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Global ICT Policy Team

The International team in EI is responsible for non-EU bilateral and multilateral information and communications policy relations and cooperation.

There are three main areas of work:

i) Internet Governance, including UK membership of the Governmental Advisory Committee of the Internet Corporation for Addressing, Naming and Numbering (ICANN GAC), UK government participation in the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and the United Nations process on enhanced cooperation.

ii) International communications issues in the multilateral organisations in particular the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting);

iii) Government to Government relations with China, India, Japan, Korea, Canada and USA as leading global ICT countries.

Internet Governance

The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and UN process of Enhanced Cooperation

Internet governance is likely to remain, an important issue for governments following the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) held in Geneva and Tunis during 2003-05. For many countries, the key issue in the WSIS debate was the US oversight over a key function of the Internet domain name system: the management of the master directories of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and domain names (known as 'the root') which is considered as a strategic national asset. The UK is generally comfortable with the current arrangements which we believe provide security for the Internet which might otherwise be undermined by politically-influenced multilateral oversight.

The WSIS compromise agreement on this issue contained in the Tunis Agenda drawn up in November 2005, established:

• a process for enhanced cooperation to enable governments to carry out their roles and responsibilities, in international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet, but not in the day-to-day technical and operational matters …;
• the creation of an Internet Governance Forum (IGF) to discuss public policy issues related to key elements of Internet governance in order to foster the sustainability, robustness, security, stability and development of the Internet. The IGF has no decision-making role, although it can make recommendations.

The IGF meets annually; the first meeting was held in Athens in November 2006, followed by Rio in November 2007 when the involvement of UK parliamentarians and others helped refocus the debate into areas of more direct relevance to Internet users. BERR representation is undertaken by the Europe & International team in Business Relations 2.

UK Internet Governance Forum (UK IGF)

The Europe & International team also provides the BERR support for the establishment by UK stakeholders (led by the UK domain name registry Nominet) of the UK IGF. The UK IGF’s aims are:

• stakeholder engagement so that they are involved in the identification of key issues and benefit from lessons learnt;
• identification of what works well in the UK – 'Nominet Best Practice Challenge' – and communicating this to the wider international context;
• using the IGF model to help address specific issues in the UK.

ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC)

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a not-for-profit, private sector organisation, incorporated in California which was established in 1998 by a coalition of Internet business, technical, academic and user communities as a forum for coordinating the technical management of the Internet domain name system. Governments are involved in ICANN’s work through an international Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), which provides advice on public policy issues to the ICANN Board of Directors.

BERR’s Europe and International team provides the UK representative to the GAC and attends the three ICANN meetings each year. The GAC is addressing a number of key ongoing public policy issues including the introduction of internationalised domain names (Internet addresses in non-Latin scripts), the processes for introducing new top-level generic and country domains and the implementation of procedures to assess legality of requirements for WHOIS which is the look-up service that gives contact details for domain name owners.

There is an informal mechanism for European coordination in the GAC through a forum called the Informal Internet Group (IIG).

International ICT Policy in Business Sectors

The Europe & International team in Business Relations 2 leads in representing BERR on ICT policy in the following multilateral fora:

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

The OECD is a key part of the international financial and economic infrastructure, and an important vehicle for advancing UK policy interests and best practice. Its strengths include the Secretariat’s multidisciplinary analytical expertise and detailed data and statistics work.

With regard to the ICT sector, the principal OECD forum is the OECD’s Committee for Information, Computer and Communication Policy (ICCP) at which EI provides UK representation. EI also takes part in two of four ICCP working groups:

WPIE – Working Party on the Information Economy which looks at ICT applications including the digital delivery of content;

CISP – Communications, Infrastructures and Services Policies – EI and Ofcom share UK representation in this working party which looks at infrastructural issues inlcuding next generation broadband networks.

The ICCP is the lead organising committee for the OECD Ministerial Conference on the Future of the Internet Economy held in Seoul in June 2008. EI leads for the UK at the preparatory meetings for the ministerial conference and contributed to the drafting of a conference Ministerial Declaration.

International Telecommunication Union (ITU)

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is the leading United Nations agency for the international communication sector. As a global focal point for governments (171 states are members) and the private sector (membership is also open to sector businesses – approx. 700), the ITU's role in helping the world communicate spans three core sectors: radio communications (ITU-R), standardisation (ITU-T) and development (ITU-D). The ITU was the UN’s lead organising agency for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) which was held in two phases (Geneva and Tunis ) during 2003-05.

