it's my great pleasure to speak to you
at this opening of the 47th meeting of I
can allow me to join my voice to South
African authorities and to welcome all
of you to the African continent the
cradle of humanity the continent of
opportunities and future growth our
continent is commemorating this year the
50th anniversary of the African Union
the African the organization of African
Unity it's indeed in May twenty-fifth
nineteen sixty three when the first
meeting of the founding fathers of the
organization of African Unity took place
in Addis Ababa for the signing of the
charter of the organization of the
African Unity by this solemn act our
founding fathers came to safeguard and
consolidate the independence of our
countries then under the yoke of
colonization and in a bid to strengthen
solidarity across Africa and total
liberation of the continent did not only
lay the foundation of our unity through
a common African identity but also
triggered the dynamics of actions
and efforts towards integration and
sustainable development that our
continent is today pursuing the
information and communication
technologies are playing a vital role to
achieve the African Union vision which
is an integrated prosperous peaceful
Africa driven by its own citizens and
representing a dynamic force in the
global arena the internet with its
critical resources and governance are in
the center of this play you are all
experts and you know sure I'm sure that
you know better than me but it's worth
noting that I cities are transforming
the African continent and empowering its
people's life the Internet has become an
integral part of socio-economic
development in Africa that's why in
there Oliver Tambo declaration adopted
in Johannesburg in 2009 and endorsed by
heads of state the African Union
ministers in charge of communication and
information technologies committed
themselves to work together first to
protect African Geographic and heritage
names traditional knowledge and
traditional cultural expressions which
are recognized as economic assets in the
information society secondly to promote
the use of the country code top-level
domains as they are a critical national
resource while is ensuring that the
technical and administrative operations
are at the international standards to
foster trust and use of African domain
names in order to bring financial
economic and socio-cultural benefits to
Africa in addition in addition to this
and as per that 2010 declaration of the
heads of state and government on
information and communication
technologies the African Union
Commission strongly believes that
meeting these two objectives and
building of Africa's information society
requires a secure cyberspace appropriate
infrastructure and efficient
coordination among African stakeholders
and with international institutions to
that end the 22nd ordinary session of
the heads of state and government summit
decided among others one to continue the
implementation of the program for
infrastructure development in Africa
peda its three priority programs which
is enabling environment infrastructure
and internet exchange points all of them
are being implemented with I soak and 33
African countries certain to accelerate
the analog to digital migration
and the elaboration of national cyber
legislations third elaborate an African
action plan for the migration from ipv4
to ipv6 distinguished participants
ladies and gentlemen the Internet is one
of the greatest public gifts of the 20
yes century over the past five years the
internet connectivity market in Africa
has grown at an exceptional pace it has
been the ground for an unprecedented
level of innovation and facilitated
cross-border trade through e-commerce
helping to further develop the internal
market and contributing to the erosion
of entry barriers between African member
states in participating in the global
village and using the internet we
Africans should make sure that our
transactions are safe and that our
identity is protected our names and
culture should be used for the benefit
of our economies and our people
distinguished participants ladies and
gentlemen the Tunis commitment and Tunis
agenda reaffirm the Geneva commitment to
human rights as the foundation for the
global information society the human
rights standards required governments to
ensure that the information society does
not result in discrimination or debris
vation of existing rights
on the contrary I cities should be used
to advance effective implementation of
human rights at local level the
principle of non-discrimination mandates
universal access to information and
communication as an overall goal all
individuals communities and countries
should be empowered to take part in the
information society using their own
languages to create disseminate and
share information and knowledge we in
the African Union recognize embrace the
effort of the technical community
academia and governments that started
the internet and we believe that the
private sector and businesses the civil
society and the academia the governments
and technical community should keep
building it for the benefit of human
Internet governance and security
concerns all of us to greater extent we
also strongly believe that the fully
inclusive approach involving governments
the industry intergovernmental and
international organizations will reflect
the general partnership approach which
has helped to build the internet over
the last past 40 years there is a
tendency from some to antagonize the
issue of Internet its stability and its
governance but let me just mention that
the issue of Internet
is not about old and the new way of
thinking it's not about telecom
community versus internet and computer
communities it's not about autocratic
versus Democratic type of governments
it's not about government's versus civil
society and businesses it's about all
users institutions and individuals men
and women feeling confident of using the
Internet
the African Union Commission will spare
no effort to contribute positively to
the debate and to building the global
consensus with our 54 member states we
must rise to the challenge of developing
customer-centric services that can offer
services delivering quality consistency
and transparency this is what drives our
action in the African Union
distinguished participants ladies and
gentlemen I can structure reflects the
global internet community including
government's technical community
registries the business community
academia and non-commercial communities
and representatives of the consumer
interests working together to promote
the stability and integrity of the
Internet we are inviting all
stakeholders to make inclusion as the
center of all our actions and join us so
together we can develop I cities for the
benefit of our economies for the benefit
of our people you are meeting here today
at a time of critical changes to the
international landscape of internet
governance cooperation rather than
confrontation it's now recognized within
the African Union system as the way
forward for the Internet let us all work
to make it a reality this is
there is a veteran SST to acknowledge
that everyone has a role to play in the
internet governance internet is one of
all and should remain as such for the
African Union the essential principles
are clear the day-to-day operation of
Internet should be led by the private
sector with governments intervening when
necessary on overarching matters of
security resilience equitable access and
fair competition we do believe that
there is a need not only for enhancing
cooperation but for a new internet
social contract in which every single
actor is recognized ladies and gentlemen
before concluding allow me to convey our
thanks and appreciation to the board of
I camp and to the difference I can
supporting organizations and
constituencies Thank You mr. Crocker for
the board support to the GAC advices
Thank You mr. fatty for all your
achievements in this short period
especially for Africa those words and
those principles edited here and there
about the need for extra transparency
are very much valued and appreciated we
and the government's do not have all the
tools to deliver all programs related to
DNS but we have opted
for an open private sector-led framework
while ensuring that the development of
the D&S is not going to undermine our
national and continent and brands many
thanks to all I can supporting
organizations and my special
appreciation go to the gap and its share
for their wonderful work and with this
words ladies and gentlemen I wish you
fruitful meetings and thank you for your
kind attention thank you