tell you a bit about how, as a local company, we see the development of internet and the businesses.
First of all, I would like to say that a couple of years ago this country made a decision about moving from the oil and gas industry into knowledge based industry. Actually, I am, I would say, one of the results of that shift because, back home from United States and started on my own company. The company is totally internet based. Its on‑line system allows people to pay on‑line using my company.
I realised back in that day that Azerbaijan is very innovation orientated country, people are very into new technologies, they like to use it and the growth of the company, three years already in a row, my company is showing six times more growth. That shows how other people are into using new technology there. The penetration of internet and plastic cards increasing every day so it is very good news to hear back at that time.
We also saw a very good green grass, I would say, like opportunities for businesses. We could have brought a lot of technologies in this country and, actually, you can actually make a lot of money. Internet based business is very important because it allows you to create so called e‑habits, what I mean by this is that it allows people to have habits of doing things and any kind of interactions on‑line, it is about reading the news, getting a letter or sending a letter to the government interacting with bezs, everything is on‑line. It is open and transparent and more modern.
Today, what we see in asker bee January, it is coming from a changing, from becoming an importer, what happens is, you get old technologies, good ones from abroad, from the developed country and you bring here and try to make money from it and business from it. We realised we see that as evidence trying to become now exporter of the technology as well.
For example when you were here there was an older Mr President came out about some kind of a setting up a, innovation zone in [inaudible] it is like for those who understand silicon valley, it is a similar kind in Azerbaijan, it is good news for companies like us, it allows develop more technologies and export to countries nearby because of the region. I also had a chat with Geoff next to me, we talked about mobile life a little bit. We see a huge tendency things are turning from being on computer on the web into mobile actually, mobile applications, iPad, I phone, I see the future and I believe that as from me personally for my company and I believe it will be the same thing for the other companies as well, we will try to build not our business not only computer based internet but also mobile based internet. So this is very important.
We also, I want to also take your attention to we need to understand that businesses are playing huge role in developing of internet. If we are talking about open internet and we are talking about the ability of like sharing information, sharing news with your friends and today, let's look at Facebook. If Facebook today is one of the first places we get our news and information. Let's not forget that Facebook it is also a business. So business is very very important in the development of internet.
I know that the more businesses we build on internet, the world pushing for the internet, for the development of it and the openness of it. I would like to finish saying that I believe and I hope next IGF's and will give more attention to also internet based businesses and you know, government of governance of businesses on internet also because this will also help you, help open the internet more; get it access to its more potential and more opportunities.
Thank you very much and I wish you great trip back home and for the ones from Azerbaijan, thank you for being here and thank you pr putting up this event. It is great to see you all, good luck, thank you, bye bye.
[applause]
THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you.
And now our next speaker is Mr Geoff Brueggeman, the I contractionC global representative, vice president public policy and deputy chief previously officers, ATNT. Please. The floor is yours.
J BRUEGGEMAN: Excellencies, distinguished participants ladies and gentlemen, as the 7th IGF draws to a close, it is my pleasure to address you today as ‑‑ as the chamber of commerces global business representative on behalf of the basis initiative, the business action to support the information society.
I would like to first express our thanks to our hosts, the Government of Azerbaijan for their hospitality and for the opportunity to convene in Baku for this year's IGF. We look forward to Azerbaijan's continued leadership in internet development in the region and its continued participation in the global multi‑stakeholder internet governance process.
The discussions prompted by this year's theme ‑‑ internet governance for sustainable human economic and social development ‑‑ have keenly illustrated how integral the internet is in advancing social and economic opportunity around the world and enhancing tomorrow's business landscape as we were just hearing about.
The internet is a hugely powerful economic force and has a direct positive impact on job creation, trade, competitiveness, and economic development ‑‑ both for small and large enterprises, and for mature and developing economies.
Over the past few years we have discussed the vital importance of the internet in promoting social develop pt and empowering millions to escape poverty as well as exchanging best practices across a wide range of key topics from infrastructure deployment and innovation and mobile technologies to security and data protection issues.
Business leaders have applauded the IGF for its unique opportunity to discuss policy issues on an inclusive equal footing and inform policy making around the world at national, regional and international levels.
In fostering dialogue, and addressing the policy making process with diverse stakeholders the IGF 2012 has illustrated how integral this approach is in protects and enhancing the social and economic value of the internet.
