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FIFTH APEC MINISTERIAL MEETING ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION INDUSTRY - SHANGHAI, CHINA

We, APEC Ministers responsible for the telecommunications and information industry, gathered in Shanghai, China from 29 to 30 May 2002 under the theme "Leveraging Digital Opportunities to Promote Common Development",

observing that information and communications technologies (ICT) have promoted significantly the availability and dissemination of knowledge to the public on an unprecedented scale and made a great impact on the economic development, governmental activities and social progress of our region;

recognizing that with the slowdown of the world economy and the reduced growth of the network-based economy, the global telecom market and the ICT industry have been severely affected and are undergoing significant restructuring;

remaining confident that the future of the ICT industries is promising, full of vigor and vitality and essential to the continued development and growth of the APEC region;

embracing the APEC Economic Leaders' Declaration entitled "Meeting New Challenges in the New Century" issued in Shanghai on 21 October 2001, in which APEC Economic Leaders:

reaffirmed their commitment to achieving the Bogor Goals of free and open trade and investment in the Asia Pacific by 2010 for developed economies and 2020 for developing economies;

further reaffirmed the importance of Economic and Technical Cooperation (Ecotech) in achieving equitable growth and sustainable development, welcomed the progress that APEC has made in advancing Ecotech goals and underscored that Trade and Investment Liberalization and Facilitation and Ecotech should be mutually reinforcing;

noted progress through the e-APEC Strategy and set the goal of building APEC towards a digital society, with higher growth, increased learning and employment opportunities, improved public services and better quality of life by taking advantage of advanced, reliable and secure ICT and networks and by promoting universal access;

emphasized the importance of sound economic policies and corporate governance as well as important role and responsibility of governments in shaping the legal and regulatory framework that encourages competition and innovation, with increased emphasis on capacity building;

acknowledged that trade and investment liberalization and facilitation hold a key to realizing the vision for reduced disparities and common prosperity; strongly supported the launch of the new WTO round, recognizing that the current slowdown in the world economy has added to its urgency;

asserting our commitment to facilitate the implementation of the e-APEC Strategy, work hand in hand to improve economic conditions and open up a broader prospect for the development of the Asia Pacific Region;

aspiring to promote a sound policy environment, better market structures and fair and effective market competition;

reaffirming our commitment to the five objectives and ten core principles in the Seoul Declaration endorsed at TELMIN 1 (1995) as essential for the construction and the expansion of the Asia Pacific Information Infrastructure (APII) and the realization of the vision of the Asia Pacific Information Society (APIS);

emphasizing the need for economies to promote the development of advanced, secure and reliable information infrastructures so that everyone, including those disadvantaged by geography and income, can have access as soon as possible to advanced, high-speed and reliable technologies and applications of information and communications at affordable prices;

recognizing that competition has been a key factor underlying the rapid buildout of the Internet and encouraging continued rapid buildout of the Internet, including broadband access, and greater user within the economy of ICT, especially among Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and micro-enterprises;

noting the importance of the establishment of a partnership among governments, business and the academic community, and a new-type cooperation mechanism for human capacity building by promoting education and training services and encouraging innovation and the establishment and development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and micro-enterprises and their participation in activities of the New Economy;

confirming the importance of life-long human capacity development, for all age groups and both genders, in terms of providing more opportunities for training and skill development, improving the awareness, mastery, and application of ICT for the benefit of the people in the region;

mindful that the rapid technological advancement and convergence of the broadcasting, information technology and telecommunications sectors, require sharing of information and experience in approaches to policy and regulation amongst economies;

realizing that the participation of developing economies in all aspects of telecommunications and information would be enhanced through effective sharing of information and human resource development;

underlining our commitment to enhance the multilateral and bilateral cooperation in the APEC region in improving telecommunications regulatory policies, information and network security, and human capacity building, in order to facilitate business development, social advancement, and the further development of availability and use of ICT;

highlighting the need for the development and application of ICT by encouraging investment in the research and development of new technologies so as to build APEC towards a digital society with improved public services and better quality of life through advanced networks and ICT for all;