UK representation at the ITU on telecommunications issues is now largely undertaken by the international team of the UK communications regulator, OFCOM - with the exception of the four-yearly ITU Plenipotentiary Conference for which the EI International team in BERR leads. The next “Plenipot” will be held in 2010.

EI also leads for the UK on the ITU’s handling of Internet governance issues and attends ITU meetings where these are discussed.

ASEM

ASEM was established to promote 'action-orientated debate' between the EU Member States and Asian countries. It provides the UK with a forum for meeting with ICT and eCommerce policymakers from 42 countries including China, India, Japan, Korea and all the EU Member States. The European Commission and the ASEAN Secretariat are also ASEM partners.

The overall objective on e-commerce under ASEM’s Trade Facilitation Action Plan (TFAP), since the first conference on this theme held in Seoul in 2001, is to achieve co-operation in creating a favourable environment for sustainable growth of cross-border e-commerce in all ASEM countries. The UK’s aims for this is to promote in Asia the key policy principles applied in the UK to e-commerce and related policy issues such as IPR and data protection, recognise the role of the private sector and support industry initiatives.

Bilateral Relations on ICT policy

The Europe & International team in Business Relations 2 leads on proactive bilateral government to government relations with China, India, Japan, Korea, Canada and USA on ICT policy, Internet governance, regulatory best practice and technology developments.

China

China is becoming an influential player in the global ICT market. EI’s overarching objective is to ensure that China views the UK as having world-leading strengths in the ICT sector - policy, business and innovation - which China could draw upon as its ICT industry opens up to competition and foreign investment following China’s accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The Europe & International team in Business Relations 2, working in coordination with Ofcom, UKTI and the British Embassy in Beijing, has an ongoing programme of bilateral engagement with China on a wide range of communications policy issues. A second 5-year MoU on cooperation on ICT matters including regulatory policy and technology convergence, was signed with the Ministry of Industry and Information (MII- the telecommunications regulator) on 20 September 2006.

EI is also developing its relationships with the other key ministries and state agencies with a role in developing China’s ICT environment including the State Council Information Office (SCIO) on Internet content regulation and tackling the spam problem, the State Administration for Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) on industry convergence, the National Development Reform Commission (NDRC) on strategic licensing issues, and with the State State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) which has responsibility for all the Chinese telecommunications operators as state-owned enterprises, and leads on the long expected industry restructuring.

Japan

BERR (and previously the DTI) has had a longstanding bilateral relationship with Japan on ICT policy. Japan is a mature and well-developed ICT market with highly advanced electronics industries and ICT infrastructure including next generation high speed broadband networks and optical fibre links to the home.

The aims for BERR’s Europe & International team in developing the relationship with Japan on ICT policy further – primarily with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) – are to understand more fully Japan's future direction as a global ICT technology leader to engage with Japanese policymakers in promoting regulatory reform (unlike the UK, there is no independent regulator) and aligning frameworks with technology convergence, and to raise the UK’s ICT profile.

India

India is rapidly emerging as a global force in ICT and in recognition of this and the accompanying growth of investment opportunities for the UK’s ICT sector (including service providers), EI’s international team is now developing a pro-active programme of policy dialogue with the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) and the domestic telecommunications regulator, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Korea

Korea is the world’s most advanced broadband market. The DTI renewed a 5-year Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation with the Ministry of Industry and Communications (now the Broadcasting and Communications Commission - BCC) in September 2006. Key to the dialogue with Korea is the value of keeping close to a world leading ICT industrial nation, learning from the Korean experience (especially on broadband), while also ensuring Korea continues to invest in the UK's ICT sector.

USA and Canada

The EI international team maintains close relations with the US Department of State, which leads for the US in multilateral organisations such as the OECD and the ITU, the Department of Commerce and its bureau, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which is the President's principal adviser on telecommunications and information policy issues. Bilateral discussions focus on technology developments and roll out in the US markets, and their impact on competition, and exchanging views on negotiating positions at meetings of the OECD, ITU and IGF.

Similarly, the EI international team has regular consultations on international ICT policy issues with Industry Canada which is BERR’s counterpart in the Canadian administration with responsibility for ICT policy.

BERR Contacts

Mark Carvell
Tel: 020 7215 1803
E-mail: mark.carvell@berr.gsi.gov.uk

Adrian Barker
Tel: 020 7215 1801
E-mail: adrian.barker@berr.gsi.gov.uk

Khadija Bundu
Tel: 020 7215 8795
E-mail: khadija.bundu@berr.gsi.gov.uk

Neville Beatie
Tel: 020 7215 5000
Email: neville.beatie@berr.gsi.gov.uk