IGF Opening Ceremony 2.1

SÉRGIO REZENDE: We call this session to order. We are already late. We have to catch up. But I have to say a few words. I chose to say very few words in the opening session, and chose to speak a little bit in more detail in this section here. So I speak for about ten minutes, but then we have several speakers, and I am asking the speakers to be short. Otherwise, I will not be able to finish on time. The Brazilian government authorities are honored to host the second Internet Governance Forum, the IGF. It's an honor and a pleasure to welcome you to this beautiful and hospitable city of Rio de Janeiro. To host people from all over the world here to discuss and exchange experience on the issues relating to this great recent conquest of mankind, the Internet. As you all know, ladies and gentlemen, this forum, organized by the United Nations, is a legacy of the two phases of the World Summit on the Information Society, held in two parts, in Geneva and in Tunis, where Brazil was an active participant. This world summit was convened by the United Nations general assembly, with the essential purpose of setting guidelines for information and community technologies to be able to make a decisive contribution to achieving the millenium development goals. The millenium development goals seek to meet the basic needs of promoting the development, freedom, and human dignity and to eradicate human poverty. The IGF has a mission to discuss and find ways to ensure that Internet can be a tool for meeting the principles and commitments of the Tunis Agenda, to build an Information Society which is inclusive, human centered, and geared to development. Access to effective use of Internet and information technologies are an essential factor for societies to achieve competitiveness and to develop their nations. These instruments provide a new paradigm for social organization, which has been called the Information Society. And contribute significantly to social, economic, and cultural development for all peoples.

