The 37th Meeting of the APEC Telecommunications and Information Working Group (TEL 37) was held from March 23 to 28, 2008, at Keio Plaza Hotel Tokyo, to discuss the future vision toward the realization of the Asia-Pacific Information Society (APIS). The discussion was conducted in preparation for the 7th APEC Ministerial Meeting of the Telecommunications and Information Industry (TELMIN7), which is to be convened in Thailand later this month. Discussions were also conducted on Universal Service, competition policies, countermeasures against botnets, ensuring the security of ICT products, human capacity building in the ICT field and so on.
Additionally, the Senior Officials Meeting, a high working-level meeting attended by representatives from the APEC member economies, deliberated on the draft ministerial declaration, etc, to be adopted at TELMIN7.
The 38th Meeting of the APEC Telecommunications and Information Working Group (TEL 38) will be held from Sunday, October 12 to Friday, October 17, 2008, in Lima, Peru.
1. Meeting schedule
The meeting was held at Keio Plaza Hotel Tokyo from March 23 to 28, 2008.
2. Participants
About 300 people, including government officials responsible for telecommunications and information in the APEC region as well as private sector representatives, participated in the meeting. Nearly 80 government officials and private sector representatives participated from Japan.
3. Key agenda
(1) Discussion towards TELMIN7
The Senior Official Meeting discussed the draft ministerial declaration, etc., to be adopted at TELMIN7 in Thailand later this month. It is expected that the APIS vision, which identifies the vision of the future telecommunications society to be shared by APEC member economies, will be included in the ministerial declaration. The vision has been discussed under the initiative of Japan according to instructions from APEC ministers, etc.
The TELMIN7 ministerial declaration and other matters will be discussed at the Senior Officials Meeting to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, from Sunday, April 20 to Tuesday, April 22, just before TELMIN 7, and then adopted at TELMIN 7.
(2) Competition policies to respond to rapid changes in telecommunications technologies
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) gave a presentation on the review of its regulatory policy in light of advancing IP technologies in Japan. NTT DoCoMo, Inc. explained a presentation on the roles of mobile communications in line with the u-Japan Policy.
The Liberalization Steering Group (LSG; Deputy Governor: Multilateral Economic Cooperation Office Director NAKANO of MIC) decided to continue opinion exchange on member economies' initiatives for Universal Service in the IP era, competition policies to maintain investment incentives, Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) and so on.
(3) Discussions on transnational cooperation for information security, etc.
The National Information Security Center, MIC and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry gave presentations on Japan's security policy, while the Information-Technology Promotion Agency, Japan (IPA) and the Telecom-ISAC Japan introduced the security measures for ICT products.
The Security and Prosperity Steering Group (SPSG) decided to continue opinion exchange on member economies' initiatives, particularly on international cooperation for countermeasures against botnets.
(4) Discussions on cooperation for technological development
Waseda University gave a presentation on Japan's contribution to the human capacity building program of the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT).
The ICT Development Steering Group (DSG) decided to continue opinion exchange on member economies' initiatives, particularly on government leadership and public-private cooperation in bridging the digital divide.
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International Policy Division,
International Affairs Department
Telecommunications Bureau, MIC
TEL: +81 3 5253 5920 / FAX: +81 3 5253 5924
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