FINISHED FILE

ASIA PACIFIC REGIONAL INTERNET GOVERNANCE FORUM
BRISBANE 2023

CONTRIBUTING TO THE INTERNET GOVERNANCE PROCESS: THE KEY ROLE OF PARLIAMENTARIANS IN THE SHAPING THE DIGITAL SPACE

AUGUST 31
11:30 A.M. LOCAL TIME

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>> Moderator:  All right.  I think we are ready to start.  So good morning, ladies and gentlemen.  I am honored to welcome you all to this important round table discussion on the topic of contributing to the Internet governance process, the key role of parliamentarians in the shaping the digital space.  I will be your on‑site moderator and beautiful Celine from the IGF secretariate will be assisting me here.  So let's start.
As the Internet continues to evolve the governance mechanism and processes must also adopt the emerging challenges and opportunities.
So today we are joined by esteemed speakers connecting remotely.  Some of them, unfortunately, they can't join because of other commitments but the remaining speakers will shed a light on the current and future government Internet process and role of parliamentarians play in shaping the digital landscape.  Just before we move on with our discussion and before I start to introduce our wonderful speakers, please note you can find the complete bio from each speaker of the Asia Pacific IGF Web site.  So we'll keep it short so that we can allow more time for discussion.
So let me introduce our wonderful speakers.  So because Amandine ‑‑ is he here?  Okay.  All right.  Fantastic.  Our first speaker is Amandeep Gill from the UN ‑‑ secretary general and our second speaker is Wai Min, public administration officer in the division for public institution and digital government united nation department of economic affairs, and our third speaker will be ‑‑ will not be joining us today but will be playing a video, the prerecorded video.
Tijan is a policy coordinator.  Area of expertise is in the WSIS processes.  The fourth speaker for us today is honorable Hasa Inu, a parliamentarian standing committee for ministry of information and broadcasting, chairperson of Bangladesh Internet Governance Forum and also the president of Dojesar.
And our final ‑‑ supposed to be our final speaker for today.  I was told she will not make it for this discussion.  So we'll keep it ‑‑ we'll have more time for discussion.  So I would like also to remind all our speakers that we are giving you ten minutes each for your deliberation.  So for the first one, let's begin by understanding the landscape of Internet governance process.  So for the first speaker, Mr. Gill, we know that you are closely involved in the current work of GDC preparation and next steps.
Could you please share with us some insight into the major on‑going processes and the key milestones that deserve our attention and how do these processes intersect and why do governments need to prepare for this kind of processes?  And also please share some views on how can parliamentarians actively contribute to these processes?  So over to you, Mr. Gill.
>> Amandeep:  Thank you very much moderator and greetings to all those participating in this Asia Pacific track for parliamentarians on Internet governance.  I'm really honored and delighted to be with you today and moderator as you guided us, I will focus on some of these intersecting events, intersecting discussions that are coming up and why they matter to all stakeholders, including governments what is the role in parliamentarians in making sure we reach the right outcomes.
The feel of parliamentarians is decades old.  Has had a home in the UN for last 20 years when the working group on Internet governance was set up close to 20 years back and the Geneva and Tunis meetings took place and the IGF was set up in 2005 so we can look back at a 20 year long legacy of the multistakeholder governance of the Internet of management of the world information society so that it benefits everyone.
I think when we meet in Kyoto for the dimension annual Internet Governance Forum meeting in October, we can be proud of this legacy.  We can celebrate this legacy and our agenda this year which is about empowering all people is very very pertinent today as we move to embrace universality in terms of nexus, it is still some distance away but not this goal seems reachable by the time the STGs goals finish their current framework in terms of timelines so within the next seven years.  And also at a time when the Internet is moving in new directions, particularly with data and AI becoming more mature in terms of their applications, also in terms of the concerns they raise, they raise greater policy attention on that today so the forums we have created the discussion tracks that we have are becoming even more important.