Internet has tremendous potential for promoting a global partnership for development as advocated in the Millenium Development Goals. However, if this global communications environment is to be effective, Internet requires the participation of all peoples. The basic characteristics of the Internet, the essence, if you like, is cooperation, access for all to an agreed common communication protocol, interconnection between regional networks, to create a network of networks, and to share the information in these networks. Without the spirit of sharing, of connectivity, of mutual support, Internet will lose its strength as a way of promoting global development. We will lose an opportunity to communicate between nations, we will lose the support for information and communication services and technologies. Lastly, without the participation and cooperation of all, the Internet cannot be sure nor stable. That's why we defend Internet governance that is representative and balanced. Balanced in terms of countries and regions, but also balanced in terms of the different sectors of society. We stand for a type of governance which is not the preserve of any particular country's government. Equal treatment for all nations is a pre-condition to building global confidence in the functioning of the Internet, and thus promoting the sustainability of Internet. Despite its localized origin, starting with the development of ARPANET for the scientific community in the United States, initially, subsequently a global network, Internet is the result of many, many revolutionary contributions made by various individuals and bodies from different countries. Some of them are here. With the advent of effective navigators and the World Wide Web, Internet has spread to all sectors of societies, to all countries. It has become a tool used by all of us to exchange messages, to gain access to information through the use of effective, efficient research engines. It is also a tool for remote education, for e-trade, for e-government. And lastly, it is a way in which people, entities, businesses and governments communicate with each other, cooperate and carry out financial and commercial transactions. The Internet is essential for the growth of the individual and for the growth of nations. It requires a participation, cooperation of all. It is a universal good of public interest. As such, governance needs to focus on this public goods aspect and needs to be focused on the development of the human individual, and must be focused on building a more just society on our planet. Education is today largely recognized as fundamental to development for people and nations. However -- And everyone calls for the universalization of that education. We need to recognize that Internet is an effective tool for communication and the information technologies also promoting universalization. The digital divide that exists today needs to be eliminated because it is a factor which increases disparities in levels of development among countries with the tragic consequences we are all aware of. Digital inclusion is an essential objective to build a more just and more harmonious world. The developing countries-- Sorry, the developed countries whose people, for the most part, do have computers, have access to the Internet, the developed countries must contribute to digital inclusion programs for the poor countries. And the developing countries must intensify their efforts to expand the use of computers and to allow people to have access to Internet. In Brazil, the government of President Lula has made great progress to that end. The Computers for All program has resulted to a significant drop in the cost of personal computers which has allowed less well-off families to acquire computers and has considerably expanded the market for computers. This year, about 10 million PCs will be made in Brazil. We also have digital inclusion programs. These programs seek, by 2010, the end of the current government's term, to ensure that 140,000 government schools have access to Internet, most of them through a broadband connection. This forum in Rio de Janeiro is one of the four fundamental subjects which will be discussed here on access, diversity, openness and security. This IGF will also discuss the vital subject of the use of Internet resources and the administration of those critical resources. We also believe we need to discuss here how critical resources of the Internet, including administration of domain names and numbers, can be managed in a coherent way in keeping with the principles of Tunis. The governance of Internet must be structured in order to meet these needs without in any way jeopardizing the efficiency of the Internet with a view to finding quick solutions to urgent issues which is required in order to keep up the dynamism which is the characteristic of the development of the Internet. In addition to these core resources, then, there will also be discussion of other issues here for the first time, emerging issues such as incentives and competition and content production. Let us ensure access to knowledge as one of the objectives to be achieved. In this sense, the Tunis Agenda seeks more recognition of the role that can be played by open systems and alternative licensing schemes to promote digital inclusion and the construction of a virtual environment, a collaborative environment that promotes development. On the preservation and promotion of cultural diversity, this is of fundamental importance for universal acceptance of Internet. We attach great importance to the development of a charter of Internet rights. The development agenda adopted by the United Nations, by the World Intellectual Property Organization October this year, is an innovative way of reorienting the discussions on intellectual property. Security, without any doubt, is a concern and also a challenge for all of us. This is a subject which needs to be discussed in detail. We need to respect the fundamental rights of the individual, including freedom of expression, while avoiding excessive controls which would restrict such rights and which would limit the flow of information. We must support mechanisms to combat cyber crime, particularly to protect children against sexual abuse and exploitation. Respect for fundamental rights in the Internet must not be assured without access to knowledge. In this respect, the Tunis Agenda empowered and recognized the role to be developed by open standards and by free software, especially in the construction of a virtual environment, which is collaborative and favorable to development, as well as promoting digital inclusion. Ladies and gentlemen, Brazil remains committed to the Tunis Agenda and with the implementation of commitments taken on at the world summit about the Information Society. The committee of the Internet in Brazil is a successful national experience in the management of the national names domain, the managing committee is made up by representatives of the government of civil society and of the private sector as well as the academic community. This is a participative model of Internet governance at national level, fully in agreement with the principles of multilateralism, transparency and democracy. The IGF here in Brazil, we have less formality, and the presence of nongovernmental actors, and the open possibility for everyone to participate as individuals or users of the Internet turn this forum into a very special instance. Finally, I couldn't but once again emphasize the need for a wide program for training society, especially in less developed countries, training them in the useful use of the Internet and of information technology. The exclusion of a considerable part of mankind from the society of information would represent a tragedy that would jeopardize the political and economic stability of the world. To conclude on behalf of the Brazilian government, I wish you all an excellent stay in Brazil. Good Luck, and success in this collective undertaking for all of us. Thank you very much, and have a very good day.

SÉRGIO REZENDE: Now I would like to call to present his words, Mr. Hamadoun Touré, secretary-general, International Telecommunication Union, ITU.

HAMADOUN TOURÉ: Good morning. Mr. Chairman, being the first speaker, I will use one of the ITU traditions in congratulating you for all the coming speakers so that they save time in not repeating that. So on behalf of all the speakers, I would like to congratulate you for your brilliant election

