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Chair's Report
The 43rd APEC TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND
INFORMATION WORKING GROUP MEETING
(March 24th- April 1st 2011, Hangzhou, China) Introduction The 43rd APEC Telecommunications and Information Working Group (TEL)
meeting was held in Hangzhou, China from March 27 to April 1, 2011. The
meeting was attended by eighteen (18) member economies (Australia; Brunei
Darussalam; Canada; Chile; China; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan;
Republic of Korea; Malaysia; New Zealand; the Philippines; Russia;
Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; United States of America; and Viet
Nam). Ms. YOO Myung-hee, Program Director of the APEC Secretariat and
representatives from APNIC, GBDe, ISOC, OECD and INTUG also attended the
meeting. Mr. LIU Ziping from China chaired the meeting with Mr. Kenji
TANAKA from Japan as the Vice Chair. The meeting was preceded by a number of workshops, meetings and discussion
sessions as follows: |SUN |MRATF |
|27 March | |
| |Workshop on Cybersecurity Policy Development in the |
| |APEC Region |
| |Workshop on Progress on International Mobile Roaming |
|MON |MRATF |
|28 March | |
| |Workshop on Infrastructure Sharing to Foster Broadband |
|TUE |Workshop on Infrastructure Sharing to Foster Broadband |
|29 March | |
| |Industry Roundtable |
1. Welcome and Opening Ceremony At the opening ceremony, Mr. XI Guohua, Guest of Honor and Vice Minister of
Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) of P.R.China, welcomed all
delegates to the meeting and also expressed his deep condolences to Japan
for the human and property losses caused by the massive earthquake in
Japan. He indicated that ICT industry, as a vital driving force for
economic growth and social progress in each of APEC economies, has become a
fundamental and strategic sector in China. He said China will further
promote long-term, steady and rapid development of ICT industry in the four
areas, namely to accelerate the build-up of information network
infrastructure, encourage innovation of information and communication
technologies and services, promote informatization process of socio-
economic development as well as strengthen regulation on the quality of
communication services and improve the market order. He appreciated the
active role that APEC TEL has been playing in promoting ICT-oriented trade
facilitation, policy and technical cooperation and exchanges in the Asia-
Pacific region, and expressed that he hopes APEC TEL would be able to
respond actively to the objectives as defined at TELMIN8 and advance its
work to a new level. In his remarks, Mr. MAO Guanglie, Guest of Honor and Vice Governor of
Zhejiang province, introduced the progress made in ICT development in the
province and the ambitious plan to build a "Smart Zhejiang". In his
remarks, Mr. WANG Xuexian, Guest of Honor and Ambassador from Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of P.R.China, noted the important role that ICT is playing
in promoting economic cooperation in the Asia Pacific region and proposed
that APEC TEL give attention to align its activities more closely with APEC
objectives and strengthen cooperation with other relevant APEC fora. In his address on behalf of APEC TEL, Mr. LIU Ziping, the TEL Chair, said
that APEC TEL has been involved actively in pursuing cooperation over the
past 20 years among its 21 member economies in the fields of ICT policy and
regulation, infrastructure development, new technologies and services and
capacity building in line with the broad APEC agenda for trade facilitation
and economic cooperation. Our cooperation and deliverables are playing an
increasingly important role in terms of establishing common objectives in
the Asia-Pacific region and facilitating ICT development within each of our
member economy. He mentioned that the Okinawa Declaration and APEC TEL Strategic Action
Plan towards 2015 as adopted at TELMIN8 in Japan has given TEL a well-
defined roadmap and action plan, focusing on the following five pillars:
develop ICT to promote new growth; enhance socio-economic activities
through the use of ICT; promote a safe and trusted ICT environment; promote
regional economic integration and strengthen cooperation in the ICT sector.