Now, what's the conjunction of different discussions?  A very critical discussion that's happening today is on the global digital compact as you highlighted moderator.  These deliberations started last year and in fact the last IGF was devoted to its agenda was aligned with the themes of the global digital compact and that has benefited the process which is abley led by Rwanda and Sweden, open, inclusive multistakeholder consult citation have taken place on eight broad teams and those teams included the important theme of connectivity, accelerating progress on the sustainable development goals Internet governance, adversary preventing the fragmentation of the Internet, data protection, human rights online, the building of digital comments where everyone can enjoy inclusive meaningful access to technologies and where misuse and risk are managed so that the commons are not polluted for the users that also included, these themes also included the theme of AI or governing AI for humidity.
Now, we are at a junction where these discussions are poised to move into the next phase which would be negotiations on the global digital compact proposed to be adopted at the summit of the future next year.  So it's an important moment.  Last year's IGF discussions were valuable.  Now as we move into the negotiation phase I think we can be even more sharp in terms of the suggestions and ideas that we bring to that process.
The secretary general, Mr. Antonio has put many ideas on the table to his policy brief of May 2023.  And in that policy brief there are 11 major areas.  So there are, of course, principals and approaches that are defined but also concrete objectives and actions by all stakeholders to take forward those objectives.  Many of those 11 areas are aimed at strategic enabling of progress on the sustainable development goals by greater investments in digital public infrastructure, by greater alignment of efforts on digital public discourse and public infrastructure, by capacity building and also a new target has been set up in terms of resources, hundred billion dollars for enhancing connectivity and bringing the nearly 3 billion who are still offline into the main stream of excess to Internet.
These ideas also include looking at some of the governance gaps there that are there but clearly are not AI and that's why the secretary general has proposed a multistakeholder global advisory body on AI.  That can look at the risks the, the opportunities, map out the landscape and come out with recommendations for governments who are struggling to strike the right balance between innovation and management of the risks and sometimes struggling to understand what exactly the risks are and how the technology landscape is moving.
The secretary general has also proposed a review and follow‑up mechanism on the global digital compact.  It's not only important to have a high ambition document but also to follow up transparently accountability follow up on the commitments and do so in a multistakeholder manner.  This is the big lesson we've learned from the IGF experience that this works so we need to continue with this model of governance of digital spaces.  This review and follow‑up mechanism should compliment the Internet Governance Forum's important role.  And there the newly appointed leadership panel of the IGF chaired by Vin Surf with Mara as the vice chair is making excellent progress.  It is focusing on the theme of the Internet we want, coming out with a design process around what kind of principles, what kind of outcomes, what kind of commons we want through the Internet.  And this process would reach an interesting milestone at the Kyoto IGF and I'm very much looking forward to the meeting there and to meeting many of you in person.  I see colleagues from DESA, IGF secretariate, they are working hard to prepare for the KYOTO meeting.  And I just want to conclude by highlighting the role that parliamentarians can play in this process.
Now, without a proper legislative framework, we cannot have the leap in connectivity that we need.  Public sector, the private sector, private companies need a proper regulatory framework that allows them to invest money, to build out the Internet infrastructure.  We also need proper regulation for data protection so that data flows goes up in volume so there is more an inclusive participation in the digital economy and for all those reasons parliamentarians need to take the lead in terms of moving forward the legislative agenda.  Take a look at emerging technologies, AI in particular and I think there is scope for parliamentarians to learn from each other to network across regions and learn from the experience of different legislative spaces such as the work being done in the European Union on the AI Act or the discussion that have taken place in the U.S. Senate on the governance of AI and also legislative work that's been undertaken in Brazil, chili, work that's being undertaken in the ASEAN context among the ten member states.  There is a lot of learning in terms of the governance of emerging technologist and also the management of the Internet space so that online harms are avoided.  Abuse is actively addressed and that there is no overreach by the executive in terms of let's say Internet shutdowns or the misuse of digital empty forms and services by the private sector., important enabling balancing and facilitating role in free, secure and inclusive digital future and allow me to conclude my remarks here.  Again, thank you very much and all the best for the rest of the proceedings.