The progress made here this year has been tangible. The IGF is leading the way in driving informed policy decisions and in contributing to on going internet debates the muld stakeholder process developed through the 7 years of the IGF meetings serves as a global model and a clear counterpoint to established single stakeholder negotiations such as the WCIT.
In fact in can context of the ong going debate about the WCIT, enhanced cooperation now more than ever is the time to enare itch the debate about participation and internet governance. If we want the internet to remain one of the world's greatest human resources, it is critical we develop the process which has fostered its success.
Other models for shaping the way in which the internet , positive impact of collaborative and policy making process we have in place today and would potentially threaten the openness which has defined the web from the outset and which has enabled it to become such a strong economic tool for positive change.
The Tunis agenda clearly refers to the need for greater cooperation among existing organisations. This is happening. It will also be crucial in developing policies that advocate market entry and investments, promote innovation and eliminate economic barriers facing companies looking to invest in new markets and grow our economies.
The IGF itself is a voial catalyst for enhanced cooperation that has stimulated many hugely impactful initiatives. We have seen positive proof of this from main sessions and workshops which have addressed issues from the principles of internet governance to freedom of expression and human rights.
These successes demonstrate why the IGF continues to be so important. We come here to discuss hard issues, understand successes and failures around best practices and policy and to address new and emerging tochics. This helps to build consensus for more consistent and e fek tiff policies on a global basis, we must continue to work together to expand participation and to show that the goal of a well gorned internet is best achieved through the multi‑stakeholder frame wok of the IGF.
The internet continues to enrich the lives of billions of people globally, driven by innovation, investment and enabling policy frameworks. That's why it is paramount that we work together to ensure the right governance choices are made to build on the internet success story.
Faced with the prospect of renewed discussions about establishing a model of internet governance that excludes critically important stakeholder groups and other vital voices as well as fundamental aspects of an open web, business believes that flexible market focused policies are the key, to furthererring the internet's develop jt...
With a guiding principle that any internet governance initiative should first and foremost do no harm it is clear that multi‑stakeholder cooperation and discussion is required to help promote broad based and inclusive policy making in order to support the internet's dynamic growth.
In summary, we have accomplished a lot in the past four days and over the past 7 years. The IGF has become the recognised global platform tr addressing internet policy issues. But we also need to ensure that it remains a sustainable institution with a broad base of private and public sector funding as well as stable leadership. This will ensure that stakeholders from all parts of the globe can participate and help to lay the future of the internet.
We have laid a strong foundation here in Baku for the upcoming WSIS plus 10 review events and for next year's forum in Indonesia, the stakeholder groups will help us achieve our goal of securing a robust and flexible internet governance framework for the future, thank you very much.
[applause]
THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you Mr Brueggeman, thank you for your remarks.
Our next speaker, ‑‑ founder and chairwoman of NGO from Azerbaijan, the name of this NGO integration of Azerbaijan, ‑‑ to the organisation, she was also the chair of the access and diversity main session. Please,.
G SAFAROVA: Thank you Mr Chairman, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon, now we are coming to an end of 4 days Internet Governance Forum that was organised by United Nations and government of Azerbaijan, very important issues have been discussed in each days, as presented locally, as a youth organisation I would like to emphasise the importance of the role of government participating in civil society enabling environment.
According to the last report, United Nations on human development 2010, to 2011 Azerbaijan went forward 34 steps regarding the social, economic development last 5 years, this report shows itself on the youth live in Azerbaijan as well.
Azerbaijan has been considering the centre between Asia and Europe for the centuries according to the globalisation growth country choosed as a development model and western values.
Azerbaijan is leading country in country, between Europe and asia, Azerbaijan is a member, and the ‑‑ the transnation superinformation highway,... [inaudible] purpose to lay fibre optic cable land, between western Europe and eastern Asia, I would like to [inaudible] the use policy in my country, in the last ten year, adopted more than 5 youth programmes especially on sphere of eng caition, use ofertion and use intellectual development. The regarding the last stage programme, 2011, 15, there are two main points on development of IT among youths and youth organisations creation owned by bank of ideas and enhancing skills and abilities on internet journalism.
These gives us opportunities to develop in IT area the realisation of use and initiatives and internet journalism.