He indicated that TEL has a lot more to accomplish, not only in terms of
responding jointly to the opportunities and challenges that arise from
technological development and market changes, in particular the Internet,
but also in terms of how we should look beyond ICT itself and apply it more
widely and effectively to the higher objectives of social and economic
development. 2. Opening Address In his opening address at the first plenary, Mr. LIU Ziping welcomed
delegates to Hangzhou, China for the TEL43. He said that the discussions over the past days are useful inputs to the
deliberations at the liberalization, security and development Steering
Groups on how we should further enhance our cooperation in line with our
leaders and ministers' instructions. As the first meeting after TELMIN8,
TEL43 is a meeting to discuss ways and means for effective implementation
with on-the-ground actions. 3. Adoption of Agenda The agenda for the plenary (2011/TEL43/PLEN/001) was adopted as proposed. 4. Report on APEC Developments 4.1 APEC 2011 Priorities and APEC 2010 Outcomes The APEC Secretariat informed the meeting that the report on key APEC
developments has been uploaded (2011/TEL43/PLEN/003-004) and proceeded to
highlight the developments of relevance to TEL. The meeting was briefed
that in 2011 APEC will build toward a "seamless regional economy" with
focus on the following three specific priority areas: (1) strengthening
regional economic integration and expanding trade, which include next
generation trade and investment issues such as supply innovation, and trade
and technology, and what the 21st century trade agreements in the region
might look like; (2) promoting green growth and (3) advancing regulatory
cooperation and regulatory convergence. The Secretariat mentioned that the
first and third priorities are of particular relevant to the work of TEL
and the progress in TEL's work could contribute to promoting these
priorities this year. 4.2 Key Outcomes of SCE and Committee Meetings The APEC Secretariat reported on the key outcomes of the recent SCE
meetings, in particular regarding the following four points: (1) scheduling
of working group meetings, (2) Independent Assessment in SCE, (3) work plan
of TEL and (4) Strategic Plan Guide and Template for SCE
(2010/TEL43/PLEN/007-009). First, the APEC Secretariat highlighted the
policy on scheduling of working group meetings, adopted by the SCE in March
2011: to the maximum extent possible and as long as the host economy is
willing, sub-fora meetings should be held at the same time and at the same
venue as the major SOM meetings, and in the event that chairs of sub-fora
consider it necessary to hold meetings with different schedule or outside
the host economy for reasons that they judge will improve their
effectiveness, they should consult with chairs of SCE and seek
authorization. The Secretariat advised the meeting to inform the SCE Chair
of TEL's meeting schedules, which have been already decided for the next
two years. Second, the APEC Secretariat informed the meeting that SCE endorsed the
concept note for the 2012 Independent Assessment of SCE sub-fora, which
includes TEL, along with four other working groups. The assessment for TEL
will be undertaken next year, if the concept note is approved by the BMC. Third, the APEC Secretariat reported that the SCE endorsed the work plans
for 16 working groups, including that of TEL. Forth, the APEC Secretariat briefed the meeting that the SCE discussed the
draft Strategic Plan Guide and Template for SCE, which was prepared by the
APEC Secretariat to promote effectiveness and better alignment with APEC
activities, and invited members' inputs into the document to better assist
fora in aligning their and APEC's plan for current year priorities. The meeting was also briefed on the CTI meetings held in March 2011 that
CTI would develop intersessionally work plans with clear time frame and
deliverables in the three key areas: (1) next generation trade and
investment issues; (2) trade facilitation and supply-chain connectivity;
and (3) environmental goods and services (EGS). In particular, regarding
the next generation trade and investment issue, CTI agreed to submit a
potential list of next generation trade and investment issues to CTI2 for
consideration through FOTC. Some of the issues floated as possible next
generation issues are relevant to the work of TEL, which include innovation
and access to technology, supply chain, cloud computing and associated
issues including infrastructure and access interoperability and standards,
data portability, data security, privacy, etc. With regard to the report on outcomes of the SCE meeting, the Chair gave
particular attention to the SCE's policy of scheduling working group
meetings and the need for further cooperation with