6th APEC Ministerial Meeting on the Telecommunication and Information Industry

Your Excellency, Mr. Carlos Ferrero, Prime Minister of Peru,
Mr. Jose Ortiz, The Honorable Minister of Transportation and Communications of Peru and the Chair of TELMIN 6,
Honorable Ministers, Vice Ministers,
Distinguished representatives from APEC member economies,
My Dear APEC TEL friends, and Ladies and Gentlemen,

Buenos dias!

As the Chair of the APEC Telecommunications and Information Working Group, it is my great honor and pleasure to address this morning at the opening of the Sixth APEC Ministerial Meeting on Information Industry, here in Lima, Peru. I would like to acknowledge Peru, the host economy, for putting great efforts in not only organizing the meeting itself but also drafting the Lima Declaration and the Program of Action, which you will adopt on the third of June, and set clear road map for our future works within TEL.

Thus, on behalf of the TEL Working Group, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the host economy for her warm hospitality and excellent preparation for this very important Meeting at a wonderful venue.

By recognizing critical roles of telecommunications and information sector in the economic growth and social development in the APEC region, from the 1st APEC TEL Ministerial meeting held in Seoul, Korea in 1995, the 2nd in Gold Coast, Australia in 1996, the 3rd in Singapore in 1998, the 4th in Cancun, Mexico in 2000, to the 5th, in Shanghai, China in 2002, our Ministers have put many visions and goals and set mandates for us to establish the Asia-Pacific Information Infrastructure toward the Asia Pacific Information Society.

In the past three years, since TELMIN 5 in Shanghai, TEL has been working steadily and hard to fulfill the mandates set for us by our Ministers and works done by TEL are comprehensive and substantial. As the TEL Chair, I have the obligation to make the Progress Report to the Ministers, and thus, would like to take this opportunity to highlight some of the many achievements TEL has made for the past few years.

In response to the Ministers' instructions in TELMIN5: "?to implement the Digital Divide Blueprint for Action? (and) to undertake broadband related activities?" Matrix of Digital Divide Activities in TEL has been complied and a progress report on the TEL's efforts to implement the Digital Divide Blueprint for Action as well as the progress on achieving APEC's goal to triple internet access by 2005, and to reach universal internet access at the individual or community level by 2010 have been prepared.

Also for the broadband issue, TEL has devised the Key Principles for Broadband Development in the APEC region, where economies are encouraged to develop and implement domestic broadband policies that maximize access and usage; facilitate continued competition and liberalization; foster and enable regulatory frameworks; and build confidence in the use of broadband networks and services.

Against the fundamental directive made by the APEC Leaders in the Bogor Declaration in 1994 where our Leaders pledged that free and open trade and investment should be achieved by 2010 for developed economies and 2020 by developing economies, as well as the directives given by the Ministers to stocktake the progress towards a fully liberalized telecommunications sector in the APEC region, TEL has responded by finalizing the Liberalization Stocktake Report.

Furthermore, works on commitments to the WTO have been substantial in relation to the WTO Basic Telecommunications Reference Paper by providing output of the Progress towards Adopting and Implementing the WTO Reference Paper; as well as compiling the Best Practices in Implementing the WTO Reference Paper.

As for the information security, at TELMIN5, Ministers instructed TEL to give special priority on this issue. Achievements on this area have also been outstanding.

To name a few, TEL has responded to instructions from the Ministers by completing: the Cybercrime Legislation and Enforcement Capacity Building project which facilitates development of information and cyber crime fighting capabilities of member economies; through project on Strengthening Effective Response Capabilities among APEC Economies for Computer Emergency Response Team Capacity Building issue, TEL also held Wireless Security Workshop and developed a future course of works, such as the APEC TEL-OECD joint Workshop on this security issue planned for the coming September TEL meeting, the TEL32, in Seoul.

TEL has also been involved in activities on applications, where applications often have been considered one of the main drivers of development and progress in member economies. Here, e-government issue has been the key work area for TEL.

As directed at TELMIN5, TEL strengthened cooperation and exchange of expertise and knowledge about e-government among APEC fora through: participation in APEC High-Level Symposiums on e-Government; establishment of APEC e-Government Research Center; promoting user-oriented approach by completing e-Government from a Users Perspective project.

To enhance the human capacity building is another key aspect to achieve sustainable and equitable growth and reduce economic disparities within the region. TEL implemented many training projects for policy makers, regulators, service providers and users in the area of policy development, e-government, and regulatory practices to provide more opportunities for training and skill development to help build digital opportunities, such as the APEC Distance Learning Project on Telecommunications Technology, and e-University Network in Human Resource Development for e-Government Project.

Furthermore, the tragedy of the last December in the Southeast Asia reminded all of us of the importance of effective preparedness and response to emergency and natural disaster and the role of ICT in such circumstances.

Thus, APEC TEL submitted The Role of ICT for Disaster Preparedness/Responsiveness Report to the APEC SOM 1 held in Seoul in March this year, and the SOM instructed TEL to work in our specific area to carry out activities relevant to natural disaster preparedness. In response, TEL is now working on devising APEC Guide and Strategy on ICT-based disaster early warning system.

These are the brief summary of our progress for the last few years.

I believe the theme of TELMIN6, "Enabling Digital Opportunities: Harnessing Infrastructures to Advance the Information Society," is a timely and critical issue in a sense that efforts to provide fair access opportunities to the information infrastructure has been one of the long and crucial agendas of the discussions within TEL and I also believe that not only infrastructure development is an important issue, but its effective use is also one of the main tools for creating digital opportunities in our region.

Now, here at TELMIN6, your instructions to us will continue to provide a sound basis for our future works for many years to come.

I hope that this meeting will provide a valuable opportunity for fruitful exchanges of experiences and knowledge and we hope that we could make the most out of this occasion in order to reaffirm our commitments, to enhance mutual cooperation and joint efforts among member economies, to promote a sustainable development and growth on the telecommunications and information sector in the APEC region. Only when we join forces, we can achieve the common prosperity.

The TEL colleagues and I sincerely request your considerate deliberations, wise guidance, continued interest and strong support on many opportunities and works we encounter before us.

And last but not least, on behalf of the TEL colleagues, I would like to mention two important people in the history of APEC TEL. First, Mr. Richard Beaird, the first APEC TEL Chair for the first 7 years, he has laid a solid foundation of the TEL in the 1990s. His vision, devotion, and determination have brought the TEL to a meaningful venue for cooperation in the IT sector in the APEC Region. And, another special person I would like to especially thank is Ms. Salma Jalife from Mexico, the immediate past TEL Chair, who has taken the strong leadership in TEL for the past two years in guiding our works toward achieving your directives and mandates and enabling us to gather at this Ministerial Meeting.

Your Excellency, Honorable Ministers and Distinguished guests,

I look forward to a successful and productive outcome of this Ministerial Meeting and hope to meet you all again at the next TELMIN, the TELMIN 7.

Thank you very much for your attention.