WCIT 2012 Preliminary Program and Highlights!

WCIT 2012 will bring digital gurus together with leaders of government and industry for three days of debate and discussions around shared opportunities for digital innovation across all segments of the society. The Congress will also feature: The United Nations’ World Youth Summit Awards (WSYA) which

promotes best practices in e-content and new media and demonstrates young people’s potential to create outstanding digital content;

A B2B event with structured business meetings aimed at renewing or developing multinational and cross-industry contacts and partnerships;

The C200 Investment Forum that provides a premium networking opportunity between selected Canadian companies seeking investment and invited members of the International ICT Investment community;

A unique showcase of Canadian Innovations and Young Global Innovators, where presenters will demonstrate world-changing ideas and answer questions from the audience; and

The WITSA Global ICT Excellence Awards; identifying the most outstanding ICT users and honoring organizations that have demonstrated exceptional achievement in using ICT to benefit societies, governments, individuals, organizations and the private sector.

Registration is now OPEN.

The World Tech Jam - A Global Forum on Digital Society

WCIT 2012 will be hosting a World Tech Jam in June 2012, where thousands of stakeholders – ICT senior executives, large technology users, representatives from academia, governments, NGOs, policymakers, business leaders and young citizens will come together to crowd source hundreds of new ideas, innovations and actions that the ICT sector can adopt in order to help address societal and economic challenges.

WITSA 2012 Newsletter World Information Technology and Services Alliance Volume 1, 2012

In the NewsIn the NewsIn the News

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WITSA Chairman, Dato’ Dan E Khoo has been invited to speak at the China Strategic Emerging Industry Development forum, to be held in Beijing, China from May 23 to 24. With the theme of Strategic Emerging Industry Development and Economic Restructure, the forum will be held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse and Sunword Dynasty Hotel. The high-level officials’ forum is typically attended by influential figures from selected institutions and enterprises as well as representatives from local and foreign companies. It will be held in conjunction with the 15th China Beijing International High-Tech Expo (CHITEC).

CHITEC has been held every year in the month of May since 1998 and jointly hosted by the State Council, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Industry and Information, State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, the State Intellectual Property Office and Beijing Municipal Government.

Khoo to speak at China Strategic Emerging Industry Development Forum

Poisant to speak at WSIS Forum 2012 (May 16-20, 2012 at Geneva)

The ITU, UNESCO, UNCTAD and UNDP will be organizing the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum 2012, a United Nations (UN) summit from May 14 to 18, 2012 at Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Jim Poisant, WITSA’s Secretary General has been invited to be among the speakers in the High-Level Opening Session to be held on May 14 with the theme “ICT for Sustainable Development: WSIS beyond 2015”. The session will provide an interesting blend of panel of experts with audience interaction on specific topics identified that would be relevant and crucial within the mandate of the WSIS. WSIS Forum 2012 is a UN summit that is a unique two-phase initiative to create an evolving multi-stakeholder platform aimed at addressing the issues raised by information and communication technologies (ICTs) through a structured and inclusive approach at the national, regional and international levels. Its goal is to achieve a common vision, desire and commitment to build a people-centric, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society where everyone can create, access, utilize and share information. For more information about WSIS, go to http://www.itu.int/wsis/basic/about.html.

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WITSA 2012 Newsletter

WITSA Board to meet

in Brasilia

The WITSA Board of Directors which meets twice a year will be having its next meeting in Brasilia in June 2012. ASSESPRO of Brazil, who has won the hosting rights to the Global Policy Action and Trade Summit (GPATS) 2013 will be hosting the meeting.

Event HighlightEvent HighlightEvent Highlight

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WITSA recently introduced a program to enable greater public policy engagement. Members of the council will be made up of multi-stakeholders representing ICT corporations, officials within governments and multilateral organizations, non profit organizations and academic institutions. The council will offer perspectives and recommendations to WITSA on important topic and issues. WITSA believes that this council will bring added value to both WITSA’s policy endeavours as well as WITSA members as a whole. By participating in this program, WITSA believes that members will gain access to a true global network of people who have a common purpose in fulfilling the promise of the Digital Age, across virtually all cultures, societies and stages of economic development, helping to develop and deliver effective public policies regarding the development, application and use of ICT. WITSA is pleased to confirm the following Council members:

WITSA’s Advisory Council

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Volume 1, 2012

Dr. Thomas Stelzer Assistant Secretary General For Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs Department of Economic and Social Affairs United Nations, New York NY

Mr. Allan Marcus Senior Director, Head Information Technolo-gies and Communications Industries The World Economic Forum (WEF) New York, NY

Mr. John S. Wilson Lead Economist Development Economics Research Group Trade and International Integration The World Bank Washington, D.C. 20433

Dr. Robert Kahn (One of the Fathers of the Internet) President & CEO Corporation for National Research Initiatives Reston, Virginia

WITSA is seeking additional members to join the council from all global regions.