HAMADOUN TOURÉ: And also thank the organizers and the host country for all the good things that have done. I hope that will save one minute of each of the speakers' time. Thank you very much. I would like to express my gratitude of being here, in addressing this. As Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union, I have been in the office just for one year, and my main focus has been on ICT development. And as you all know, it is very close to my heart. The WSIS process has been a very open and transparent one, and I'm very pleased that -- to restate that very important step that was decided in the ITU plenipotentiary conference in 1998, and at the time the main reason for organizing WSIS was that we were close to the deadline of not bridging the digital divide. Actually, the deadline for the so-called missing link. And I would just like to remind you that the monster is not only bigger but it's faster. Therefore, we need to put real action into all the talks that we are making here. And I hope that the Rio forum will be a very good continuation of the Athens forum and will also come to really concrete results. I am summarizing my speech here. It's 20 pages long. I hope you don't want me to read it all. I will make it available for you, but I will just say a few bullet points in here. The ITU has been cooperating with all stakeholders since the Tunis Summit, and we are very pleased with the progress made so far in many areas. And I want to take the opportunity to thank all the partners who have been working with us. ITU is mainly busy in three main areas: Standardization, development issues, capacity building in development, and we will host this week a couple of forums on those two issues. I believe that capacity building will be one of the most important thing for our countries, for all to really join the Information Society. And we need to work together to build, really and concretely, an inclusive Information Society where there will be equal opportunity for all. One of the key roles in the standards development, our work on DSL and cable, wire-line, broadband standards have made end users' broadband a reality for hundreds of millions of users over the last few years. ITU-T developed X509 as the definitive reference recommendation for electronic authentication over public networks and public key infrastructure, PKIs. ITU is now carrying out vital work establishing standards on new generation networks, or NGN, based on Internet protocol technologies that will eventually replace the current PSTN. ITU is also conducting a number of related work programs with global scope in areas such as IPTV, cybersecurity, multi-major coding, using ITU voice and video standards. Through the development sector, ITU is assisting developing countries in using information and communication technologies as an engine for accelerated development, social and economic development, national prosperity, and global competitiveness. The Connect the World initiative is based on building multistakeholder process to achieve bold targets in ICT connectivity. Some of you may have been in Kigali with us just two weeks ago where we launched the first Connect the World series in connecting Africa, summits in Kigali, which was very successful. Finally, ITU plays an important role in capacity building in ICTs and in providing a forum for discussion of urgent policy issues by means of events such as the global symposium for regulators, and world telecommunication policy forums with systematic meetings and workshops on Internet governance, cybersecurity, and Spam, among others.

Let me also mention that the innovation that has characterized the development of the Internet over the past 30 years will innovatively lead to a change in the landscape, shifting of roles, of key players, and the introduction of a new type of competition on the theme we are here to discuss. Experience shows that the more we resist change, the higher the pressure for change. Having witnessed the changes in the ITU landscape, I'm certainly in a very good position to say this. In summary, what is needed is next-generation Internet governance, the development of an enabling environment that assists governments to foster supportive, transparent, pro-competitive policy, as well as a legal and regulatory framework to provide appropriate incentives for investment and community development in the information society. What is needed is the development of an overarching and enduring architecture based on policy, legal and regulatory initiatives with intergovernmental collaboration, and capacity-building efforts may be made toward finding common international technical and policy approaches to promote an enabling environment globally, offering the maximum benefits to society. In conclusion, I would like to remind you all of the spirit of the WSIS that is of inconclusion, cooperation, and tolerance. Let the beautiful skies of Rio be the uniting force for this meeting. Thank you very much.

SÉRGIO REZENDE: Thank you, Mr. Touré. I would like now to ask Ms. Anriette Esterhuysen, executive director, Association for Progressive Communications, APC.

ANRIETTE ESTERHUYSEN: Thank you, chairman. And thank you, Mr. Touré, for cutting some of my speech. It's -- one always prepares something beforehand. But I think like other speakers and like the chair in his introduction indicated, the Internet has enormous potential for contributing to all aspects of human development. And we in my organization believe it's a public good, and therefore it should be governed as a public good based on public interest principles. And also, this governance should take place in the public domain. We need all institutions and all processes that are involved in governance of the Internet to be transparent, to facilitate participation, and participation from all stakeholders, and participation in decision-making, to provide access to information. And this is a very broad -- this does not apply just to ICANN; this applies to all aspects of Internet policy and government. On the themes of the forum, we think there are some key issues. Some of them have been addressed already. In the security theme, as was said by the chair, unless you link human rights and the right to privacy and other freedoms to security, you can create a less-secure environment rather than a more-secure environment. And we urge the IGF to maintain this link. In the theme of openness, we think there are two primary issues to be addressed. On the one hand, freedoms, freedom of expression, and the removal of barriers to people being able to use the Internet in any way they want to. And on the other hand, standards. Increasingly, there are standards being made outside of public spaces that have social implications that limit what people can do with the Internet. And the IGF needs to address this. This touches on issues of intellectual property, interoperability between different applications and devices. And these are things that impact on the cost. Why should blind people pay more for interfaces to read text because they're blind and because someone owns a royalty on making two applications talk to one another? This is wrong. On the issue of access, I think as has been said, it's really vital. We heard already, five billion people in the world do not have access. We hear proclamations about wireless solutions, about private sector investment and initiatives driven by governments, by intergovernmental organizations. And, yet, there are still five billion people in the world without access. The IGF needs to prioritize this. And then on diversity, I think what we would say about diversity is that the key to addressing diversity is, it's almost as an equation, if you put openness and access together, you will have diversity. If you remove the barriers that are created by rigid, proprietary intellectual property regimes, you will have more creation, more innovation. So let's focu on diversity as an issue, and linguistic diversity, cultural diversity. But let's remember that by creating more access and more openness, we will immediately, automatically achieve more diversity. And then, finally, about ICANN. I think that we would like to commend the IGF for putting critical Internet resources on the agenda. It's an important issue. But there's also a lot more to talk about other than ICANN. And I've already highlighted many of these issues. So while not avoiding talking about controversial issues, let's not let them dominate the space for the next few days, because there are many other critical issues. And that is why we are here.

