• Asia-Pacific Delegates discuss during Security and Prosperity Working Group meetings.

Delegates from APEC Member Economies met during the second Closing Plenary Session of the 38th APEC Telecommunications and Information Technologies Working Group Meeting aiming to detail guidelines, proposals and work to be developed.

Today, the Security and Prosperity, Liberalization and Development of Communication and Information Technologies working groups will meet. The topics they will address are Regional economic integration through private virtual networks, Competence and Convergence Policies, Frameworks to create policies and regulations, Interconnection and Consumption issues, Capacity-building in telecommunications trade standards and regulatory disciplines; as well as Universal Access to Wideband services.

An important topic within the Communication and Information Technologies Development Working Group is the dialogue on the goal of universal access to Internet by 2010 and the use of new technologies in health care; as well as capacity-building in rural communities and the creation of an access network for long-distance learning.

Likewise, the exchange of proposals and projects will continue regarding the use of telecommunications for disasters management, policies against malware, cyber security, protection of the cyberspace from terrorist use and attacks. They will also discuss about the creation of suitable mechanisms to stop the misuse of the network infrastructure and emerging technologies.

Tomorrow, Arnon Tubtiang, Delegate from Thailand, Plenary sessions Chair and Luis Tsuboyama, Gender, SMEs and Telecommunications Director of APEC Secretariat, Singapore, will report on the proposals created during this week of sessions. Also, they will mention the topics addressed during the Second Closing Plenary Session.

The APEC 38th Telecommunications and Information Technologies Working Group (TEL-WG) mainly aims to make APEC Member Economies stop being part of the Asia – Pacific Information Structure in order to become an Information Society block.