>> Moderator:  Thank you so much, Mr. Gill for the comprehensive overview.  You have given a very good outline summary of the processes, Internet government processes and especially on the entire ad from the beginning of this week we have discussed so much on emerging technologies and the ‑‑ and how AI plays in this, you know, new digital world and it's good that you point out how we should take governing AI for humanity.  So this is a very good point.
And very good to know that the leadership panel doing a great job led by Vincent and, yeah, because you'll be going in the next couple much minutes, I will just open the floor for a few questions from a participant on site and as well as those from online.
[PAUSE]
>> Moderator:  It seems like Mr. Gill did a very good job outlining the questions.  Thank you so much, Mr. Gill.
Let's move on to our speaker No. 2, Mr. Wai Min Kwok.
Setting the stage by Mr. Gill, I think it's clear that this processes interrelated and have far reaching implication.  Mr. Kwok, would you please share with us or elaborate on how these processes intersect and why government, including parliamentarians, need to be prepared to engage with them.
Over to you.
Thank you.
>> Wai:  Thank you madam moderator.  Esteemed members of Parliaments, under secretary general Gill, thank you for your opening and framing our discussion here.  Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of United Nations department of economy and social affairs, I'm honored to join you here at this parliamentary round table that Asia Pacific region of IGF.  As we know, parliaments are the places where legislation is developed, including those for Internet and digital space.  This is very much intertwined with our daily life.  In the parliamentarians the key actors in deciding our digital future.  From the vantage point of UNDESA I'm pleased that IGF like the global IGF as the key platform where parliamentarians can exchange information and good practices and also interact with other stakeholder groups on pressing issues we Re lated to the use, evolution, and governance of digitalization and digital policies.  UNDESA has been designated about the secretary general has been ‑‑ intervening role of the Internet Governance Forum since the inception of IGF in 2006 following the ‑‑ in 2003 and 2005.  Also highlighted in the recent resolution 76 slash 270 adopted by the general assembly in June 2022, we also welcome the practice of including parliamentarians as members of national delegations to all major UN meetings and events such as the high level political forum in July and also invite members this to continue engagement in parliamentarians in a more regular and also systematic manner.
Here I take the opportunity to invite parliamentarians and also other stakeholders to join your national delegation in the upcoming SDG action weekend and the SDG summit from 16th of September here at the UN headquarters in New York.  It is important ‑‑ of the SDG as member states and stakeholders reflect on how we can accelerate the SDGs since as some of you may know we are behind in a number of the targets there.  The UN also special emphasis to attributing gender balance and we hear call for more participation from the female parliamentarians.  So thank you madam moderator for being ‑‑ taking time off to join us here as moderator.
So that brings me to the theme of this round table on the key role of parliamentarians the digital space.  There is not only ‑‑ also resonate well with digital trend.
How to develop and regulate digital technologies, understanding how technology works and what user is essential.  We need technologies to be human centric, to exercise the rights of human rights fully and to make people's life easier.  We also need technologies to be inclusive by default and top human centric by default and not as an afterthought.  But all this do not come by default.  The Internet is the great empowering tool but is also a complex ecosystem with emerging research challenges from misinformation, disinformation to all the privacy safety and security consequence and you also heard from Gill about technology challenges as AI, promise to drive progress towards sustainable development but also raised many questions of trust, ethnics, bias, just to name a few.  So minimizing the risks associated with digitalization and considering that individuals and society at large can enjoy the benefits in an inclusive, safe, and secure manner is our joint responsibility.  So this call for action for all stakeholders be them ‑‑ be they companies, government, the broader legal community and users themself.  So of course last but not the least the parliamentarians.  And also again you heard from USG as highlighted in the proposed global digital compact also in the secretary general for digital corporation and in our common agenda strength then digital corporation among different stakeholder groups is the cornerstone of an open free and secure digital future for all.  Parliaments have a role to play.  We have seen in recent years an increasing trend of registration that put forth national and regional Parliaments but some of which could be in ‑‑ or disconnected purchase and these cover issues such as privacy, service ‑‑ data protection, content policy, competition and protection and many more.