I would like to note there the amount of formation state programme is more than hundred million dollars it is supposed to spend on youth policy coming for years.
The national strategy of education, including ITC in 2011, 2021 is growing into an important element of countries, modernisation policy. Social modernisation is directly tied to application of advanced information technologies in management and modernisation of regularly methods.
The carrier that uz with earlier, ‑‑ low level of life and with social provetion today represents independence, free use, liberty and ability to use one b once talent and thus fully respond to the needs of modern Azerbaijan youth.
Today,... full sungt of political and social relations, ‑‑ successfully influence the decision making and the process of implementation on the programme of power.
It is also important to know that 21st century, the youth policy lies in creating essential human capital for the modernisation of the country and raising international competition.
To over turn black gold into human capital is now the main priority for Azerbaijan, youths playing main role in the strategy. More than 4,000 [inaudible] are running in the cun dri, 3,000 of them, are on youth challenges and youth develop. As as a result of state develop. Azerbaijan youth foundation established in order to support youth work and initiated as youth organisations as well as the youth.
The main objective of the foundation is to give grants to the public social project in the sphere of science, IT, education, culture etc. also, in 2009 the council of states support to [inaudible] under the president of the Republic of Azerbaijan U, contribute any type of, including IT sector as well. I can continue my counting on state support to you and their free activities.
More than 1,000 angels takes support from each year, the main role of my speech to share my views and give basic information on youth policy in Azerbaijan, broadband internet play essential role in life of youth it should be noted that internet is unique opportunity for all youth, in Azerbaijan.
Dear guest, I hope you enjoyed your stay in Azerbaijan country of fire. ... thank you for the ideas that you shared in this days and very sincere thanks to our interpreters.
Thank you very much.
[applause]
THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you, now, our next speaker is Miss Pellizzer, one ‑‑ platform for souls east Europe.
Please.
V PELLIZZER: Good afternoon. I am very honoured to be here and very honoured to be a representative of civil society. I will elaborate my main points ‑‑ trust, stepping out of your mother comfort zone, turn for services, [inaudible] 2.0 and guarantee human right, or [inaudible] of light.
Trust.
Government does not have the answer, business does not have the answer. Civil society has to propose its answer which is dialogue on the unavoidable human rights framework which is the only one that allow respect for the smallest in the community; the single individual person.
Those individuals can be looked as users, consumers but primarily they are citizens. In them legitimacy we all need to derie from. This legitimacy asks for open protocols and not closed one.
Trust should be our default and privacy and also on security. Trust that can generate a [inaudible] and relegate censorship to the place of the bad memories and instead enforce trust as an actual practice in a world of this balance of power.
Stepping out from our comfort zone.
Being here at the IGF has not been easy, I am a newcomer, I had the privilege but the burden to be invisible. It is seen, it is easy to get along with the [inaudible] where governments are the stronger one and good or bad according to geography.
Where business are the strongest because of the overwhelming wealth. Where technical community or the key of the mek nis and the code of the answers and where academia relies and evaluation from the distance, and last but not least: civil society expected to act, stream, contest, protest and most of time listened to.
But in a way or another if we want to navigate this sphais roles needs to be challenged and each of us has to step out of our zone of comfort.
Peace ‑‑ [inaudible] own zone of conduct.
Critical thinking first of all oirses, and then [inaudible] dialogue ask for the ability to also acknowledge and recognise others not from an empty political correctness but from a fruitful problem solving attitude, IGF should be much in this space.
Terms of reference. In the layers o v the internet that connect people one to each other we need to acknowledge the immense power of the term of services has and acknowledging in this, so they can not become the accidental constitution and the precondition of all our relationship and transactions.
The constitution and recognition of other cun tent and others internet , must be based on human rights and framework, it is only this framework that can guarantee accountability in the interaction between user, citizen and internet intermediaries and the governments.
Last but not least, practice is that offer premium service of a internet to those who can afford it will only serve to exacerbate the discrimination and inequality between the region of the world; the privilege of the marginalised this we must reject fully.
... [inaudible] 2 point 0. Here, we all learn from a writer about [inaudible] 2 point 0, we cannot leave this space, this country without expressing our strong disagreement, with the... violating human rights, in particular freedom of expression of journalist and activists.
