The following are the outputs of the real-time captioning taken during the Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Paris, France, from 12 to 14 November 2018. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the event, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>> MODERATOR: Good morning all, we're still waiting for our presenters. Please sit down. This session is organized by the NRI. What we mean, initial regional initiatives. It is on emerging issues and policy questions that arise on major issues. We'll share experiences. And we'll open it up for anybody to discuss.
The workshop. The thing that was published.
>> MODERATOR: Oh, sorry. This thing is not on. I'm not the moderator. I'm just standing in, so we can start this. Yeah?
>> The schedule online says the session is upstairs in room four.
>> (Not near microphone)
>> MODERATOR: There is nobody there. I went to room 7, nobody is there.
>> (Not near microphone)
>> MODERATOR: Translation? Only in English? Major stakeholders, particularly ‑‑ I will start again.
This is a collaborative session organized by the NRIs. I have the youth IGF. Bangladesh, is Bangladesh here? We have Bolivia, we have Congo. Is Congo here? We have the RC, we have France, we have Kenya, we have Nigeria, we have West Africa. Tunisia, Italy, anybody from Italy IGF. And Colombia IGF and U.S. IGF is supposed to be here as well. The title is impact of emerging technologies on national level, including the present policies, IPV6 blockchain and smart cities. Smart cities concept.
Intergovernmental arrangement at regional and subregional level. We will take the first questions. The first question is how the emerging technology to accommodate the needs of society, instead of balance. What are the rules and responsibilities in applying emerging technologies? There is no single treatment for applying the emerging technologies. How to apply these across (?). How regional international slab collaboration may work for the emerging measures and what stakeholders should the government put in place to make sure emerging technologies are being adopted and implemented at the national level? Okay.
Okay. All right. For now, we have only two speakers, all of us are going to ask the questions and do the contribution. Haru and AFRINIC we don't have those, but we will continue. No, let's take the first question. The first question, Haru, you can come sit or sit there. That is fine. Can you answer the first question?
Policy.
How can emerging technologies meet the needs of society? How can emerging technologies meet the needs of society? Yes, please.
>> HARU: The question is how can emerging technologies solve the needs of modern society. The major needs of the modern society is especially in developing countries is, in the area of (?) technologies whereby the broadband penetration in Africa, especially can be enhancing the economy of the people. Secondly, emerging technologies like IoTs will also have enhancing businesses and also enhanced education. Also, the emerging technologies in the developing technologies, enhancing transportation system and also help in improving the health and welfare of the people. Recently, there is a lot of indication that Internet ‑‑ I mean broadband penetration in the developing countries assisted in enhancing the public income. And also, there is an indication that the broadband penetration to the rural areas help in enhancing education and information dissemination to people. Also a lot of indication that broadband can also be used in agriculture. That is ‑‑ can help in agriculture. Because farmers can get information on the products the type of crops and where to sell product, so on. The only issue on emerging technologies is insecurity. There are serious challenges of the emerging technologies. So let me stop here. I don't know the time I'm allocated.
>> MODERATOR: (Not near microphone)
>> MODERATOR: Well, we heard about education, transportation, health, and welfare of people being increased. And agriculture. The issue is security.
So what do we do about security? Yes? If you can.
>> AUDIENCE: Okay. Herman, chairman of (?) IGF. And also I'm here for the west African intergovernmental forum. Yes, talking about emerging technologies all of the technologies generate too much data. If you look at block chain technology, that can be helpful to our society in Africa. Thinking about for elections. We have too many countries in West Africa with the election by 2020. And we know every time that the results of the election is always a source of conflict and in these countries. So those technology can be used to give ‑‑ like a confident transparency in the elections. So ‑‑ it is mentioning the security. Because we have to make in place a good strategies and policies to ensure the data, the data security first. And also to bring confidence to the population who use it. So too many incentives already in place with all the national information securities, and too many countries. But the Civil Society have to involve in this also to ensure that everything is doing the right ‑‑ is right. And also to bring this information to the technologies.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. You said everybody should be involved. What role should Civil Society play, the government play, the role of the private sector? Because it is going to be a multistakeholder thing. So what would be their rules and responsibilities? Rules and responsibilities.
