Wrapping up our work in Hyderabad, I am heading to Wuzhen this week, together with two of our APAC Board members, Asha Hemrajani and Akinori Maemura, to attend the 3rd World Internet Conference held in my home country, China from 16 – 18 November.
We are not strangers to Wuzhen, a scenic historical water town an-hour’s drive from Shanghai. Since the annual 3-day forum started in 2014, ICANN community members, Board members and staff have been attending the forum to meet with and hear from over 2000 participants from China and the world. These participants include international representatives from Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), World Economic Forum (WEF), The Internet Society (ISOC), Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) and Asia Pacific Top Level Domain Association (APTLD).
This year, Asha and Akinori will speak at the Global Internet Governance sub-forum, briefing the audience about the globalization of the Domain Name System (DNS) and introducing how ICANN is working with our revised mission under the multistakeholder Internet governance model. While there, we will also have dialogue and discussion with many government officials, industry entrepreneurs, scholars and technical experts from all over the world.
China has been rapidly increasing its network bandwidth and deploying IPv6 infrastructure in recent years. It also actively pursues an "Internet Plus" strategy that seeks to drive economic growth by the integration of Internet technologies with conventional industries.
Free flow of information, permission-less innovation, and international cooperation are key factors for these initiatives to be successful. As a global organization, ICANN attaches great importance to our engagement with the Chinese stakeholders and welcomes their participation in our work.
I still remember last year when I chatted with Chinese volunteers (many of whom are college students) and journalists in Wuzhen. They told me that multistakeholder model was a new concept for them and what they heard and learnt from ICANN representatives in Wuzhen was truly eye-opening. As a country of 710 million online users that growingly rely on the Internet for economic and social development, China has a huge stake in global Internet. I am confident that our engagement efforts in Wuzhen will further raise the awareness of ICANN and the multistakeholder model by local audience and strengthen China’s commitment to one universal global Internet.
We are looking forward to meeting you in Wuzhen.