SÉRGIO REZENDE: Thank you, Ms. Esterhuysen. I'd like to now call Mr. Guy Sebban, Secretary-General for the International Chamber of Commerce, ICC.

GUY SEBBAN: Excellencies, distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. I am very pleased to be here no longer Rio to participate in this opening ceremony of the second annual Internet Governance Forum. I am very proud to speak on behalf of the business community just after the distinguished representative of ITU, an intergovernmental organization, and after the representation by Anriette on behalf of civil society. It's important, in fact, to keep in mind these three main actors, which are called stakeholders. And this multistakeholder stakeholder approach, on an equal footing, is certainly something that we appreciate very much in the previous session of the IGF in Athens. As you can notice, I have applied the rule that our friend has given us, and I have said nothing to thank everybody. But I cannot go on without thanking not only the organizers and the participants, but also to thank Brazil as a country and all the Brazilian representatives for hosting us here. About the goals of this series of meetings called "IGF." In Athens, we have set the goals and objectives. It was to exchange between specialists, between representatives of civil society, between business people, between representatives of governments on different issues which are directly linked with Internet governance. In this sense, the Athens meeting was a great success. But we have to go further. All these issues should be treated with a lot of attention. And all the discussions that have started in Athens should go on and be deepened and broadened. And that is paving the way also for the next meetings that will take place in India in 2008. Maybe two words about Brazil. Brazil is one of the four "BRIC" countries, as we call them usually. And it's incredible to see the development of this country, and especially in the field of information and communication technology. The reason why this development has occurred is probably because Brazil has applied some basic rules which are very well known to foster the development of new technologies and to foster entrepreneurship. This big country is a democracy, respecting the rule of law, respecting intellectual property rights, and has put in place the right infrastructure to help the development of information and communication technologies. We see in this country great possibility for Internet connection, and in some cases, you can get that even for free. That's for the aspects linked with governments. But I have said that we have also to take into account the role and responsibility of the business community. Usually business is associated with technology. And business has invested a lot in research and development, and also in physical investments, in order to help different people to enjoy the benefits of Internet and all the information and communication technologies. Not being a specialist in this area, I will just read some new technological development that have occurred in this area. Quantum leaps in computing memory through rapid advances in cheap technology, powerful machines in units so small that they are undetectable by the human eye, nano technologies, face recognition software for better security in the airports, smart engines, social networking, thanks to Web 2.0, long-distance medical monitoring and long-distance learning, and the list goes on. I could spend a lot of time explaining all the new developments that are due to technology in which the business community has invested a lot in terms of people and money. But to be successful, it's not enough to have on one side as governments and the intergovernmental organizations playing the role and on the other side the businesses trying also to reach some objectives. I think the key word in this arena is certainly "cooperation." And this cooperation between these actors -- governments, business, civil society -- is absolutely essential. And the business community not only investing and making research, has also spent a lot of efforts in order to convince the governments to put in place the right legislative framework. For us, this is absolutely key to create what is called this enabling environment, which means that the governments are really putting in place the right condition for attracting business in the different countries. But all these efforts finally are done for what reason? I think it's mainly also to satisfy the needs of individuals. And it's a pity to see that only a small proportion of the people living on this earth have access to these technologies. So I think all these efforts should be made for permitting access to the many billions of people who don't enjoy this possibility. You know that our organization, ICC, has launched an initiative called BASIS. And I just wanted to tell you two things about our organization. First of all, it's that we have recently published a booklet which is called "An Inventory of Policy Position and Practical Guidance," in which we have put all the position papers and the policy positions that we have developed in our commission. That's one achievement of a team of many experts. And we are very pleased to offer you this booklet, which is available here on our store. And a last word about our organization. In Athens, we have organized one workshop. Here, in Rio, we are organizing two workshops. That means that we will have one which is organized with the Oxford Institute on security, which seems to be also a very important topic these days. And we will focus in this workshop mainly on digital identity management and on identification. The second workshop is about multistakeholder policy development processes, which is very important. And we are co-organizing that with the French Foreign Ministry of Affairs and the Association for Progressive Communication, the Swiss Off. Comm., and also Congo. So it's a true multistakeholder participation. And we invite all of you to participate as much as you can to these workshops. So I would conclude now my remarks. And I would like to thank you very much for your attention and for your presence and for your energy and your enthusiasm to participate in this forum and make it a great success. Thank you.

