Kingdom Chairs ITU Council Working Group on International Public Policy Issues Related to the Internet

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, represented by the Communications and Information Technology Commission, chaired the meeting of the ITU Council Working Group on International Internet-related Public Policy Issues, held in early March of this year at ITU headquarters in Geneva.

The meeting's agenda included discussing government responses to a questionnaire document that had previously been distributed to the Union's member states regarding the measures that should be taken on 12 issues related to international Internet-related public policy issues.

Attended by ITU Secretary-General Dr. Hamadoun Touré and his deputy, along with a number of the Union's bureau directors, in addition to delegates from various countries around the world, participants discussed input from 37 countries on what should be done regarding a number of issues related to international Internet-related public policy, such as the management of critical Internet resources including domain names and addresses, ensuring the sustainability of the Internet, the robustness, stability and development of its infrastructure, effectively combating spam, protecting personal information and data, protecting children and youth from abuse and exploitation, in addition to issues related to the use of the Internet.

The Working Group Chairman, Director General of International Affairs at the Communications and Information Technology Commission, Eng. Majed bin Mohammed Al-Muzaid, said that since the Kingdom assumed the chairmanship of this group at its establishment in 2008, it has been actively participating in its meetings with a large number of member states, by providing contributions that ensure the effectiveness of the group's meeting outcomes on international Internet-related public policy issues.

37 countries, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United States of America, Britain, Switzerland, Germany, Russia, Japan, Canada, Sweden, Morocco, Oman, India, Bahrain, South Korea, Singapore, Brazil, Iraq, Qatar, Portugal, Australia, New Zealand, Norway and a number of other countries, contributed their input on the issues covered by the questionnaire document.

It should be noted that the International Telecommunication Union in Geneva is the United Nations specialized international agency for telecommunications and information technology.