SEOUL, South Korea –A declaration to improve the Internet economy and increase international cooperation on cybercrime and security was signed at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Ministerial Meeting on the Future of the Internet Economy, held in Seoul, Korea, on June 17-18.
OECD member countries, the European Community and ministers from Chile, Egypt, Estonia, India, Indonesia, Israel, Latvia, Senegal and Slovenia affirmed their commitment to work together to stimulate innovation, competition and investment in information and communications technology. The ultimate goal is to build confidence in and secure the future of the Internet economy.
Conference participants agreed that governments need to work closely with business, civil society and technical experts on policies that promote competition, empower and protect consumers, and expand Internet access and use worldwide.
“Given that this infrastructure has become critical to our economies and societies, we should all engage in developing better, more broad-based, governance arrangements and policies,” said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria in closing the meeting.
It had been 10 years since the Ottawa OECD Ministerial Meeting on E-Commerce, he said, but “we cannot talk about the importance of the Internet every ten years, which is an eternity in Internet time.”
He pledged to review progress on the declaration within three years.
The declaration sets out a roadmap to upgrade the communication policies around supporting the future development of the Internet.
The OECD also committed to improving statistical indicators to measure access and use of the Internet and its networks.