SÉRGIO REZENDE: Thank you, Mr. Sebban. I'm afraid we are lagging in time. I have to ask the speakers again to be as brief as they can. And I'd like to call now Ms. Lynn St. Amour, president and CEO of the Internet Society.

LYNN ST. AMOUR: It is a great pleasure for me to be near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the Internet Governance Forum this week. And thank you to all those who made it possible. I would like to share with you the perspective I bring to the IGF as president and CEO of the Internet Society. And today, the message I would like to focus on is best captured by the possibly somewhat overexposed phrase "think globally and act locally." ISOC is an independent, international nonprofit organization with more than 26,000 members in 180 countries and over 180 chapters spread around the world. We are proud to have been established by two of the fathers of the Internet, Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf. And, in fact, Vint was the first executive director of the Internet Society. ISOC has promoted the open development and growth of the Internet since 1992. We are the organizational home for the Internet Engineering Task Force, IETF. We work globally and locally and for over 15 years, our activities, particularly in developing countries, have helped expand the reach of the Internet and worked to strengthen the local environment and increase local capacities of all kinds. A healthy and robust Internet requires local conditions that support an environment characterized by choice, connectivity, and active communities, an environment in which skills development, capacity-building, and local content development are real priorities, an environment in which businesses are attracted by enabling public policy environments and predictable investment climates. These characteristics are not particular to the Internet or to the Internet's deployment. They are fundamental to a nation's economic and social development. For the Internet to be a powerful instrument that increases productivity, generates economic growth, job creation, and employability and improve the quality of life for all, it needs conditions in which it can flourish. This is no trivial matter. It is not easy. Yet these conditions are essential to bringing the next billion people online. And the billion after that, the billion after that, the billion after that, the billion after that. By the time we get those billion people online, there will be several more billion that need to come online. The Internet Governance Forum presents all stakeholders with a unique opportunity to catalyze local change. The IGF is not only a forum for dialogue, but it is a medium that should encourage fundamental change at the local level to empower communities, build capacity and skills, enable the Internet's expansion, thereby contributing to economic and social development. The results of the IGF must be to contribute to and support the deployment of the Internet, and fundamentally, this must be done at the local level. So let us leverage the IGF to bring forth the tools, skills, and knowledge to empower all stakeholders, including governments, to effect this change. To succeed, we must preserve and promote the spirit and intent of the IGF. We must preserve and promote its multistakeholderism, its dynamic, open, and collaborative nature, and its encouragement of open and frank exchanges of views, free from the pressure of negotiations. Supporting and contributing to the evolution of the Internet as an open, decentralized platform for innovation, creativity, and economic opportunity is the best way for the Internet to help improve the lives of people everywhere. We have seen that throughout its history, the Internet has always been defined by the energy and ideas of those who use it. As new communities come online, we are excited by the creativity and innovation they bring, and we are constantly reminded of the duty we all share in supporting their emergence. ISOC encourages all stakeholders to reinvigorate their commitment to assisting new communities to come online and identifying local solutions to the challenges that we all face in ensuring the Internet is for everyone, as we still have a very, very long way to go. Thank you.