focusing on the need to leverage digital opportunity for common development by exercising leadership, government-private sector partnership, policy coherence, use of market forces, sustainability, and scalability to narrow the digital divide, and recognizing the goals endorsed by Leaders in Brunei Darussalam in November 2000 to triple Internet access in the APEC region by 2005, and to achieve individual or community-based services access to the Internet by 2010, through pursuit of the e-APEC Strategy and the implementation of TEL Digital Divide Blueprint for Action;

appreciating the need to popularize ICT and their applications, advocate digital life, promote web-based applications such as e-commerce and e-government, encourage the application of ICT in traditional industries, and improve the quality and efficiency of the economies through the use of ICT;

regarding that the enhanced participation of and cooperation with SMEs and the private sector will play a positive role in the sustained growth of the information and communications industries in the region;

welcoming the work that has been developing in global organisations since the adoption of the APEC Principles on International Charging Arrangements for Internet Services in the Cancun Declaration towards commercially based and equitable arrangements for Internet connectivity, reflecting, among other issues, traffic flows, costs and benefits;

recalling the APEC Economic Leaders' all for strengthening APEC activities in the area of critical sector protection, including telecommunications, made in their Statement on Counter Terrorism at Shanghai on 21 October 2001;

noting the TEL's report on implementation of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 55/63 on Combating the Criminal Misuse of Information Technologies;

being conscious of the necessity for establishing a legal basis for combating the criminal misuse of information technologies;

being further conscious of the need for governments and the private sector to strengthen cooperation, information exchange and the voluntary transfer of technology related to security of information and communications infrastructure across the region;

highlighting the need to increase cooperation with relevant international fora to improve coherence in the work carried out by TEL and other relevant fora;

acknowledging and encouraging the effort made by TEL in its work on telecommunications market liberalization, mutual recognition of telecom equipment certification, e-government, e-commerce, interconnection, Internet charging arrangements, business and research models to promote greater deployment of ICT, human capacity building, security, authentication and the development and initial implementation of the Digital Divide Blueprint for Action;

HEREBY

ADOPT the Program of Action for the APEC Telecommunications and Information Working Group as attached as Annex A;

ADOPT the Statement on the Security of Information and Communications Infrastructures attached as Annex B; and

NOTE that this Program of Action and Statement on the Security of Information and Communications Infrastructures will contribute to the Action Plan to be considered at the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting to be held at Los Cabos, Baja California Sur., Mexico in October 2002.

Ministers endorse the goal advanced in the Leaders' Declaration (Shanghai, 2001) to build APEC towards a digital society, with higher growth, life long learning and employment opportunities, improved public services and better quality of life for all by taking advantage of advanced, reliable and secure information and communications technologies (ICT) and networks and by promoting universal access. Ministers seek to expand digital opportunities brought forward by the New Economy through e-APEC Strategy and the TEL Digital Divide Blueprint for Action, by taking full advantage of the ICT revolution; and note the crucial role of the private sector as partner in this objective. To achieve these goals, Ministers endorse and instruct the TEL to direct its attention towards the following activities and thematic areas.

I. Information Communications Infrastructure

Ministers recognize that information communications infrastructure is the physical foundation for the sustained development of an information society and a key factor for achieving universal access and expanding digital opportunities. Ministers also encourage greater investment in and development of the Internet in the APEC region. To this end, Ministers instruct the TEL to continue fostering the development of the Asia Pacific Information Infrastructure (APII) in accordance with the five objectives and ten core principles spelled out in the TELMIN 1 Seoul Declaration (1995) and the goals of the e-APEC Strategy (Shanghai, 2001) and to adopt a pathfinder approach in advancing the APEC initiatives. In particular, Ministers instruct the TEL to take initiatives aimed at:

