Leaders TalkX: Digital Advancing Sustainable Development: A Trusted Connected World

Panelists at Leaders Talk X9 Illuminate Pathways to Digital Inclusion and Sustainable Development

The “Leaders Talk X9 Digital Advancing Sustainable Development Trusted Connected World” session, chaired by Prof. Tim Unwin, brought together a panel of distinguished speakers to discuss the integration of digital transformation in sustainable development. The session’s goal was to inspire further dialogue and prompt action based on the concise presentations of the panelists, who each had three minutes to present their insights.

His Excellency Mr. Gobind Singh Deo, Minister of Digital in Malaysia, spoke about the challenges of digital inclusion and Malaysia’s strategic response. He highlighted the creation of the Ministry of Digital, a pioneering initiative in ASEAN, dedicated to tackling digitalisation challenges and ensuring equitable digital access. Mr. Deo showcased Malaysia’s accomplishments in digital infrastructure, which have placed the country 15th globally and 3rd in ASEAN in the ICT Development Index. He underscored the necessity of affordable, high-quality infrastructure for all, and the role of policy in bridging the digital divide.

Dr. Konstantinos Masselos, President of the Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Communication, addressed the capital-intensive nature of deploying quality digital infrastructure. He emphasized the role of competition and investment in driving innovation and improving service quality. Dr. Masselos referred to the European Electronic Communications Code as a regulatory framework that balances investment and competition for citizens’ benefit. He concluded by stressing the paramount importance of cybersecurity in future service-oriented, software-defined networks.

Dr. Mercedes Aramendia, Chair of the Regulatory Commission Uruguay, shared Uruguay’s success in achieving universal connectivity and advancing digital education. She cited Plan Ceibal’s impact in providing laptops and internet access to students and teachers, which has significantly reduced the digital divide. Dr. Aramendia also discussed the importance of gender equity in technology and STEM, and the role of cybersecurity in building trust in digital technologies.

Dr. Charles Noir, Vice President of the Community Investment Policy and Advocacy for the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, discussed the technical community’s contributions to sustainable development. He highlighted the role of DNS infrastructure in supporting all 17 Sustainable Development Goals and advocated for multi-stakeholder participation in internet governance. Dr. Noir called for global collaboration to ensure the internet’s stable and secure operation.

Ms. Lise Fuhr, Director General of the European Telecommunications Network Operators Association, spoke about the principles for a successful internet ecosystem. She supported a global multi-stakeholder model and meaningful connectivity, warning against internet fragmentation and emphasizing the need to connect the unconnected. Ms. Fuhr noted the difference between coverage and usage gaps, pointing out the need for affordability, digital skills, literacy, and relevant local content.

Prof. Unwin concluded the session by reflecting on gender inequalities in digital spaces and the urgency of cybersecurity. He urged the audience to consider every digital communication as a potential threat and to take proactive steps to secure digital communications. The session highlighted the need for a multifaceted approach to digital inclusion, covering infrastructure, policy, education, and gender equity, as well as the importance of competition, investment, and cybersecurity in creating a trusted and connected digital world. The panelists shared their aspirations for meaningful participation, partnerships, collaboration, talent building, and a robust multi-stakeholder model, while Prof. Unwin’s call to action on gender equality and cybersecurity served as a potent reminder of the ongoing challenges in the digital domain.

Prof. Tim Unwin:
I would like to call Professor Tim Unwin and the distinguished panelists to join me. Thank you. I would like to call Professor Tim Unwin and the distinguished speakers to come to the podium. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome to this really exciting session Leaders Talk X9 Digital Advancing Sustainable Development Trusted Connected World. And I now have a full panel. Thank you for joining us. We want to make this session a little bit lively. All of the speakers have written fantastic detailed accounts of what they’re going to speak about. But what they’re going to do here in three minutes each is what I would call a little amuse-bouche or an appetizer so that they can inspire you that what they have to say is incredibly important. And that you all want to speak to them afterwards. So they’ll be waiting outside and they want hordes of people to come and share opinions and discussions. So without any more ado, let us turn to our first speaker, who is His Excellency, Mr. Gobind Singh Deo, who’s the Minister of Digital in Malaysia. And the question I’m going to pose to him, I think he knows it, but I’m not quite sure. And I haven’t changed it that much, I promise you. Just shorted it a bit. Malaysia began its digitalization as early as 1996. I think that could be disputed. But the country has nevertheless achieved high rates of Internet usage, mobile phone ownership and Internet traffic, placing Malaysia, do you know where they are in the world rankings? He does. 15th and 3rd in ASEAN in the ICT Development Index. And so the question for you really is, what are the key barriers to digital inclusion? And how has Malaysia approached the Sustainable Development Agenda? And if you don’t hear the bell, I used to play rugby, as some of you know, I have a red card. And I will get up and say, please be quiet. Your three minutes start now.