SÉRGIO REZENDE: Thank you, Ms. St. Amour. I'd like to call his excellency, Mr. José Mariano Gago, Minister of Science and Technology and Higher Education of Portugal.

JOSÉ MARIANO GAGO: Minister Sérgio Rezende, Minister Gilberto Gil, Secretary-General of the U.N., representatives of governments and international organizations, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, as Acting President of the Council of Ministers of the European Union, responsible for policies on the society of information and representative of the Portuguese government, I would like to warmly greet and in Portuguese, the Brazilian government and organizers of this forum. Congratulations and thank you for the hospitality and for the quality of organization of this meeting. Portugal is a justly proud for the success and affirmation of Brazil, which has shown in an exemplary manner tremendous capacity for progress in the conceiving and adopting of policies for the information society in the benefit of its economic and social development. The Brazilian initiative to organize tomorrow a seminar on free access to knowledge in Portuguese-speaking countries deserves our full support, because we are certain that this will stimulate similar actions in other language or regional spaces. The European Union shares from the very first moment the major objectives and the preparation of this IGF, as well as the meetings that preceded it. The European Union was always in favor of the open, diverse, multivaried nature of the forum, which is geographically balanced and made up of organizations of different natures whose wealth is precisely in its innovative nature as to the site of debate and concentration of the forum.

It's not just yet another political, multilateral instance, but it is an open and innovative forum. And this seems to us to be the best way for us to work together to defend the very social innovation the Internet has brought about. The European Union has soon understood that we weren't dealing here with just infrastructures, but these were social networks and movements. The notion of policies for the Information Society in every country as well as at the union school has proved this understanding. Also, the definition of common objectives for the whole European Union is a consequence of this policy. The reference framework adopted, which we call I-2010, enshrines our present goals. European space for information, our bed in the research and the development in information and communication technologies, and encouragement to advanced content and services. Lines of action such as the generalization of the wide band security and neutrality, modernization of public services as in the e-gov and the public bed in the generalized use of the Internet and information technologies for economic competitiveness as well as in health, education, trade, supply, and production of multicultural and multilingual contents for the capacity building and the very breathing of democratic societies. And in the support to social and cultural inclusion and in the support of people with deficiencies or special needs, and more recently, initiatives for the development and views of the RFIT make true in the European Union the political objectives that are the object of mutual assessment, of benchmarking, discussion, exchange of experience between countries and regions. It is this experience that the European Union wishes to share with the rest of the world. The investment of the union in the creation and operation of networks for science and education, not just within its own territory, but also in connection, as happens, with Latin America, with Africa, all the Mediterranean basin, are concrete examples of the wish for cooperation and support to development at global scale. The European Union wishes, of course, its efforts favoring development and knowledge at global scale to find increasing response and partnerships in other spaces, organizations, and countries. And this is what we invite you to. It is not by chance that the World Wide Web model was developed in one of the most important international research laboratories, the Cern, as an open tool of free use. The new forms of development and open organization of the Internet and the role developed by the various organizations intervening in the present open model for governance, especially the ICANN, have shown so far an unprecedented response capacity. The present model is flexible, dynamic. It can be and has been improved, and should continue. Governments should guarantee independence of organizations that participate, especially the ICANN, and guarantee a balance and international openness. It would be going backwards, and this would be unacceptable in our opinion to go back to old forms of multilateralism applied to the Internet. In the last decades, the Internet revolutionizes and expands our expectations for freedom and democratic participation of access to information and knowledge, of plurality of languages and cultures, and the variety and wealth in the action of millions of social actors at planet scale. The Internet has fulfilled a hundred, a thousand times its initial promise, and has opened up new challenges, against free access to the Internet, against the formation of social networks for global information, and against the freedom of expression and access to knowledge, stand all fanaticisms and all enemies of democracy in vain. The World Summit on the Information Society stated what we defend heartily, not just for us in Europe but throughout the world, is the following. And the Geneva declaration says, Information Society and that's outlines in the universal declaration of human rights that everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression. That this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Communication is a fundamental social process. A basic human need, and the foundation of all social organization. It is central to the Information Society. Everyone, everywhere, should have the opportunity to participate and no one should be excluded from the benefits the information society offers. Thank you very much.

SÉRGIO REZENDE: Thank you, Minister Mariano Gago. I would like to now call Mr. Paul Twomey, president, CEO of ICANN.