• promoting the deployment of advanced, secure and reliable information infrastructure, especially in remote and underserved areas in order to provide access to information services for all at affordable prices; and as part of this effort, monitoring access to ICT by different socio-economic and user groups, in particular by gender, age and income, and considering alternative policies and technologies for reaching unserved and underserved areas;
• encouraging greater buildout of the Internet, including through regional Network Access Points (NAPs), so as to promote greater broadband accessibility, availability and use,
• examining the impact of the Internet and broadband accessibility, availability and use on the economy, especially on Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs);
• facilitating R&D activities and analyses (financial, technical and policy) of technologies and applications to meet ICT access needs of the APEC region, especially establishing close cooperation on the timely implementation and wide application of next generation technologies such as IPv6, mobile internet, broadband satellite, etc.;
• strengthening its participation and cooperation with the private/business sector in the development of information communications infrastructures and services towards enhanced access, productivity, interoperability and security in the network-based economy, with attention to appropriate standards;
• promoting further the cooperation among governments, businesses, academic communities and social institutions in meeting these challenges;
• studying and undertaking collaborative projects to advance the implementation of next generation networks and technologies; and
• continuing to support cooperative activities for better sharing and utilization of the information infrastructure among member economies.

II. Telecommunication and Information Policies and Market Regulation

Ministers are conscious of the rigorous challenge posed to APEC economies by the on-going convergence of the telecommunications, broadcasting and computer networks, and the importance of creating a sound, pro-competitive and coherent policy environment to ensure the sustained development of information communications in our region. Ministers instruct the TEL to study further the challenges and implications of convergence, to encourage economies to exchange information in terms of experience and practical responses to convergence.

Ministers welcome the TEL's stocktake of progress towards a fully liberalised telecommunications sector in the APEC region, and instruct the TEL to enhance its work in support of our Leaders? commitment to the new WTO round.

Ministers acknowledge the work of the TEL on the implementation of the APEC Principles on International Internet Charging Arrangements for Internet Services adopted by Ministers at Cancun (2000) and instruct the TEL to continue facilitating the implementation of the Principles. Ministers encourage further work in this area to improve traffic measurement and charging arrangement models and to encourage adoption of commercially based and equitable arrangements for Internet connectivity, reflecting, among other issues, traffic flows, costs and benefits;

Ministers further acknowledge the work of the TEL on the implementation of the APEC Principles of Interconnection adopted by Ministers at Cancun (2000) and instruct the TEL to further facilitate the implementation of the Principles and to improve the competitive supply of and access to basic telecommunications services.

Ministers encourage the TEL to continue the dialogue, especially among policy makers and/or regulators, regarding such policy and regulatory topics as transparency, decision-making processes, regulatory structures, convergence, competition safeguards, telecommunications network interconnection, and new technologies such as wireless and broadband.

Ministers appreciate the work done and achievements made by the TEL in regard to implementation of the Mutual Recognition Arrangement on Conformity Assessment for Telecommunications Equipment (MRA), and consider this arrangement conducive to the promotion of trade in our region. Ministers encourage further efforts to implement the MRA on an APEC-wide basis and to develop the MRA Management System. Ministers encourage the TEL to build on the existing MRA work by developing principles on the application of standards and regulatory arrangements.

In the light of the newly adopted e-APEC Strategy, Ministers urge the TEL to continue cooperating with the relevant APEC fora and other related international organizations to study the policy issues involved in e-commerce, for example the impediments to SME uptake of e-commerce, so as to promote good practice and to work towards establishing a trusted and transparent legal and regulatory framework for e-commerce.

Aware of the importance of e-government to increased efficiency and transparency of government activities, Ministers encourage economies to strengthen cooperation and exchange in this regard. Ministers encourage particular attention to the value of providing business regulations and information online, adopting appropriate electronic tools and standards to facilitate access by businesses and citizens to user-oriented electronic information and transaction services offered by governments.

III. Information Communication and Network Security

Strongly aware that information infrastructures and networks are confronted with serious security threats and challenges and that this has drawn wide attention within APEC economies and from APEC Leaders, Ministers commend the work of the TEL in regard to information communication and network security, especially its report on the implementation within APEC of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 55/63 on "Combating the Criminal Misuse of Information Technologies", and instruct the TEL to implement the recommendations contained in the Statement by Ministers on the Security of Information and Communications Infrastructures.

