IGF 2014

Internet: an opportunity for sustainable growth

 
By the end of 2013, there were an estimated 2.7 billion people using the Internet worldwide. The Internet has radically changed the way we access information, consume information and interact with each other, offering significant potential for future growth. By connecting intelligent machines to each other and ultimately to people, and by combining software and big data analytics, we can push the boundaries of physical and material sciences to change the way the world works contributing to growth and sustainable development.

Accordingly the collaboration and engagement of multiple stakeholders is a growing necessity. Countries need to invent new ways to achieve sustainable development and address the challenges of the 21st century including growing global populations, low-carbon energy and strong resilience to global climate change (which puts pressure on the environment).

The Internet plays a critical role:

• in contributing to the monitoring, mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change;
• in emergency telecommunications;
• in improving quality of life; and
• in enabling energy efficiency achievements.

This side meeting jointly organized by ITU, EBU and the Egyptian Ministry of Communication and Information Technology will provide a platform to discuss how the Internet is revolutionizing our society as an engine for growth, development and disaster risk reduction with the aim of achieving this in an environmentally sustainable manner.

Agenda

Opening remarks

• Tomas Lamanauskas, ITU

Keynote speech

• H.E. Hasanul Haq Inu, Minister of Information, Bangladesh

Panel

Moderator:

• Tomas Lamanauskas, ITU

Panelists:

• Giacomo Mazzone, European Broadcasting Union (EBU)
• Nevine Tewfik, Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, Egypt
• Daniele Trinchero, Head & Founder, iXem Labs, Politecnico di Torino

 Questions & answers