At UNDESA we believe it's important to have rules and regulation in place aim to take a risk associated with emerging digital space.  And to govern the market actors and to protect the rights of freedoms of individuals.  We also believe it's important to ensure digitals are oriented toward goal of a user centric digital space while balancing the various rights and providing particular environment for the private sector to operate.
I do hope that the APrIGF parliamentary track here could inspire the discussion at the global IGF.  The Internet Governance Forum that would be held in Kyoto on 18th of October 2023.  Change of views of different perspective as well as sharing good practices and deepening the cooperation among parliamentarians and other stakeholders on policy issues is the not only useful but critical.  UNDESA welcome parliamentarians and all participants to join us in person or remotely at the IGF in Kyoto in October.  I trust you know how to reach out to Anya from IGF secretary who is with you in the room in brings bon.  Also from IGF secretariate remotely but very much behind the organization of this parliamentarian track.  I trust that the corporation and the regional global levels as well as at the national levels is in session for IGF and will continue in years to come.  And this parliamentary track will be one of the annual form of global annual IGF regional IGF such as APrIGF and also to be a standard to national IGF.  I wish all of you fruitful exchange and look forward to you sharing the outcome of the AARP parliamentary track in Kyoto in October.
Thank you.  I'm handing the floor back to the moderator.
>> Thank you very much, Wai Min and I highlighted quite a number of good points, especially the importance of the role of parliamentarians in pushing, you know, the agenda in interacting with other key stakeholders, share holds of digital.  And I will give it to my other moderators if they have any comment or you have anything you want to add?
>> Nothing for now.  I think I'll want to add certainly after.  Very interesting inputs.  I do think we have Samona has also joined us online.
>> Moderator.  Great.  So we've got complete speakers now.  We have all our five speakers joining I don't know line.  So thank you so much, Wai Min for the comprehensive overview of your statements.
Now we move on to speaker No. 3, which I will ask the technical team to play the video.  We had a prerecorded video from Ms. Sah who's unfortunately unable to join us this time.
>> Good morning, good afternoon and good evening to everybody joining today.  Thank you for all inviting us to the IGF parliamentary track, Asia Pacific regional IGF forum.  It's a pleasure to be here.  So I'd like to take you through the plans and the history of the process in my allotted time.  And for that I have prepared a presentation which I would like to share with all the honorable participants here.
So basically the presentation focus on the WSIS last 20 process and the vision for it beyond 2025.  So as you are aware, WSIS is the UN process that involves the more than 30UN agencies.  It's an existing multistakeholder digital corporation.  It's a great example of multistakeholder corporation within UN agencies and it has been multistakeholder since its inception so it includes governments, private sectors, civil society, academia, and the technical community.  And of course your region of Asia Pacific has always been one of the most active regions in the WSIS process.
So the goal of the WSIS process from the beginning has been to achieve a common vision for desire and commitment to build a people centric inclusive and development oriented information and knowledge societies.  Where everyone can create access utilize and share information.  So of course all of this is still very, very relevant to the changing scenario and the technology that exists today.
So just to quickly take you through the phases.  In 2003, the first phase of WSIS was held, the Geneva phase.  The principles and plan of action was adopted.
You see those small items in green, the WSIS action lines as we call them famously.  C2 infrastructure, C5 cyber security, C6 enabling environment and so on, so forth.  And this is a very beautiful framework as different UN agencies based on their mandate implement the different action items.  For example UNESCO implements different action like e‑Learning, so forth.  UNDESA works with us on E government, UNTON on E business and WHO on health and so on, so forth.  And in 2005, the Tunis phase out of which also the IGF was born, the agenda for information society was adopted.
Now in 2015 we had a WSIS10 review process, ten years of the WSIS process and also the 2030 agenda for sustainable development was adopted:  So since 2015 we have been aligning the WSIS action lines with sustainable development goals to highlight the importance of ICTs in achieving the sustainable development goals.
Now, in the resolution our mandate is still 2025 so we have initiated the WSIS plus 20 review process, different stakeholders are doing their own, you know, assessment of the 20 years of what they've achieved, what are the challenges and what are the opportunities that remain since the plan of action.