PAUL TWOMEY: Minister Rezende, Minister Gil, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to begin by congratulating the government of Brazil and the Brazilian Internet community and the United Nations, in particular the IGF Secretariat, for arranging this second meeting of the Internet Governance Forum in this remarkable city of Rio de Janeiro. The Internet Governance Forum brings together a diverse group of individuals in the aim of sharing knowledge and experience over and about this one global interoperable Internet. We should all be proud of our achievements so far. Over one billion individuals online. Trillions of dollars of business being conducted over a network which comprises hundreds of millions of computers and devices all communicating with one another across the globe. It has given the individual in our societies an ability to communicate and interact with others unprecedented in human history. It has reformed industries, and caused us to rethink how we view ourselves and our planet. But with this extraordinary change also comes challenges. And that is what this forum is about: Bringing together people to talk, review, discuss, and hopefully envision solutions to some of the issues that are before us. The agenda of this meeting captures them. Most important, of course, as others have said, is access. Our discussions here will mean nothing to someone not able to get onto the network in the first place. And the challenge now is to ensure that we bring the next billion people online. Diversity, openness, security, access, critical internet resources, are all topics for this IGF. All these topics will be discussed over the course of these next few days, and I hope at the end of it we end up one step further down the line in solving some of the issues they represent. ICANN, like other Internet organizations, is committed to the multistakeholder and open way of doing business where anyone, anyone, from governments, the technical community, business and civil society can participate freely, either in person or virtually. We are pleased that the IGF is also following this model. ICANN has a participative community of up to 20,000 people around the world involved within its very narrow mandate of technical coordination for the DNS and I.P. addressing. I would like to issue a personal invitation to all people here to join that community, to participate as you wish and desire, and to help with their work and its evolution. Before finishing, I would also like to thank ITU secretary-general Hamadoun Touré, and the UNESCO leadership for their support and assistance in helping to produce a joint workshop with ICANN this week that will review how international cooperation can be used to establish standards for a multilingual, global, and interoperable Internet, the inevitable next step for this extraordinary medium. I wish you all a fruitful week, and I look forward to continuing discussions again next year in Delhi. Thank you

SÉRGIO REZENDE: Thank you, Mr. Twomey. I would like now to call Mr. Naoyuki Akikusa, chairman Fujitsu limited, Chairman of Global Information Infrastructure Commission. And I am going to ask Minister Gilberto Gil to chair the remainder of this session.

NAOYUKI AKIKUSA: Mr. Chairman and all the distinguished participants, thank you for the opportunity to visit Rio de Janeiro. I appreciate the warm welcome from our Brazilian host. I have been working with various business organizations on policy development. Currently, I am serving as the chairman of the Global Information Infrastructure Commission, GIIC. The GIIC wishes to provide private sector leaders to host investment in the ICT and Internet capability. The GIIC has actively participated in many meetings of the World Summit on the Information Society, the WSIS, and also the -- in the discussion at the IGF. And holding workshop access tomorrow morning. At GIIC annual meeting in Tokyo next April, and we hope to discuss further the issue of Internet governance and related issues. Today I want to talk about two topics. One is environment and Internet -- and ICT. Second one is corporate management and the Internet. Speaking of the environment and ICT, considering the sustainability of economic development, empowered by the Internet. The Internet is becoming a more important factor. However, we have most -- we have not sufficiently discussed environment impact of the use of such technology. The Internet and ICT can reduce the burden of the environment. For example, distillization and mechanical components greatly improve the accesses. For example, automatic controls, some medical equipment like CTI, and also teleconference reduces physical movement of persons and goods. Emerging management system improves power efficiency in businesses and homes in the public sector. However, the energy consumption in the world ICT use -- sorry, in the world IC uses is not so small. We need to think about more efficient use of our resources. The ICT uses account for 2% of CO2 consumption worldwide.