H.E. Mr. Gobind Singh Deo:
Thank you very much, Professor Tim. It’s good to be here, Excellencies, everyone. Good morning. Great discussion here today. Proud to be a part of it. Question revolves around digital transformation, how countries approach new technology, the challenges that new technology brings with it. And of course, as a result, there will be some that would be left behind and some that we have to look at, particularly in order to make sure that nobody is left behind. In Malaysia, Tim, we set up the Ministry of Digital. And this is the first in the region of ASEAN. We’ve actually decided that there’s a need for us to set up a ministry that looks at digitalization in itself, the problems that digitalization will bring about and how it is we can devise policies moving ahead. So in December last year, the Prime Minister made his announcement and, of course, the new Minister of Digital, which is me, asked to consider how it is I can structure a ministry that’s going to be able to look at the challenges and how we can actually formulate regulations, if not policy, to make sure that the digital divide is dealt with and, of course, challenges ahead looked at from a digital lens. In this regard, as you said earlier, we have focused on infrastructure. And I think infrastructure is something that every country is looking at. It’s been the talk of the conversation of lots of discussions in the last four or five years. Of course, we are looking at how it is we can make sure that every single one in every single country has access not only to affordable but quality infrastructure. And I think this is very, very important because at the end of the day, we look at utilities. For example, you start talking electricity and water and how these people need that to survive. You will also understand the impact that connectivity has and perhaps how it is it may even be more important than water and electricity at one point in time because you may need connectivity at some stage in future to get access to water and electricity. So how do you ensure that everyone has access to connectivity, making sure that it’s something they can afford, making sure that they are able not just to understand it but also know how to use it so that there is no divide. Everyone can have access to it and take full advantage of it. So insofar as our country is concerned, we have looked at creating a network that is world class. And I’m pleased to say that we actually have what is known as DNB. It’s received awards, something that people look at as an example that they can follow. We were able to, in less than three years, develop almost 80% COPPA. In less than three years, 11.9 million subscribers, 35.4% adoption rate, which is significant. And I think that is something that we are trying to expand on even more. Now, having said that, when we look at how this infra is developed, we need to start thinking about policies that can deal with infra. And I think that is something that we are currently looking at from different sectors. Because ultimately, if you look at infra generally, you would want to create policies and regulations which deals with how this infra operates in different sectors. But as we go along, we find that we need to actually focus on how it is we can ensure that rules and regulations are created, so that infra can actually be brought to every segment of society, and also to make sure that it is safe, secure. In other words, there is security looked at. Go, Ben, you did promise me. So that’s it. I’m coming to the end, but we need to round it off. Prof. Dean, thank you very much. Sorry it took more time than I should have, but thank you very much for the question. Thank you very much indeed.

Prof. Tim Unwin:
And let’s now move to Dr. Konstantinos Massalos, who is President of the Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Communication. I think those of us from Europe always look up to Greece as the founding of our European society. It reminded me that yesterday I was described as Cassandra, and that I was saying important stuff, but nobody was listening. So listen to the font of wisdom from Greece. Your three minutes starts now.

Dr. Konstantinos Masselos:
Thank you so much for the introduction. I’ll do my best to avoid your red card, by the way. And, well, good morning. It’s great to be in WSIS 24. I would like to thank ITU for having me as a speaker. And I think it’s very good to follow up on what His Excellency the Minister just mentioned about infrastructure. Because when we consider digital infrastructure of the future, we need to add the word sustainable next to the word future. So we need to think about future sustainable digital infrastructure, including connectivity, in three different perspectives. Environmentally sustainable, consuming less energy. Financially sustainable, as regards day-to-day operation, maintenance. And also socio-economically sustainable, to the benefits of the society and the economy. To make, for example, our cities smarter and safer. To enable big enterprises being more efficient and SMEs to become more innovative. What is the main challenge in deploying digital infrastructure, high quality digital infrastructure? The fact that it is capital intensive. It requires investments. And to address this, regulators believe that competition is the main driver in the market. To bring innovation, to bring investments in infrastructure, and also to address quality of service for the consumers. And, for example, this is what the European Electronic Communications Code does. The European Electronic Communications Code is the main regulatory framework of Europe for connectivity infrastructure. In the objectives, both investment and competition are included. Regulation applied only where needed. And lighter regulation foreseen to attract investments and competition in infrastructure. And all this for the benefits of the citizens, of the end users. And by giving them more choices, better prices, better quality. And also, in this way, strengthening the take-up of the new services. These days in Europe we have new discussions about proposals, regulatory proposals, to further improve the investment environment. By considering some new ideas, level playing field in the converged telecom and cloud environment. Harmonization of regulatory frameworks, cross-border consolidation to bring economies of scale. A last point about cybersecurity. Future networks will be all about services, not about speed. They are going to be software-defined networks. And in these networks, cybersecurity will be a top priority. And it will be achieved only if we consider supply chain traceability at the silicon level. To make sure that our infrastructure is not getting poisoned. Thank you.