Now, one of the things we have been doing to implement the WSIS process is the forum.  Held every year.  It's a multistakeholder corporation platform.  It's held in Geneva but we have more than 2,700 participants.  Physical, more than 5,000 participants virtually.  There are more than 250 sessions.  It's an open forum.  This time we also had a parliamentary track.  So we welcome you next year to the WSIS plus 20 high level event.  That's what it's called next year to join us, we had from a et ‑‑ 46 ministers with the ambassadors.  We introduced a component for mayors basically to highlight the smart city element.  The chairperson was the minister of Slovenia for 2023 and the key outcomes of course was that multi stakeholders consult citation on WSIS plus 20 took place and the global digital compact consult citation also took place at the WSIS forum.  The ambassadors of Rwanda and Sweden were present out here and held basically used the opportunity of the great presence of private sector and civil society at the WSIS forum to gather their inputs.
Of course, also there was a discussion on the potential of space as a driver for sustainable devices.
Now to very quickly go through what stakeholders and governments and member states are thinking about the review process, of course it has to be multistakeholder.  The vision would be to provide a framework.  Basically addressing opportunities and challenges posed by the current digital landscape, including on universal connectivity and sustainable digital transformation.  Through collaboration the key UN agencies currently which are implementing the WSIS process are IDU, UNESCO, UNCSDD, UNDESA and other agencies.  Aim would be to develop, of course, some sort of agreed text on a vision of WSIS beyond 2025 at the high level meeting in the UNGA in 2025.
The way we look at the phases.  If you see they always join branding on the left of IT UNESCO UNDP, the phases would, of course, involve.
All these reviews are planned in September, October, November.  Of course, the 2023SDE summit is on the 18th and 19th of September.  We are also organizing the SDG digital event on the 17th to highlight the importance of digital in achieving the SDGs and talk about it later.  They have the Japan phase as we call it.  It's the IGF in October.  Eight to 12th of October.  So WSIS will be holding a high level event in collaboration.  Of course in collaboration with the Japanese government our former secretary, Mr. Utsumu will be there, secretary of Japan and secretary general and we are really looking forward to this high level discussion on past 20 during the Japan phase.  Geneva phase, the WSIS forum next year will be rebranded as the WSIS plus 20 forum high level event.  If it's hosted by ‑‑ will be held from the 27th to 31st of May.  We look forward to welcoming you all of you there.  Do let us know if you're interested in more information.  Then of course UNESCO would like to host something as part of the last 20 preparatory process.  They're still deciding whether it would be in 2024 or 2025.
Then we have the summit of the future basically on the 22nd and 23rd of September which would also ‑‑ spoken about it will definitely speak about it, about the GDC and of course our interest is to align the entire process with the GDC and to explore all collaboration cooperation between the two processes.
We were proposed by Tunesia in 2025 we could align with the famous regional event with a special focus on 2020.  In 2025 we would have the WSIS forum in May and then the UNGA high level event in New York.  So this is kind of the time line for the WSIS plus 20 preparatory process we have been working in collaboration with different stakeholders to develop this time line.
Now, the high level event next year what will be the main purpose, we will review the progress of WSIS over the 20 years, implementation, share knowledge and expertise, identify challenges, gaps, and highlight opportunities and of course ‑‑ and like I mentioned we will definitely have a parliamentary track and engagement.  Last year we had ‑‑ this year we had several parliamentarians joining us via Chile.  Some joined us physically but if you are interested we could definitely do something together.  The outcome of the event would be multistakeholder output that would identify achievements, gaps, and opportunities in the WSIS process.
Now, just to take you through a little bit, we have the ITO council recently and the member states of ITO, they have emphasized the importance of WSIS, UN process and its role in achieving the sustainable development goals or the 2030 agenda for sustainable development.  So we'll revise the resolution to member states revise the resolution 1332 and 1334 which gives a clear rule and mandate on the overall review of the implementation of the outcomes of the WSIS.  Now, we, like I mentioned, UNDP in collaboration with the UN system also in collaboration with SDG as a knowledgeable partner we are organizing SDG digital to highlight the importance of digital in achieving accelerating the achievement of the sustainable development goals.  So the data is 17th September.  If any of you will be attending the UNGA or will be present on the 17th of September, kindly do let us know so we can register you and you can be part of our community on that date.