What is awe tok raty 2.0. It hides behind formal freedom, to monitor critical voices which are then silenced in the off line world. So o tok risty 2 point 0 ‑‑ it is becoming more and more the preferred framework of all the perfect democracy we leave in. In our list but also most developed countries.
Two point 0, science declaration, and ‑‑ do not restrict to the internet but use other laws to bring the space, one example for all countries copyright claims against bloggers.
Why guarantee human rights on‑line as much as off line? IGF has a muted stakeholder space, should not only open framework for a open cie verse future buzz has to be understood in practice, as a safe harbour also it is a physical space that must acknowledge and accept dissent and host it in a transparent and accountable manner we can never stop or limit freedom of expression, even less we can deny solidarity to local vois that ask to be heard. A no censorship policy should be in the code of IGF as a space where each and everyone accepts challenges to their own comfort zone in the power of denial.
People's securities has to be understood not in terms of excluding and preventing incident but in the ability to accept, include and host diversity.
In short, Human Rights must be encoded into the fabric of our dialogue, the space we create for this negotiation and for the future of the internet we are working towards. Thank you very much and I wish you a good activist and critical thinking in your country.
(applause)
THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you. Our next speaker is Fariz Ismayilzada Azerbaijan academic. Please, Mr Fariz Ismayilzada, you have the floor.
FARIZ ISMAYILZADE: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. The organisers have told me I have five minutes for these remarks but I am representing a university and as you can imagine the topic of technology, internet and education is so big, so vast that I don't even know what to cover in these five minutes.
Really the last couple of decades have brought so much change to education and the influence of technology and internet and how that transformed the learning opportunity is really immense.
As you can see from your time in Azerbaijan the country is going through drastic transition. It is mostly economic transition but it also affects the education sector as well.
Five years ago the government decided to start sending Azerbaijanis to study abroad. 5,000 Azerbaijanis have been allocated, funding has been allocated to send them abroad.
Then they came to an understanding, why shall we only send Azerbaijanis to study abroad? Why can't we establish world‑class universities in the country? Why can't we reform our education system, bring the best practices into the country?
In that regard, I consider our academy, Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, as one of the innovators in education sector. We are just five years old and when we were established five years ago we were said , "Here's the building. Go and sit and work in that building", but we said, "No, we don't want that building. We want to create a new learning environment. We want to build our new campus and this will be a smart campus. The campus where e‑learning, e‑technologies, are given priority role".
Five years we have been building that campus and it has been inaugurated last month. This is a smart latest technology equipped campus. I encourage all of you to look into our website and to get to know our academy. We are open for partnership.
Everything there, the education process from the beginning until the end, is automated, from course registration, to classroom activities, to lecture capturing, portal services, to web cameras, smart boards, to payment systems, on‑line services, learning tools, blackboards, everything like that is automated and we are encouraging students to utilise best of the best technology for their learning purposes.
So internet is providing new opportunities for interaction. You do not have to wait anymore for a professor to come and lecture you. You can engage with professors through on‑line discussions, through e‑portals, through black boards, through some other tools which are available for interaction in the class room.
What about interaction between the peers? What about peer‑to‑peer learning? We are providing portal opportunities for our students to debate, to debate not only with their peers in the classroom but also with peers outside of the country, so internet is broadening their learning outcomes and internet is opening up vast global partnerships for them.
In a way you can say that Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy is not only preparing leaders for the country but preparing global leaders. That is actually our goal because in today's globalised world you cannot educate professionals only in national boundaries. You should open up world opportunities for them and this is what internet bringing.
I would like to say that we have been educating Azerbaijanis at our academy but we realise that globalised world, globalised political environment makes us to be bring multicultural dimension into education, so we have decided to offer fellowships, fellowships to international students. At the moment we have only 19 countries represented in our student body but we are keen to diversify our academy and to make it really international multicultural environment.
In that respect I encourage all of you to promote this information and if someone is interested to study here at Azerbaijan at the crossroads of EurAsia we are willing to provide these opportunities.
I think my five minutes are up, unfortunately, but I really would like to talk a lot about the role of technology and how that is transforming our learning tools, learning opportunities and learning style, so I encourage that after this session if anyone is interested I am open for more discussions.
All the best to you and hope I you enjoy your time in Baku.
(applause)
THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Dr Fariz Ismayilzada. .
Now our next speaker Mr Paul Wilson, Director General APNIC, Asia Pacific NIC.