Prof. Tim Unwin:
Thank you very much indeed. Almost managed. I think I’m going to give a prize for the one who beats the three minutes. Not quite. Now I’d like to present Mercedes Aramendia, who is the Chair of the Regulatory Commission Uruguay. To welcome you here. For me, I work in education and ICTs. Uruguay and Plan Ceibal has been an absolute leader in the field. So it’s delightful to have you. And your question is really very simple. Can you share with us some examples of successful cases you would highlight from your experiences? Gracias.

Dr. Mercedes Aramendia Falco:
Hello everyone. Thank you very much for the question team. And thank you very much ITU and the rest of the organization to give us the opportunity to be all here. I’m really happy to have the opportunity to share our experience and also to learn from all of you. Universalization of connectivity and new technology help us to innovate, to use resources in a more efficient way and also to be closer. But we still need to minimize digital device and to achieve sustainable development. And the best way to do it is by working together. agreement and also forming partnerships. But we need to work also in different actions simultaneously. Firstly, we need universal quality connectivity to connect everyone and everything, as well as universal access to affordable devices. In Uruguay, we currently have 94% of the tority covered with LTE 4G and also more than 95% with 3G coverage. 5G technology is expanding with a presence in all department capitals and more than 90% of homes have fiber optics. Additionally, more than 92% of our population has access to a smartphone and almost all the population has a device with internet access at home. Secondly, we need to continue working on education and developing digital skills. And this I want to emphasize in three main areas. Firstly, in primary education and teachers, and of course, civil plan is an excellent example that we are really proud of it. That since 2007, we start to provide to every student in public school and also to teachers, their access to laptops and to connectivity. And that helps us to minimize digital device in a great way. Also, we have to work in the future of work because we need to develop new skills, for example, in emerging areas such as AI, data analysis and information technologies. And of course, we need to focus on job retraining. Thirdly, gender equity. Overcoming gender gaps in technology and STEM ensures more opportunities. Training in digital skills is a tool to increase productivity and improve living conditions, especially in rural areas where women still have less opportunities rather than men. Also, of course, digital security and trust is essential. Cyber security is key to protect network systems and data and to ensure trust in the use of digital technologies. People need to know how to protect, detect, respond to and to recover to any incident. Of course, we have to develop e-governance, green technology and to work in the health sector. I think I want to remark the National Electronic Health Record just to finish. I think that we need more and better partnership and regulation have to be adequate, adaptable and flexible to facilitate and promote digital innovation. Thank you. Muchas gracias. And now we move to the left and it’s a great

Prof. Tim Unwin:
pleasure to introduce Dr. Charles Noir, who is Vice President of the Community Investment Policy and Advocacy for the Canadian Internet Registration Authority. I hope I’ve got that right. I’m not sure if you definitely know the question, but I’ll just share it with you. What role does the technical community and or technical operators play in supporting sustainable development,

Dr. Charles Noir:
drawing on your experiences in Canada? Certainly. Thank you. And first of all, great to be here today and thank you to the ITU and the Swiss Confederation for bringing us together again to talk about this important process. For those of you who aren’t familiar with us, CIRA for short, we’re the Canadian top level domain operator for the .ca domain space, as well as an operator of DNS, which is Domain Name System Infrastructure. And to let you know what that is, when you punch your name that you remember on a website, google.com, into a web browser, that’s the system that connects you to the only Google proper web server on the Internet without having to remember all the IP and the numerical name. So that’s part of what we do. We also provide a number of other services like cybersecurity to over 500 organizations in Canada, but we also offer DNS and domain name registry services across the globe and that’s what I’ll be talking about a little bit here in terms of how the technical community contributes to sustainable development of the STGs. We’re long-time active participants in Internet governance and Internet governance debates, and we do that as a member of the technical operator. Again, those are the actors, the groups, the organizations that ensure the day-to-day technical functioning of the Internet. And through this work, we play an important role in advancing sustainable development. The stable and secure operation of the Internet contributes to all 17 STGs, from quality education, to economic growth, to climate action. At CIRA, we see firsthand the impact of global DNS infrastructure and progress towards these goals. At any given day, our Anycast services globally, which again are helping you connect to different sites on the Internet, resolve over 60 billion queries, 60 billion, and roughly 27 percent of those originate from outside of North America and Europe. And meanwhile, our top-level domain Anycast service supports about 45 global south-centric top-level domains. This includes 17 country code top-level domains in the global south, and of the 19 points of global presence that we have in the world, five are primarily dedicated to this region. And this infrastructure helps ensure that the global Internet better meets its enormous potential to improve well-being for all human beings. Just to close off, I would say that in the lead-up to the WSIS plus 20 review, we have a really important opportunity to support multi-stakeholderism, to ensure that the continued role of all stakeholders, governments, academics, civil society, private sector, and us, the technical community, are able to sit at the table and be a part of this process. And we look forward to doing that with you over the next few, next actual couple years. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed, Charles. And I think you are

