Second Meeting of the Digital Opportunity Taskforce (DOT Force)
(Summary)
(1 and 2 March, Venue: Cape Town)

2 March 2001

1. Holding of the Meeting and Participants

The Second Meeting of the Digital Opportunity Taskforce (DOT Force) was held on 1 and 2 March 2001 in Cape Town in the Republic of South Africa. (Chair: Italy; Host Country: South Africa). The DOT Force was established based on the Okinawa Charter on Global Information Society, which was adopted at the Kyushu-Okinawa Summit last year. The DOT Force will examine concrete steps to bridge the international digital divide and prepare a report for the next G8 Summit to be held in Genoa, Italy in 2001. Participating in the meeting were representatives from the governments, businesses, and non-profit organizations (NPOs) of the G8 (attendants from the Government of Japan included Kaoru Ishikawa, Deputy Director-General for the Economic Affairs Bureau, and others); the European Union (EU); developing countries (the Republic of Bolivia, the Federal Republic of Brazil, the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Republic of India, South Africa and the United Republic of Tanzania (representatives from the People's Republic of China, the Republic of Indonesia and the Republic of Senegal were absent)); international organizations and other business organizations (United Nations Development Program (UNDP), World Bank, Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC), International Telecommunications Union (ITU), United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), World Economic Forum (WEF), Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce (GBDe), and Global Information Infrastructure Commission (GIIC)).

2. Main Points of Discussion

At this meeting, discussions were held regarding the appropriate composition of Part 4 (priority issues) and Part 5 (recommendations) based on a draft of the report which was distributed to the members by the Secretariat (World Bank and UNDP) shortly before the meeting.

The members appeared to share a certain level of understanding regarding the "priority issues," but they were ultimately unable to come to any sort of firm agreement. As for the "recommendations," although some suggestions were put forth, there was no consensus on the composition or specific details of the recommendations, and as many of the discussions were generally abstract, the members recognized the need to work actively towards the adoption of the final report in the next meeting (scheduled for 23 and 24 April in Siena, Italy) by continuing their discussions over the Internet.

(1) Priority Issues

1. Little objection was raised against the importance of the five areas in the report: (i) the establishment of policies, systems and a networked environment; (ii) connectivity and access; (iii) human resources development (education); (iv) contents (including e-commerce and e-Government); and (v) international governance of international cooperation.
2. Developing countries (particularly African countries) emphasized the necessity of human resources development and an international regime concerning information technology (IT) policies.
3. Japan stressed the importance of using IT on a community level (supporting local entrepreneurs and delivering information useful to the region).
4. Furthermore, the establishment of a macro-economic environment (the stabilization of the world economy, trade, employment and foreign direct investment (FDI)), liberalization, competition, gender, youth, support for small businesses, employment/labor, good governance, and particular consideration for the poor were pointed out as priority issues.

(2) Recommendations

1. Regarding the content and format of the recommendations, opinions were voiced concerning the need to make the recommendations a simple but powerful message which can be directly linked to the message of the G8 leaders, as well as for consistency with the G8 Okinawa Communique and the Okinawa Charter on Global Information Society and a "goal-targets-project" structure.
2. Developing countries called for a mechanism to enable the sharing of successful examples and the coordination of international policies on IT.
3. The following were proposed as specific recommendations:
   • To formulate IT programs and strategies by country, by region, and by sub-region, disclose them to stakeholders, and make use of aid policy coordination and investment environment studies
   • To enable the sharing of information among educational and research institutions throughout the world via networks
   • To create an international policy coordination institute
   • To widely provide Public Access Points
   • To establish an information and communications technology (ICT) foundation
   • Relaxation of visa restrictions
   • To establish an IT distance education institute and issue certificates to its graduates
   • To create and inventory of successful examples
   • To emphasize local culture and languages
   • To develop model laws for IT/ICT
   • To establish a virtual policy center, a seed fund (capital) for entrepreneurs, a government-private sector-NPO joint education program, etc.

(3) Other

1. Emphasized throughout the entire discussion were: the importance of an ownership/partnership approach and multifaceted cooperation; ensuring that IT is a means, not a purpose; making sure that the voices of developing countries are heard in the report; the need for cooperation on IT that is not perceived as charity but rather something that benefits developed countries and developing countries alike; and the need to respond in accordance with the characteristic features of fast-moving ICT.
2. African countries, led by South Africa, seem to have a forward-looking attitude towards IT as a whole, as exemplified by the regular holding of meetings among information and communications ministers to decide priority issues regarding IT for African countries.