Second Ukrainian Internet governance forum has closed. This year, over 200 participants gathered at the Kyiv venue, including of Ukrainian government, IT companies, and domestic and international online community, with experts from France, Germany, Denmark, Romania, Switzerland, Russia, Italy, Bulgaria, Poland, and the US being present. In addition, the forum was attended by the special guests: President of the European Media Platform international NGO Hanne Severinsen and Director-General for Human Rights, Information Society Legal Aspects, Media and Data Protection at the Council of Europe Alessandra Perucci.
This year, the forum aimed to discuss major issues of the information society development in Ukraine and to consolidate the efforts of government agencies, entrepreneurs and the Internet community to implement new information technologies. Given the fairly representative attendance of government officials at this year’s debate on the Internet governance, there is hope that the necessary constructive dialogue did take place there. However, we should not forget that the strategic goal of the representatives of the market and the IT community – bringing this consolidation of efforts beyond the scope of the traditional “government – industry lobby” partnership and into the field of defending national interests – still remains unattained.
“Ukraine has a chance to take its unique place in the global Internet market. But we are still hindered by some important ‘buts’ that have much to do with how the Ukrainian government works,” said the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information Andrii Shevchenko. “For the last year and a half, the party at the helm of state power is an Internet incompetent one. I say this not only due to the fact that our president has no computer on his desk, but, above all, because of the measures they pass, which I regard as a crime against the Internet.”
Shevchenko is convinced that the desire to have total control and inability to reform the system are the hurdles that may deny Ukraine a chance to move towards the progressive information society. The MP therefore regarded discussing what should thoughtful public policy on the Internet industry development look like as the crucial task of the forum.
The domestic Internet market records a good growth rate these days. According to a recent poll, 14 million Ukrainians are using the Internet on the daily basis. By the end of the year, it is expected that two million Ukrainians will have Facebook accounts, while information transmission and reception traffic will increase by the factor of 48 between 2011 and 2015. However, as the National Commission for Communications Regulation reports, Ukraine is still far behind the developed countries on the Internet penetration levels. “Our priorities include overcoming this gap. That is why the National Commission for Communications Regulation is considering adding the Internet access to the list of publicly available telecommunications services,” the commission’s chairman Petro Yatsuk said at the forum. “We expect that quantitative increase in consumer numbers will lead to qualitative growth. This will allow our country to get closer to the information society.”
Expert community is optimistic about the dynamics of the Internet in Ukraine. “Ukraine is overcoming the critical threshold of IT sector development now, with extensive growth coming soon,” director of the European Media Platform international NGO Oksana Prykhodko stated confidently.
The forum’s program provided for a series of discussions, with topics as follows: partnership of government, state and community in the development of the Ukrainian segment of the Internet; operators and providers of telecommunications services in the context of freedom of information; prospects of Ukrainian address space; development of IT-education as a tool to bridge the digital divide; safety on the Internet and the balance of openness; Ecommerce: the European experience and Ukrainian practice; creating conditions for sustainable development of domestic Internet content, and, lastly, the future of the Internet.
COMMENTARY
Ivan PIETUKHOV, Vice President for IT of the Ukrainian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, member of the Internet Association of Ukraine:
“The most important issue to have been raised at the forum is finding ways of cooperation between business community, government, wider society and public organizations and associations. That is, we talked about how best to develop the Internet in Ukraine. We have also heard a lot on hot everyday issues. Informal communication with representatives of the government agencies indicated that they had already came to understand that the Internet governance is a complicated process of finding consensus between the society and the state. I am not able to say that the forum has brought an instant understanding of the severity of all our problems. However, such forums promote convergence of various parties’ positions, and we have also managed to establish a lot of new contacts. But most importantly, in my opinion, we have improved the dialogue between all participants of the IT market. We have felt that the government is ready for a constructive dialogue. It was clear from the speeches of [head of the State Agency for Science, Innovations and Informatization. – Ed.] Semynozhenko and MPs Kinakh and Shevchenko. And it is a right thing to do. The government must understand the need for more constructive and decisive approach to the sector. The forum’s resolution will be presented to the Ukrainian government, and read out at an international forum afterwards. Its main purpose is to show that Ukraine is not on the margins of the IT progress, but is developing in harmonious and dynamic way within this process’ framework, along with entire international community. I wish for this development to be more balanced, fast, confident and not exposed to risks, and for our industry to be specifically identified by the government as a priority for further development.”