PAUL WILSON: Good afternoon, thank you very much. It is really an honour to be here to present these remarks on behalf of the internet technical community.
The IGF is in it seventh year but to me it seems, in some ways, to be just beginning. That makes sense to me because I think the IGF is here to stay for the long‑term and in the scheme of things it's really just a baby. It's an infant with a long future ahead of it.
The IGF here in Baku has been a really great event and I would like to congratulate everyone involved, everyone here, the host nation of Azerbaijan of course and the IGF Secretariat.
Chengetai Masango deserves our particular thanks for an incredibly challenging job very well done but on really limited resources as I think we all know.
As a member of the Multi‑stakeholder Advisory Group I know there is much about the IGF to be improved but this is an evolutionary process. We do know that improvements can be made and they will be made, resources permitting.
I am here to say that the internet community supports the IGF and supports it strongly. This forum is actually the outcome of a very long process which gave us a definition of internet governance and of the multi‑stakeholder process. It then gave us this platform, the structures, the modalities, what we see around us for communication and sharing for addressing internet governance.
That's the IGF that we've all joined this week and there really is no other event like the IGF. There is no alternative and there is no better idea anywhere in the world which can fulfil the Tunis Agenda, which can justify the work which created that angenda and the work which has come from it.
The IGF has become a key mechanism for supporting the unique global critical infrastructure of the internet through powerful linkages between and among its stakeholders and decision‑makers. These are linkages which are fundamental now to internet governance as it has been defined.
A recent study placed the value of the internet economy in the G20 nations at USD 2.3 trillion. That value actually puts it into the G20 and in five years time the internet economy is expected to join the G5 let's call it that is one of the five largest economies in the world ahead of Germany.
If you look at the actual running costs of the IGF, if you look at the funding just required to provide the basic secretariat this looks to me like very good value.
As a simple overhead it's less than one millionth of the value of business it supports and that's without even valuing the other returns from the internet, the social cultural and political returns which are generated.
The IGF has had support from the UN and governments. The technical community and others have also contributed since the start, in particular the internet technical organisations have increased their support by over 100 per cent just for this year and from hereon because we see how essential and expansive and adaptable this process has become.
Others we know are doing the same because we do believe that with rights come responsibilities. The IGF has been created in a UN summit and it has had good support from governments but this is a multi‑stakeholder process and we and others have got to participate and contribute in accordance with our means of course, to truly stake our claim, our stake holding in this process.
Let's agree that the IGF is here to stay for as long as there are internet governance challenges to address, for as long as, in fact, the internet itself keeps growing and changing.
Let us understand as stakeholders we have a duty to support it in every way, as I said, in accordance with our means but in accordance with the benefits that we receive and that we expect you from the internet.
Just, finally, one remark about the future and about the important topic of enhanced co‑operation, because in our view enhanced co‑operation has taken place within the IGF since it started through a process that enables and enhances co‑operation among all the stakeholders and the groups involved with the IGF.
We believe that the IGF is precisely the venue in which we can continue that process through the maintenance of this truly open, participative and efficient place of exchange and learning among all the stakeholders involved.
Thank you very much once again to you all, safe travel home. I would like to wish to our generous hosts a very relaxing weekend's rest as well. Thank you very much.
(applause)
THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Paul, for your remarks.
Next I would like to invite Mr Harijadi the Secretary of the Director General of ICT Application Minister of Communication and Information Technology on behalf of Indonesian delegation.
DJOKO AGUNG HARIJADI: Thank you, Mr Chairman.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to begin this statement by expressing our deep and sincere appreciation to the Government of Republic of Azerbaijan for the warm welcome and generous hospitality according to the Indonesian delegation since its arrival in Baku.
Let me also take this opportunity to commend the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan together with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the Secretariat of the Internet Governance Forum for the excellent arrangements and organisation of the 7th Internet Governance Forum.
Over the last few days, we have been productively deliberating on the internet governance for sustainable human, economic and social development. As we approach the end of our meeting, Indonesia welcomes the outcome of the forum which aims to foster the sustainability, robustness, security, stability and development of the internet to achieving the ubiquitous society where information can be assessed by anyone anywhere at any time and by anything.