Ministers also instruct the TEL to give special priority to this work, expand the scope of the TEL's e-security activities in response to the current situation,facilitate collaboration among relevant expert groups, and support capacity building on e-security among APEC economies.

Ministers urge voluntary transfer of technologies among economies. Ministers further commend the work carried out by the TEL in electronic authentication and signatures and instruct the TEL to continue its work, with particular attention to a framework for electronic authentication interoperability within the region.

IV. Human Capacity Building

Ministers recognize that building human capacity through life-long learning for people of both genders within the region is essential in achieving the benefits and the realization of a digital society and in narrowing the digital divide. Ministers note the importance of the work currently carried out by the TEL in this regard and instruct the TEL to:

• implement the Digital Divide Blueprint for Action, taking into account the goal advanced in the Leaders? Declaration in Brunei Darussalam in November 2000 to triple the number of people having access to the Internet within the APEC region by 2005 and the Leaders' sentiment expressed in the 2001 e-APEC Strategy to ensure that all groups within an economy have individual or community-based Internet access by 2010;
• make efforts to seek a mechanism to maximize existing training resources of APEC economies and to bring them into full play;
• explore ways to facilitate the cooperation among governments, businesses, educational and social institutions in human resource training;
• enhance cooperation with other training and development organizations and other regional and international bodies to share the experiences and results of human capacity building programs;
• promote e-commerce related training programs and distance learning using ICT;
• promote a gender and youth perspective in every aspect of the work of the TEL;
• intensify its work on human capacity building, in terms of providing more opportunities for training and skill development to help build digital opportunities in ICT and to establish a priority list;
• implement training projects specifically addressing the concerns of developing economies on human capacity building in order to enhance their participation; and
• support training activities that assist member economies to develop pro-competitive regulatory frameworks and that facilitate broad and constructive participation by all member economies, particularly developing economies, in WTO negotiations on services as supportive of reaching our human capacity and digital opportunity goals.

Road to the Future

Recognizing the need for TEL to enhance effectiveness, better respond to the challenges and accommodate different needs of economies, Ministers hereby direct TEL to consider ways and means to further improve its working methods and structure.

Ministers also direct TEL to strengthen cooperation with relevant international organizations and consider ways to encourage participation and contribution by the private sector in TEL activities in order to improve its outreach within APEC as well as at global level.

Annex B

Statement on the Security of Information and Communications Infrastructures
TELMIN 5

30 May 2002

1. Recalling the APEC Economic Leaders' call for strengthening APEC activities in the area of critical sector protection, including telecommunications, made in their Statement on Counter Terrorism at Shanghai on 21 October 2001;
2. Expressing their commitment to the protection of information and communications infrastructures within the APEC region and the importance of developing domestic and regional strategies because these infrastructures are interconnected;
3. Noting the importance of establishing a legal basis to address the criminal misuse of information technologies and law enforcement cooperation in combating that misuse;
4. Affirming the important role of the private sector in protecting information and communications infrastructures, and the importance of developing government-private sector partnerships for the protection of these infrastructures;
5. Recognizing the role of computer emergency response teams in addressing security incidents and exchanging information on threats, vulnerabilities, and responses; and the need to establish such teams within all APEC economies and facilitate the exchange of information among them;
6. Noting the work of other international organizations in this area, in particular the Cyber Crime Convention of the Council of Europe and the revision of the OECD Guidelines for the Security of Information Systems;
7. Recognizing the need to raise awareness about security among owners, operators, and users of information and communications infrastructures at all levels;
8. Noting the importance of certification procedures and programs for information technology (IT) security professionals;
9. Noting the importance of IT security standards and best practice guides to the protection of information and communications infrastructures, and encouraging the TEL to finalize and disseminate the APEC compendium of IT security standards and best practices now being developed;
10. Further noting the importance of encryption to security and authentication, recalling the work done by the TEL in the area of authentication and encouraging the inclusion of encryption policy in its work;

Agree to:

Support the implementation domestically of the ten measures included in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 55/63 Combating the Criminal Misuse of Information, taking into account international initiatives in this area;

Instruct the TEL to give special priority to and facilitate within APEC work on the protection of information and communications infrastructures.