Just to glam rise the event, we also organized the SDG game changers.  So we have just finished with the jury, the selection is over.  The winners have been informed.  So it was an incredible journey and we received outstanding results and the outcomes will be shared on the 16th of September during a reception for the SDG digital.
So thank you very much.  This was the time I was given to give you an overview and a brief about the WSIS process and some of our plans about WSIS plus 20.  There is a general e‑mail address here or you could definitely contact me through the secretariate and I'll be very happy to respond to all your questions and look forward to receiving you in Geneva for the WSIS plus 20 high level event.
Thank you very much.
>> Hello, ma'am?
>> Moderator:  Thank you so much.  We've got that very informative presentation and I thank you overwhelmed from the information provided especially on the WSISS processes.
We have to move ahead because I think time is running out.
We are going to our speaker No. 4 who is the honorable Hasan.  As you know as emphasized by speakers, parliamentarians plays an important role in this journey of Internet governance processes and as a member of parliament and former minister of broadcast in Bangladesh, can you please share your views, especially from a regional perspective on this processes?  Thank you.
Jeez not there anymore.  All right.  Well, I hope our last speaker is here.  Let me see.
Is honorable Sumana here in the room?  All right.  Thank you.
I think we're going to move on to our final speaker, honorable Sumana as highlighted by previous speakers as I said before the importance of preparation.  I want to dive deeper into the role of parliamentarians in shaping Internet governance processes.  So can you share how can parliamentarians actively contribute to this processes and ensure that their voices are heard and also could you please share with us regional perspective on this as a member of parliament from Nepal.
Over to you honorable Sumana.
>> Good morning, everyone.  Thank you very much.
Early morning here.  So diving right into the topic here are a couple of areas from Nepal that is important and I believe it requires a global corporation.  With the advent of Internet there is digital divide.  As of now we've got 34 percent of Nepal connected through Internet through fiber optics which means the information, knowledge that's available for a lot who are in developed countries is or the 34 percent of Nepalese is not yet available through a large population of Nepal.  That's one of the first challenge I have or we have from developing countries.  The second is with the advent of Internet, the obvious question is with every technology there are risks that come with it.  Some we cannot ignore and others we need to figure out how to mitigate.
My mom's generation is a generation who thinks whatever she sees in her screen is correct, is actually correct news.  So there's a huge problem that we need to tackle with fake news or more importantly as AI advances.  I am particularly concerned about defects and this is where I believe we need a Google corporation in terms of sharing knowledge, sharing technology and sharing know how on how we tackle fake news.  That really crosses boundaries.
The second area where I believe I need to focus on and I'm focusing on some of the grooming activities Internet space that requires a lot of monitoring as well and finally I think that is going to be a big challenge for Nepal that he with need to figure out how to tackle at a policy level is reskilling workforce.  Right now we've got a huge population of Nepal that work abroad and a lot of those jobs are going to be at risk as the technology advances.  So a big policy question for me is primarily around how do I go about reskilling a huge population that are very low skilled to exist in a very advanced space that are already going to be at the forefront.  So from where I see, there are three or four key take away messages.  First is we need to have more conversation with the parliamentarians to recognize the risks that come together with the advancement of technology in terms of like, you know, when we're talking about industry or revolution 4.0 how are we going to tackle, what are the knowledges we're going to share across boundaries to have this huge workforce adapt.  The second conversation we need to have cross boundary is what are the technology, what are the policy, common policies we should work on to prevent fake news from spreading.  We still I do not believe have a content moderator in the large platforms that operate in the cloud so these are some of the policy dialogues we need to have across.  It's very difficult to get very large social media platforms to listen to a country not generating huge amount of revenue from their global revenue stream but if we can talk across countries with other parliamentarians then it becomes something that we can collectively have conversation with on what content moderation we have to keep people safe and finally I think it's very important from a parliamentarian perspective to have this network probably starts off as a formal network but then it moves on to informal to have conversation about what are the upcoming threats and how can they prevent the spread of disinformation or misinformation across borders.