>> Civil Society already said something about Civil Society. So what of government? What role should government play in bringing this, making sure that security and emerging technologies? Because that is the crux of the matter.
>> Yes. I think that the first thing the government have to work on is you have to make education. Yes. Because we have to master these technologies and also have the ‑‑ all of the knowledge about how this work and also how to get through the technologies. So they're going to have to create some curricular to train too much student and too much to have a minimum, critical amount of ‑‑ I mean ‑‑ experts in this technology who can themselves take ownership of this technology. So it is education maintained. And also, they have to develop like a local strategies. Because every agency, every country, every (?) has its own issues about the security.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. They say one of the things government should do is make sure there is education. Develop mass spots that will take the stand and appreciation and put in the security aspect of it. Haru, can you share with us what has happened in Nigeria in terms of emerging technology. What is in place in Nigeria. If you have broadband, that would be applied. So share with us what you are doing in Nigeria.
>> HARU: In Nigeria, what is put in place for the emerging technologies is to put broadband infrastructure. And in Nigeria, within the last three years, the broadband Internet penetration was only around 10%. It doubled within the last three years to now 22%. The Nigerian government realized that for the emerging technologies to work, you have to provide all the necessary infrastructure. And you have to provide the necessary broadband infrastructure because most of (?) it is what they call international broadband policy. It is the policy on how to boost and provide all the necessary broadband in the country. This lead to doubling of broadband penetration. There is an indication that the broadband is important in several sectors of the economy, as I said earlier. (Audio skipping)
Transportation, signs and technology. And also one of the things that was put in place is the security. One of the major problems in the emerging technologies, not only in ‑‑ Nigeria has put in place a number of these. Nigeria has put in place cyber crime acts so that several issues of cyber crimes can be minimized. And Nigeria is now putting in place data protections and regulation laws which will help to protect the citizens. Also, Nigeria has tried to put a number of things in place they were set to drive this for the country. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: You know there is a critical Internet structure. The IPV4. The IPV6, the adoption has not been as good as it should be. What level of adoption do you have in Nigeria? Because if we are going to embrace the new technologies, we need ‑‑ with the Internet of Things, the AI and all of the rest of them, the IPV6 is a critical resource. What ‑‑ has anything been done in the line of IPV6 in Nigeria?
>> HARU: The migration from IPV4 to 6, as you said, recently the Nigerian government form an IPV6 council. This council will work in promoting and assisting the organizations for migration from IPV4 to IPV6. And they're providing capacity building to small and medium organizations on IPV6. And the small and medium (audio skipping)
Some of them have started migrating from 4 to 6. It is all very limited. We cannot assess. We don't assess to know the percentage of the migration. That will be massive content on the migration this year. Thank you so much.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you so much. We will go to the audience now. We want you to share with us what is happening in your country. France, the emerging technologies, have you adopted emerging technologies? Is there some government policies? The other stakeholders in the space, in the Internet of things, the small or medium‑scale organizations, whatever they are.
(Audio skipping)
If you have any, please share with us. That is the essence of the discussion. Thank you.
>> AUDIENCE: Okay. Good. Yes, of course. My name is Carlos Barrella. I am from Mexico City. Yes.
I would ask two questions, can I do that? The first question would be thinking about new technologies, how is Nigeria and other African countries confronting the possibility of being spied on by technologies? This is ‑‑ I think this is an important subject, especially for countries like ours that are not so ready to defend ‑‑ to have enough security to defend us from espionage from other countries. It could be commercial, economical espionage. It could be governments competing to do something with the countries. It doesn't have to be for Netflix. And that is the first question.
