Opening Ceremony 17 July 2019
Speech of H. E. Hasanul Haq Inu MP
Chairman Standing Committee on Ministry of Information and the former Information Minister in Bangladesh and Chairperson of Bangladesh Internet Governance Forum on “Enabling a Safe, Secure and Universal Internet for All in Asia Pacific”
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Wish you a very good morning.
As we are here to discuss shaping our future digital globe and its governance, first, we look, where we stand. We are-
In the 3rd Industrial Revolution of ICT, but race for the 4th is on and the world is parallelly entering into 4 I R, powered by Artificial Intelligence, IOT, Big Data, Analytics, Nano-technology, Robots and so on.
That sounds great. But, the question is, how much we are ready for it!
Excellencies,
There still is unfinished task in present 3rd revolution of ICT to fill the gaps. 57% of the 7.5 billion population of the world are still Offline because of unavailable internet in poverty-stricken and rural parts of the globe. In short, the issues and constraints are:
- Threat of Cyber-criminals, waging a Cyber war on Cyberspace.
- Lack of digital literacy and capacity in Least developed and developing countries.
- States and people of the globe are yet to cope with fast digitization.
- Lack in digital economy management. And
- Democratization of Internet Governance
Distinguished Participants,
With a view to address the above, I propose four Global Agreements coupled with seven Action Plans.
The 4 Global Agreements include-
- A Cyberspace Treaty:
The expanding digital space should have to be free from cybercrimes and cyber-wars. For that, we need a Global Cyberspace Treaty.
- A Digital Economy Framework under UN initiatives:
A framework is a must to harmonize national regulation verses global business objectives and cross-border digital trade. Concentration of global north-based international e-commerce is a threat to the tax-revenues of the global south. This needs to have a fair and equitable collection and distribution of tax-revenues around the world. And to achieve that, UN should initiate this Digital Economy Framework.
- Universal Declaration on `Right to Internet as a Basic Human Right by Law’:
Every human being must have the right to access this enabling technology for free.
- Multi-stakeholder Democratic Governance of the Internet under UN sanctioned format:
Democracy in Internet Governance is a key factor for its sustainability.
The 7 Action Plans include-
- Connecting the Un-Connected
- Content development in respective mother tongues
- Re-modeling of education system to develop ICT-literate citizens
- Widened role of the governments to establish basic digital infrastructure
- Removal of trans-boundary barriers in E Commerce, E Trade and E Business
- SDG-compatible digitization to erode social, economic and digital divide
- Safe, accessible and affordable internet for all.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Having said that, in one word, I would say, Bangladesh, being a developing nation under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, is `Ready for tomorrow’. Out of 160 million people, we have 90.4 million Internet users, 160 million Mobile users, Software Export 1 Billion Doller, ICT Education is Compulsory and 22 thousand ICT Labs have been established in Secondary Schools. All these steps aim at making the nation `Digital Bangladesh’ by 2021.
Eminent Participants,
I once again draw attention of the forum to the proposed 4 Global Agreements and 7 Action Plans to make Internet affordable, accessible, efficient, resilient, reliable, inter-operable, functional, stablem secure, as well as, scalable in the long run. Thus, we will be able to shape our future with sustainable, inclusive and pro-people digital global governance.
The fourteenth Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) will be hosted by the Government of Germany in Berlin from 25 to 29 November 2019 under the overarching theme: One. World. One Net. One Vision.
I’m wishing the success of APRIGF 2019 and look forward to next 14th IGF at Berlin.
Thank you very much. Thank you all.