Press release

1 Feb 2012

Beirut

ESCWA Launches Conference and Public Consultations to Establish
Arab Internet Governance Forum

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Beirut, 1 February 2012 (UN Information Services) -- UN-ESCWA, the League of Arab States (LAS) and the Lebanese Presidency Council of Ministers (PCM) have jointly organized the Conference and Public Consultations to Establish the Arab Internet Governance Forum (IGF) at Habtoor Grand Hotel, on 31 January and 1 February 2012, in Beirut The opening statement of ESCWA was delivered by the Deputy Executive Secretary, Dr. Nadim Khoury. The statement of LAS was given by Mr. Khaled Foda, Acting Manager of the ICT Department. The host country opening statement was delivered by Mr. Samir el Daher, Advisor to the Prime Minister. Inaugural sessions included notes for setting the scene of the conference discussions on the IGF process, and a keynote speech by Dr. Tarek Kamel, former minister of the Egyptian Ministry of Communication and Information Technology entitled "Internet Governance Priority Issues: Global versus Regional Dynamics". In the first day of the conference, participants addressed the global IGF process, experiences and lessons learned, and engaged in open consultations on the need and nature of the envisaged Arab IGF. The envisaged forum will be the vehicle to implement the Arab Regional Roadmap for Internet Governance, which was overviewed in the conference. Furthermore, consultations deliberated on the proposed Arab IGF process in terms of components, mandate and positioning with the global IGF process, secretariat and multi-stakeholder advisory group. Consultations continued in the second day with a recap and summary of recommendations, and discussions of the proposed Arab IGF process, covering the secretariat, membership, financial requirements, tasks and responsibilities of host country and stakeholders, and relationships with the global IGF secretariat. Consultations also considered the location of the first meeting of Arab IGF, proposed to be held in Kuwait in late 2012. A drafting team from represented countries prepared a correspondence to be submitted by LAS to the meeting of the Executive Bureau of Arab Telecommunications and Information Council of Ministers (ATICM), to be held on 2 February 2012 in Beirut at the same venue of the conference. The conference was co-sponsored by the Réseaux IP Européens (RIPE) and the Kuwait Information Technology Society (KITS), and is held in cooperation with Al-Iktissad Wal-Aamal Group, the IGF Secretariat, and the Arab Working Group on Domain Names and Internet Issues (AWGDNII). The conference Secretariat enabled remote participation through the link http://iuvo.me/ArabIGFConsult, and posted content on social media platforms, namely through http://www.facebook.com/ArabIGF and http://twitter.com/igfarab. For more information: http://www.escwa.un.org/information/meetingdetails.asp?referenceNum=1759E
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