I think IoT has another danger. IoT is something that will go into the homes of people and will be controlled by the digital providers of this IoT. I think there is risk, but our countries are moving to implement the technology but not fast enough to implement securities. Because it is innovative. Because it is new. The second question is what is the vision of risk in relation to IoT and what is the vision in risk in relation to espionage, digital.
>> MODERATOR: Nigeria will answer. If you have contribution to make to this question. Please. If there is contribution from your own country, you are free to share. First, we'll get Nigeria to answer the question. Any one can answer. And then we'll allow West Africa to answer. And then anybody has anything to say, then we can say it. Thank you.
>> (Audio skipping) how did Nigeria regarding the ‑‑ using the modern technologies to be spied. Nigeria realize that the first, as I said cybersecurity act was enacted. The office of the National Security Advisor has formed a lot of mechanisms for protecting the country and the businesses irregardless regarding digital technologies. This (?) is the emergency response team, that will monitor the cyber space and disseminate the information of all trades to Nigerian business and government. The office of the national security advisor with international communities. And ensure safe space for Nigeria government. And the national security advisor is doing a lot with the containment and these things. To ensure that Nigerian users are protected. And Nigerian government has computer incidents and responses. The computer system will prevent telecommunications (?) and finances. And academia. And other for small businesses. Those are also coming on board. Because recently, there is an ongoing project on computer incidents that are working with the Nigerian telecommunication companies. We are aware during the ransomware virus, it brought businesses to it a standstill. Nigeria is working toward protection of the telecommunication companies. And ongoing work to protect military and police and other organizations like security agencies. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you. (Not near microphone)
>> The second question regarding the IoT. Honestly, Nigeria has not been much with the IoT security. Because IoT is a new technology. Only thing ongoing in Nigeria currently is the capacity building in IoT. To understand what is IoT. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Do you have anything to say on his question?
>> Okay. In the same way, I think about the emerging technologies and all of these IoT, Internet of Things, most countries are not in this ‑‑ but we can also see some security issues and there is some collaboration with some countries like China and other European countries. I mean computers, so we have to be aware of what we see. So we have national security information, societies who take a look on this panel for gift of collaboration, achievement that we have. So.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Any other person to share? Or question or comment, please from all our countries. France. You have your own countries.
Any other country that is here? Mexico can you share what is going on in Mexico? Just like you asked Nigeria, can you share with others?
I can share things that come to my knowledge.
>> AUDIENCE: The espionage comes from the same government. When you have the government doing the espionage, we're relying on the government to protect us from cyber threats. So there was a year ago or year and a half ago, big news about how the government was using espionage tools against dissidents and journalists. This was a big thing that has not been solved as of yet in the government that is leading now its administration. So there was no legal response to this. But it was very widely discussed in the news outlets of Mexico. So I would say this first. Then, number two, I feel that there was talk about infrastructures. I will go to a part of Central America, because I have clients in Central America. I do project management.
I will tell you, Huawei, a Chinese company is becoming a very important actor in creating infrastructure in Central America. Which is now going to be, according to me, quite a problem. Because the United States and now Australia are saying that they're not in accordance with the investment that Huawei is doing in the world because they believe they're using their technologies to do cyber espionage and other activities. They're giving a lot of control ‑‑ what am I seeing in Latin America in particular. You're going to have a problem. A big company, you might have heard of American mobile, he's the one that owns one of the biggest mobile companies, is having all of this investment from Huawei in the past five years, they're happen with it because Chinese come over, say we'll give you infrastructure, start doing business. We'll invest, and this is gaining speed. And at the same time, we have the United States and Australia saying this is unacceptable for our countries. What will happen to Latin America. In a few years they will be pressured by the United States to stop doing business with the Chinese. This is a strategic planning, risky thing, a big challenge for the companies if they don't plan for this fight right now. This would be the second thing I want to say.