It is our fervent hope that the follow‑up of this meeting will speed up the achievement of the World Summit on the Information Society Targets which in turn will support the attainment of the millennium development goals.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, Indonesia is a strong believer in the role of internet in supporting the development.
As the world's fourth most populous country with more than 240 million people and as an achipelagic country with more than 17,000 islands spanning over three time zones Indonesia cannot overemphasise its need for the IGF support and development.
Spurred by our economic growth we are witnessing the rapid increase of our internet access and penetration, whether in terms of internet subscriber, users and broadband capacity.
It is our strong belief that the growth of the ICT industrial development in Indonesia will present a great opportunity to support the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals and objectives including the MPGs. To this end, we reiterate our commitment and contribution to achieving the work of ubiquitous society as stated in the WSIS account.
Against this background, I have the honour on behalf of the Indonesia delegation to reiterate Indonesia interest to host the 8th Internet Governance Forum 2013.
We hope that we will be able to welcome you in the beautiful island of Bali. In this regard the Indonesian internet stakeholders such as businesses and civil society sector together with Indonesian government looks forward to make the necessary co‑ordination with the UNDESA and the IGF Secretariat in particular of administrative and logistical aspect of the forum.
My delegation also believes that with the strong support of, and co‑ordination with, the international internet multi‑stakeholders we will be able to make the 8th Internet Governance Forum 2013 productive and meaningful.
Mr Chairperson, let me request your indulgence to show a glimpse of Indonesia to the delegation. Thank you very much.
THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you.
(Video played)
THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Mr Harijadi ‑‑ a very good presentation. Now I want to make some statement by myself.
Dear participant of 7th IGF, during these four days of IGF in Baku around 1,600 business leaders, government officials, internet experst, Civil Society representatives engaged in thoughtful discussions about current challenges and future of the internet.
All regions of the world, including Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Caribbean basin, Europe and others were present in our forum, all part of multi‑stakeholders were equally involved in Baku phase of IGF. About 4,000 participants joined our discussions on‑line, including participant from Armenia too. I want specially mention it. Yesterday, one representative from Armenia made a presentation in our workshops.
For us as a host country, it is remarkable to notice that over 1,200 participants of the 7th IGF were from Azerbaijan. So far, it id the biggest international ICT event ever held in Azerbaijan.
We discussed many topics which have an ample impact of the future of the internet. All these discussions and positive outcomes provided once again that IGF is really a unique platform and it gives us a hope that this process will be sustainable in the future.
The Republic of Azerbaijan positions itself as a vital part of digital changes. Azerbaijan has achieved remarkable development of its ICT sector and the development of internet. 65 per cent of the population are internet users and more than 30 are broadband internet user through fixed, wireless and mobile technologies.
Currently, there are 110 mobile subscribers per 100 citizens. The government plans to boost these achievements in the future further and has initiated various ICT projects, such as launching telecommunications satellite and enhancing broadband networks and to bring fibre to all stakeholders especially to the province. In regional scopes, Azerbaijan has initiated (inaudible) super‑information highway to advance local and regional connectivity.
I want especially to emphasise the fact of establishment of the route there necessary in Azerbaijan, the first one in the region, which is by itself a significant contribution to sustainability in the global internet.
This Monday marks another important event for the development of ICT sectors in my country. President of Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, signed a decree to create a high technologies park where local and foreign companies will have additional incentives for activities.
That is all not about growing projects of the Government for improving accessibility, transparency, and quality of contemporary services. Many more projects will be implemented in the future too.
Now I want to make some more remarks for you and make some points regarding our forum.
First, it was a great chance for the Azerbaijani participant to engage in meaningful discussion and contribute to issues related to internet governance.
The second point, which really pleased many of us, including myself, were the warm words which we heard about Azerbaijan, its vibrant culture, diverse and history. It was a double pleasure to hear these words from first time guests in Azerbaijan.
Finally, I warmly send all organisers of the 7th Internet Governance Forum: United Nations, its agency UN DESA, IGF Secretariat, and other UN staff including security, interpreters, our stenographers and special thanks to our staff and our volunteers.
We extend our deepest thanks to all participants and believe that those days in Baku will leave good memories in your mind and your hearts and we wish this success to the next IGF 2013 and the host country, Indonesia.
With these remarks I want to close the 7th Internet Governance Forum. Thank you to all. Our forum is closed.
(The 7th Internet Governance forum closed)