Fourth Central Asian Internet Governance Forum in Tashkent Explores How to Empower Region through Use of Cyberspace

Categories: Central Asia, Monitoring-GMI, and Uzbekistan.

The Fourth Central Asian Internet Governance Forum is taking place on 15 and 16 May 2019 in Tashkent. The event aims to provide a platform to discuss Internet governance policies in Central Asian countries.

The Forum is the first of its kind in Uzbekistan and is organized by the Ministry for Development of Information Technologies and Communications of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the OSCE Project Co-Ordinator in Uzbekistan with the support of ICANN, Internet Society, RIPE NCC, Facebook, Kaspersky Lab, IGFSA, Uztelecom and the Inha University in Tashkent.

High-level government officials and representatives from the private sector, civil society, academia, experts and international organizations will engage in discussions and share best practices on how to address issues related to cybersecurity, Internet freedom and regulation, access to the Internet as well as global and national approaches to Internet governance.

Two working groups will be engaged in discussions of separate thematic issues to formulate policy and practical recommendations for the Central Asian countries to use cyberspace in addressing the physical or geographical restrictions. This would help countries in the region to benefit from the Internet for economic, social and societal purposes.

Within the thematic areas, special attention will be paid to making cyberspace more open, interoperable, secure, and reliable and offer concrete tools and mechanisms that will help to improve communication within countries in Central Asia.

The Fourth Central Asian Internet Governance Forum is organized in response to the 2017 Ministerial Council Decision on enhancing OSCE efforts to reduce the risk of conflict stemming from the use of information and communication technologies.

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