Prof. Tim Unwin:
ahead of the game. So, Lisa, can you beat him? It’s a great pleasure now to move across the Atlantic and to introduce Lisa Feuer, who is Director General of the European Telecommunications Network Operators Association. And from that operator’s perspective, what do you think the key principles we can globally agree on for a successful Internet ecosystem? I know that’s an impossible question. We’ve been trying to do it for years, but this is your chance. To do it in

Ms. Lise Fuhr:
three minutes. Yeah. Okay. Just very quickly, ETNO represents Europe’s leading telecom operators, and they have around 70% of the investment in the telecom networks in Europe. And we, as ETNO, have a long history of supporting and being involved in global digital leadership, including also the Internet Governance Forum, where I’m currently on the leadership panel. But I would like to talk about two things. One is the multi-stakeholder approach, and the other one is meaningful connectivity. We look at a very fast technology, fast evolving technology landscape. So, we need some good governance to deal with this. And I see a lot of for us out here. We have the NetMondial plus 10. We have the Global and Regional Internet Governance Forum. We have the Summit for the Future coming up. And we also have WSIS plus 20, which is a good platform for all stakeholders to discuss exactly the digital world. And I fully support the global multi-stakeholder model. I think it’s important for Internet governance processes. We need to strengthen the global collaboration mechanism. And I remain committed to this foundation of shared values of the processes. So, we need openness. We need multi-stakeholder approach. We need inclusiveness and equal footing on the participation. But we also need meaningful connectivity. This is very crucial. And meaningful connectivity also implies there is a need to avoid Internet fragmentation through undue governance interference, the risk of network shutdowns, all through top-down mandating standards and protocols. So, we are strong supporters of an open Internet. And we should and we all should reject any attempts to fragment the Internet using top-down protocols. This is bad for investments. And it’s also bad for achieving universal connectivity. But just very quickly, let me finish by saying we need to connect the 2.2 billion, 2.6 billion unconnected people. But we also need to distinguish between coverage gap and also the usage gap. Because mobile broadband covers 95% of the world population. That is 400 million people that are left out. But the usage gap is much greater. It’s 2.2 billion people. And why is this? Well, part of it is, of course, affordability. But it’s also lack of digital skills, literacy, and also the availability of relevant local content and services. So, it’s important we both have meaningful connectivity. But we also need to do this in a multi-stakeholder way. Thank you. Thank you very much. Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, this must be a record.

Prof. Tim Unwin:
Please thank them for keeping to time and giving such wonderful moves. But we’ve, by my watch, we’ve got five minutes and we’ve caught up. The leadership say two. So, 15 seconds each. I give you a dream. I’m that Greek god or goddess who allows you a dream that will come true. 15 seconds. What would you change, Charles?

Dr. Charles Noir:
I want to see meaningful participation by all stakeholders.

Prof. Tim Unwin:
Okay. Matthews?

Dr. Mercedes Aramendia Falco:
More partnership.

Prof. Tim Unwin:
Constantinos?

Dr. Konstantinos Masselos:
More collaboration, because connectivity challenges are global issues.

Prof. Tim Unwin:
Govind?

H.E. Mr. Gobind Singh Deo:
Emphasis on talent building.

Prof. Tim Unwin:
Lisa?

Ms. Lise Fuhr:
To keep connecting the unconnected, but also to keep a strong multi-stakeholder model.

Prof. Tim Unwin:
Thank you very much indeed. I reflect on two things that come out of your session. One is something that Mercedes said around gender. The gender inequalities in digital are still enormous and that means we not only harm women, and there’s far too much digital violence against women, but it also means that we cannot appreciate the contributions that they bring. And I would just ask, it’s not women’s fault, it’s the men in this room. We need to change what we do. Please do it. And the second is around trust and cyber security that several of you mentioned. I had the privilege of being master of ceremonies at a Commonwealth Telecommunications event on cyber last week. And we were looking at the future of cyber, the implications of AI and quantum computing. And I left that determined in my mind that I had to make a change. I had to assume that every digital communication with me was a threat. Every digital communication was a threat. So I’m now going to be changing my email systems only to accept trusted people and find other ways of resolving. That is how serious this is. We all have to treat cyber security incredibly seriously if we are to build that trusted internet and digital communications that we so much believe in. Thank you for being a wonderful panel. Thank you for being a great audience. Enjoy the rest of WSIS.