The third one is I coincide with the fact that in ‑‑ I feel that in Mexico, Central America, we're not taking into consideration or we're not ready to tackle the challenges of IoT. We're very slow in adapting the technology. So imagine how slow we are in preventing, in risk factoring, in planning for what's going to happen next, if we're running only ‑‑ if we're running towards trying to implement something we don't know the range it has to have. I think there is a lack of information of benchmarking practices in the world in Mexico and Central America, that are widely known in the country. And these countries in Central America. So I feel that this zone in the world is a target. A target for risk, a target for laboratory work, I mean being Guinea pigs of the world. I think this area of the world is at risk also in the business sector. Because if these policies start becoming a fight between countries, Latin America will have to oblige because they will need the business. And America will say you have to move away and they will have to do this.
>> MODERATOR: That is a big challenge, even for us in Africa. I think I am speaking ‑‑ I have my mic. Okay, okay.
>> Um, actually, thank you for these comments. The immediate problem in Africa is lack of finances. That is why it is difficult to understand the risk of Chinese vendors. Over the years, what Chinese does in Africa or Nigeria, specifically, inasmuch as you have license for telecommunication services, the Chinese companies will provide the equipment for you free. So that is why they have captured all the businesses of telecommunication in Nigeria for now. The companies of China and Huawei has captured everything, because they give free equipment. You can tell them in 10, 20 years, they don't care. Nigerian come companies from changed from Alcatel, Ericsson, others. Because not even that you need to your infrastructure structurally with those companies. The projects with the companies are more expensive than the Chinese companies. And as you advised there is a need for even the African countries to think why the Chinese give the free equipment. It is for 10, 20, 25 years. They don't care. If there is no risk attached to this free offer? This will leave us. We will go back, start advising our government to start thinking (audio skipping). Thank you so much.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you. Thank you so much. Anybody online? Any question online? There is no questions online. Okay.
Thank you very much for sharing. That is the essence of this program. For us to exchange best practices and we have learned new things that we are going home with. And in West Africa, we also have to advise our government, just like Nigerian participate is saying. The West Africa countries also. We need to bring ‑‑ because in Africa, it is just like in Mexico. Tanzania has been taken over by the Chinese. Kenya, Chinese. I think ‑‑ I don't know about (?) Huawei. I don't know about Codevoir. We're in the same level. Not to talk of taking it. (?) what is the crossbarrier transaction, cross border transaction. There is a big bill collector. What is ‑‑ if they want to bring down a country, they can bring down a country. So we should be able to build capacity.
When we are going into contracts with them, signing contract of that free equipment. They should be capacity, local content into it. We'll build capacity of our people. Because sometimes you bring and the manual is only Chinese. It is only in Chinese. It is good that we're talking about ‑‑ what we don't understand, please, we'll go back and get ourselves ready to confront some of the things that is happening in the nearest future. Anybody has any other comment or question? Any other questions? Indonesia? Nobody from Indonesia? Anybody from United States? Nobody. Okay. I think we're almost done with our program. But what we're taking away from here is the new technologies are here. And we are not seeing it. We should understand how it operates. And we should build capacity in mass aspect of those that will handle the new technologies. Those are the things we're taking away from these. And taking back to our country to understand the essence of all those free lunch. There is nothing like free lunch. There is no free lunch. We may be confronted in the nearest future with espionage, we should be careful, look at the back doors, close the doors they would have entered from. Okay? Okay.
Okay. I think we are supposed to end by 9:30. Okay. But we didn't start on time. And we have actually gained from the little time we worked together. Thank you for coming. Let's do it again next year. Do you have anything to say.
>> Congratulations on your ‑‑ (?)
>> MODERATOR: We will bring the message out. The message is to build capacity. The message is to understand it. The message is to start from home. The message is to also know the implication, the legal implication on security implications of the new technologies as we embrace it from other countries. Thank you. All right. Thank you.