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Mr. John Higgins Chairman WITSA Global Policy Action Committee CEO Digital Europe

Trans-Pacific Partnership The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), also known as the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement, is a multilateral free trade agreement that aims to further liberalise the economies of the Asia-Pacific region; specifically, Article 1.1.3 notes: "The Parties seek to support the wider liberalisation process in APEC consistent with its goals of free and open trade and investment." The original agreement between the countries of Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore was signed on June 3, 2005, and entered into force on May 28, 2006. Six additional countries – Australia, Malaysia, Peru, Japan, United States, and Vietnam – are negotiating to join the group. Canada is an observer in the TPP talks but has not committed to join. South Korea has been requested to join and is expected to do so in due course. The eleventh round of negotiations took place on March 1–9, 2012, in Melbourne, Australia.

In the wake of the groundswell against the proposed US Protect IP Act (PIPA) and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), and also the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), to which the EU recently indicated it was delaying accession, WITSA canvassed members and associations in countries affected or potentially affected by the TPP to indicate the extent to which they have been consulted by, or engaged in discussions with, their governments on the contents of any proposed agreement. Based on the survey results, Tim Conway, WITSA's Senior Policy Advisor, made a presentation to stakeholders and negotiators during a Forum organised as part of the Melbourne round of negotiations. A copy of Tim's speech and slides is available at this download link Key points are as follows: WITSA has strong

membership across the TPPA country group, including among those invited (Japan, Canada, Mexico) and interested (South Korea);

Only four associations across these countries have had consultations with their government on the TPPA; of these, only three had been consulted about IP issue;

Most associations have formal IP policies, and all support WITSA's position;

There are still no "public" versions of the negotiating texts;

Virtually all speakers at the Stakeholders Forum expressed concern about the consultation processes of governments, and the lack of transparency in these negotiations especially around reported IP clauses;

Despite this concern, the briefing of stakeholders by negotiators that was held on 7 March contained little new information, nor was there any request from negotiators for information from stakeholders on issues such as cloud computing, which was reported to have raised some concerns

This concerns WITSA. -continue to next page-

WITSA 2012 Newsletter

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Promise of the Digital AgePromise of the Digital AgePromise of the Digital Age

Continue from page 3 In principle, WITSA supports actions that reduce barriers to trade in goods and services between nations. This is a central element in our mission of "fulfilling the Promise of the Digital Age". However, our preference is this be undertaken, where possible, as part of a multilateral process under the auspices of organisations such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). We note these processes take a long time and can be complex, but they at least occur around agreed common goals and lead to standardised approaches.

Because of problems of delay and complexity in achieving multilateral agreements, there has been a strong push towards bilateral (country to country) and plurilateral/regional trade negotiations - the TPPA being one of the latter. As the current TPPA negotiations show (along with current concerns arising with the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement - ACTA), the outcome of a more fragmented approach is exactly that - fragmentation of trading arrangements and applicable laws, such as those affecting IP. There are also concerns regarding extra-territorial enforcement of one country's laws in another. Consultation processes and transparency, discussed above, are also often weak. The exclusive nature of these types of agreements is also troubling; for example, the TPP excludes China and India. In the TPPA presentation linked above, WITSA set out five principles that governments should follow in relation to these types of negotiations: 1. Consultation with affected industries and other

stakeholders. This appears not to be happening in many countries, at least in relation to the ICT sector

2. Any proposed policy or regulatory change must be supported by proven cost/benefit evidence. This is, in fact, the reason why governments should be consulting more actively and transparently.

3. Trade rules generally, and IP rules and regulations in particular (because they underpin ICT) should be a global development, leading to standardised approaches in national

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laws. To do otherwise will set back trade development. The TRIPS agreement provides the base, and efforts should focus on amending this for technological requirements on a global basis.

4. Any proposed amendments to IP policies, regulations and rules must always balance the critical interests of reward for innovation, on the one hand, and access to technology on the other.

5. Enforcement of IP laws is a very sensitive issue, and must be recognised as such. Wherever possible, extra-territorial enforcement of one nation's laws over another should be avoided.

As WITSA's concerns are also reflected in other proposed treaties, such as ACTA, WITSA members are urged to pay attention to them, and seek discussions with their country's trade negotiators and government officials who are currently, or may be, involved in the negotiating rounds. If you agree with the principles set out above, please advocate these at meetings with government and trade officials. Please seek their feedback on the negotiations to-date, and ask them to work with you, as the national ICT association, on issues that affect the ICT industry in your country. By all means, please share any information or insights you have on the process with your WITSA colleagues.

WITSA on Twitter

WITSA now has a twitter feed! Please follow us @WITSA1, and remember to include us in your tweets where you are seeking wider circulation. You are also encouraged to re-tweet ours where appropriate. This is the start of a wider social media strategy for WITSA, which will be rolled out over the year, along with a redesign of the WITSA website, incorporating blog spaces.

If you have any concerns with the principles above, or any other aspect, please contact Tim Conway.

Volume 1, 2012