Some studies show that data centers consume 23% of that amount. Half of -- the air conditioning for cooling consumes half of the power in the datacenter. I would like to show some example. Replacing ten blocks of service by one great server can annually reduce CO2 emissions by the equivalent amount of planting 200 trees. The ISP in our company, Fujitsu Group, is now using 25% of its mail servers to combat Spam. And 90% of e-mail coming to Fujitsu are Spam. I think probably the communication carrier use a huge amount of energy and cost for Spam. We are facing many environmental matters to be solved and to discuss in the future. For the (inaudible) development of the global Internet, I think we should pay more attention to accessing this wasting energy and cost. Secondly, I would like to touch upon the corporate management and the Internet. The Internet is a crucial part of the business infrastructure because it circulates everywhere like the air. Companies like Fujitsu heavily depend on the Internet application systems, from R&D to offices to training on education. If Internet doesn't work, it means we cannot continue our business operation. However, many in top management site does not notice this, and think of the Internet as a given infrastructure to utilize. Only a few recognize Internet safety as a critical management issue. To keep secure and stable Internet operation is essential (inaudible) to corporate management. And a company executive should recognize the Internet as one of the most important management issues and coincidentally add something like a subset of worldwide Internet governance. Finally, (inaudible) represented only 30% of all at the IGF in Athens. The important thing for the private sector should be to participate more in the IGF and contribute to its successes. Thank you very much

GILBERTO GIL: Next speaker Ms. Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, Minister of Communications of South Africa. Please.

IVY MATSEPE-CASABURRI: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, as well as the secretary to the forum. I'd like to thank Brazil in particular for having hosted this, but I will do away with all the other thank you's, but I would like to say a special thank you to the secretary-general of the United Nations for fulfilling the mandate of the World Summit on the Information Society by convening the Internet Governance Forum to enable the multilateral, multistakeholder, democratic and transparent dialogue to take place. And I'd like to thank the secretary-general of the ITU in particular for carrying -- for doing a great deal of work to carry this mandate forward. It is now two years since we decided at the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society that we should establish this multistakeholder forum, this Internet Governance Forum, in order to bring together these representatives that we have here today. Few in the world could have predicted that the Internet would grow in the global phenomena it is today. We must thank the dedicated individuals who have committed so much to its growth and to its management. The benefits of increased efficiency and the services that can be delivered through Internet technology have been closely followed by policy challenges, and many of us face those challenges. And we must all rise to those challenges. One of the such challenges is that one that is the most urgent of challenges facing humankind and it is the eradication of poverty and of underdevelopment. This will remain a critical challenge for some years yet. I therefore appeal to this forum to continue to focus on the collective view that was expressed by the declaration of principles in Tunis or in Geneva to build a people-centered, inclusive, and development-oriented Information Society, enabling the individuals, communities, and peoples to achieve their full potential in promoting sustainable development and improving their quality of life. But as we heard today, you can't use it unless you have access to it. And in my country we have a favorite phrase: If you don't use it, you lose it. But we have neither that which we can lose. And it's important to bring that and make sure that we can actually also use it. In east and southern Africa there has already been collaborative effort under the network program of the A.U., the African Union, to build cables, undersea cables, to improve access and to reduce the cost of Internet connectivity as part of what the secretary-general of the ITU spoke about this morning, the connect Africa concept. Another one of the key challenges we face as a people but also as a whole world, and Africa in particular, are the challenges that we must ensure the participation of representative stakeholders on a consistent basis, especially from developing countries and their unconnected people. We therefore need to consider how we can use this tool, the Internet, to address exclusion and underdevelopment. We therefore can ask ourselves what can the IGF do for the billions who do not yet have access, billions who can benefit from the improved way of doing things from accessing government services to e-health, e-education services, etcetera, and a whole range of other services which are offered through the Internet. We need practical solutions to support development. And this development is crucial and crucial now. And as we have endorsed at the WSIS, such things as local content, capacity building, the right of countries to manage their own Internet resources whilst maintaining global coordination are all subject matters of this conference and we hope that as we end the conference we will have moved forward in attending to some of these things. We must take a collective -- make a collective commitment to the next generation Internet and the technologies that will foster the next generation, but we must make sure that the stability and security of the Internet is a global facility and ensuring its requisite legitimacy and governance based on full participation of all stakeholders is maintained. I, therefore, would like to report and echo the call of my own president when he was in Tunis by appealing to everyone that we should ourselves take action to translate the shared vision of an inclusive, development-oriented Information Society into practical reality. We hope that this forum will propel us forward in this mission for benefit of the world, but especially for one of the most marginalized areas of the world, Africa, and I thank you.