Government officials and Internet gurus ironed out all issues in Sharm El-Sheikh last week, Nader Habib reports The fourth Forum of Governance and Management of the Internet, hosted by Egypt in Sharm El-Sheikh, ended its sessions Tuesday having attracted more than 1,500 international figures involved in Internet issues, representing more than 100 countries all over the world, including some 50 ministers of communication, information and senior officials, along with a selection of heads of international companies and NGOs. Participants included Sha Zukang, head of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs; Robert Khan, one of the authors of the Internet protocol known as IP; Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of Web technology; Jerry Yang, co-founder and CEO of Yahoo, Hamadoun Toure, secretary-general of the International Telecommunications Union; the assistant director of UNESCO, the president of International Chamber of Commerce, Ambassador Phil Pfeffer, assistant US secretary of state for technological affairs; a number of parliamentarians from the European Union, the United States and the UK; and Viviane Reding, EU commissioner for the information society and media. In his opening speech, Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif said that the indicators of the Egyptian telecommunications sector have been very positive. It was able to attract $8 billion in foreign direct investment over the last four years and offer mobile technology to 54 million subscribers, in addition to expanding the use of Internet to reach 15 million users. Minister of Communications and Information Technology Tareq Kamel announced that Egypt would be the first country to register domain names in Arabic. Kamel said this was the result of many efforts made over the past years to make the Internet fully multi-lingual. In parallel, the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) in cooperation with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) organised an interactive workshop on current trends affecting the industry, such as outsourcing information technology services and communications in light of the world economic crisis. The objective of this workshop was to study the effects of the economic crisis on the stakeholders and beneficiaries of the outsourcing industry, and chart changes in the outsourcing industry during the crisis and beyond. The workshop discussed the effects of "offshoring" on the economies of developing countries during the past years and expectations for the next five years. The workshop also discussed the role of governments and major industry bodies in providing the right frameworks in light of global competition and factors that lead to the development of effective industry in a changing environment. The workshop highlighted the latest developments in the outsourcing industry, the needs of information technology services, and the challenges faced in terms of supply and demand. It examined the effects of the global financial crisis on information and communication technology and market changes that will shape the industry in the future. The Sharm El-Sheikh Forum consisted of 10 main sessions, as well as the opening session, spread over four days. It discussed a number of important issues at the level of the Internet and policies, including making the best use of the Internet in economic and social development, support availability and access to a larger number of users of the network at the global level, ensuring freedom of language and cultural diversity on the network, securing cyberspace, combating cybercrime, securing the Internet for children, debating and exchanging international experience in the management of cyberspace, and the sound management of the technological resources of the network. The holding of the forum in Egypt is clear reflection of the tremendous strides made by Egypt in deploying and supporting Internet services, as confirmed by statistics that indicate a significant increase in the number of Internet users in Egypt during the last decade. Initiatives by the government have allowed a large segment of Egyptian society to benefit from Internet services.
