The OECD has been analysing and providing policy recommendations on the development of the information technology and communications sectors and their impacts for over two decades. Today, grasping the implications of information and communications technologies for the economy and society is a crucial issue for the Organisation.
The OECD recognised early on the need to promote the development of electronic commerce as a major platform for economic growth, expansion of trade, organisational efficiency and consumer choice. A broad-ranging policy debate was necessary, bringing in all the major stakeholders. The series began in Turku, Finland (1997) - starting the dialogue and identifying barriers. This led to the Ottawa Ministerial Conference (1998) - setting the action plan. The next year the OECD organised a stocktaking conference in Paris (1999) - broadening the dialogue. The creation of the DOT Force and the declarations at the G8 summit in Okinawa in 2000 was significant. The OECD therefore made global inclusion in the electronic economy a theme of the next conference, the Emerging Market Economy Forum in Dubai (2001) - going Global. The present event, the OECD Global Forum: "Policy Frameworks For The Digital Economy",will widen the scope still further.
The OECDorganised this event in partnership with APEC. The organisations share many common goals and their collaboration goes back a long way in the domain of information and communication technologies, for example, the first major international conference on the Global Information Infrastructure was jointly organised by the OECD, APEC and PECC in Vancouver, Canada in February 1995.
Agenda and other documents
The focus of the Conference was the need for coherent policy frameworks for the global digital economy.
In order to push forward the policy agenda of the digital economy,the discussion at the Honolulu meeting was arranged around three themes, in line with the agenda priorities of the OECD Council at ministerial level in May 2002 and of the G-8 Kananaskis Summit in June.
The economy- the role of ICTs and electronic commerce in restarting and maintaining a strong rate of economic growth, productivity and job creation over the coming decade;
Security and trust- from "hard-edge" security issues, such as cyber terrorism and cyber crime to consumer and user trust, authentication, etc.
Global participation- ICTs for development, the international digital divide
Just as the Ottawa Ministerial conference did for electronic commerce in 1998, substantively, the objective remained to clarify the principles of policy strategies for the global digital economy in the coming decade. Procedurally, the OECD, in particular the ICCP Committee and its working parties, determined how best to proceed in order to achieve its substantive objective. To this end the DSTI worked with colleagues throughout the OECD Secretariat andconsulted the ICCP Committee bureau as a steering group.
For the Forum documents, please click here:
Agenda (for OECD APEC Forum and the Special Workshop on the WSIS including speakers' presentations)
14 January (afternoon): Business Forum and "Public Voice" Conference
15-16 January: OECD-APEC GlobalForum: Policy Frameworks for the Digital Economy
17 January (morning): Special Workshop: The World Summit on the Information Society - Consultation and a Plan of Action
Contacts:
Misha Pinkhasov, OECD, Paris, France Email: Misha.Pinkhasov@oecd.org Telephone: +33.1.4524.8120 General Press Enquiries to the OECD may be addressed to: Helen Fisher, OECD Public Affairs and Communications Directorate, at +33 1 45 24 80 97.
Business Forum and Public Voice Conference and Special Workshop
The Business Forum and the Public Voice Conference took place in parallel in the afternoon of 14 January.
Please click here for the latest Public Voice Conference agenda.
The Special Workshop: The World Summit on the Information Society - Consultation and a Plan of Actionwas organised by the OECD in collaboration with the Executive Secretariat of the WSIS.
Participation
A total of 250 participants took part, from government and business organisations from OECD Member countries and Non-member countries, and APEC member countries, business and civil society organisations.
Other events
The Global Internet Project (GIP) , an international business group promoting the continued growth of the Internet,met on Monday 13 January and hosted a workshop to discuss new ways of tackling the problem of Internet Spam, entitled "A Case Study of Private Sector Oversight", from 10:00 to 11:45am on Tuesday, January 14.
This Conference took place just before PTC2003, the annual conference of the Pacific Telecommunications Council. Please click here to go to their conference web page. The theme of PTC2003 is "Global Broadband / Global Challenges". It took place 19-23 January 2003 at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, closeto theSheraton Waikiki Hotel.
Joint OECD/UN/World Bank Global Forum on Knowledge Economy: Integrating ICT in Development Programmes will be held at the OECD, Paris 4-5 March 2003. It will build on the first event of this series held in March 2001, namely " Exploiting the Digital Opportunities for Poverty Reduction". Further information will be linked from this site in due course.