Thank you.  That's all from my side.
>> Thank you so much, honorable Sumana.  Thank you for all the comment.  Especially the key takeaways that you just mentioned the importance of having more conversation with parliamentarians to address the importance of emerging technologies that we have to have policies in place and should take across countries with other parliamentarians.  I think we still have quite good timing for questions.  Now we are here opening the floor for questions and comment.
Participant joining virtually you can actually type your questions on the chat box and for those participants on site you can raise your hand if you have a question.
I'll open the floor for everyone.
[PAUSE]
>> Moderator:  Do we have any question from online participants?
>> I see there is a question ‑‑ actually a comment in the chat.  Maybe if you would like to take the floor.
>> Thank you for the question.  I'll just read it for the record.  There's an observation sharing my experience as end user, especially in south Asia.  Parliamentarian always willing to take initiative to further extend IGF ecosystem for citizens in particular in India we have digital public infrastructure, digital finance having 800 million people on board.
Thank you for your comment.
And there's another comment for Pubudi.  Would you like to take the floor?
I didn't see ‑‑ maybe I can just say a few words.
>> Moderator:  Go ahead.
>> I first of all want to certainly thank all the speakers for very valuable inputs and especially for some concrete proposals how can we advance engagement of legislatures into our multistakeholder dialogue and this is something that we discussed national and regional IGF and I'm very happy to share this is a really good practice of concrete cooperation between legislative bodies and multistakeholder communities which are organized around the IGF concepts at local levels.  So one of the example that I always like to mention is the example of the Kenya IGF.  My colleague Barak that coordinates shared the example of the way they cooperate with their national parliament in a way that upon the month they stand as advisors to the parliament.  So for example when there was Asia they were dealing with discussions related to regulating the use of drones, then they would reach out to the multistakeholder organizing team on the Kenya IGF just because it's the nexus of knowledge coming from the technical community from civil society all their government private sector as well.  Maybe that could be good practice to learn from across the ‑‑ not just the national IGF.  I think the onus here is also with the parliaments because these are complex technologies we are dealing with and they need to make informed decisions and there are good resources in more than 100 countries now through the national IGF but also the regional IGF that they can draw upon.  My final point and certainly I would like to hear what other colleagues think, recently in June we have similar setup, there were especially there we discussed the way they could be engaged, international as the meeting points of stakeholders coming from relatively vast regions from different disciplines, maybe if there are ideas.
Before decisions are made.  We have seen some examples of public consult citation, for example, the EUAI Act.  So they have public consult citation leaving several instances of decisions.  So perhaps those are also the practices where those types of consult citation would be done in cooperation with the regional IGFs thank you.
>> Moderator.  Thank you so much, Anya.
Do we have any comment from the panelist or response?
[PAUSE]
>> Moderator:  Okay.  The floor is still open.  We have ‑‑ I think we have around eight minutes left.  So floor is still open if anyone on the ‑‑ on site want to hear a question.
[PAUSE]
>> moderator:  I think the panelist did a very good job for this discussion.
Let me just wrap on.  If we don't have any questions from the floor, I think we ‑‑ everybody's hungry now it's lunchtime.  Well, I think our panelists have provided invaluable insight into the on‑going Internet governance processes and the need for governments to prepare and, you know, active contribution from parliamentarians can actually make a change and as we move forward, let's recognize that shaping the digital space is a collective effort and the engagement of parliamentarians is essential for fostering digital work that benefits all.  So ladies and gentlemen, I think thank you so much for your thoughtful contribution, especially the panelists for doing a very good job, very informative discussions.  Let's continue to work to make sure the Internet remains force for change and progress.  I think this brings us to the end of our session today but thank you so much everyone.  Especially those participating online.  Thank you very much.  Have a good day.
[APPLAUSE]  

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