< Korea Set Foot on the International Stage for Vigorous ICT Diplomacy >

   The Korean delegation took up the role of vice chairperson of the APT Preparatory Group for ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2014 (PP-14), giving a green light for the successful hosting of the Conference.

As the first ever international conference since the launch of the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP), the first meeting of the APT Preparatory Group for PP-14 was held at the Ritz Carlton Seoul with a great success for two days on April 2nd~3rd. The meeting was attended by around 100 delegates from 22 APT member states, and had lively discussions to prepare for the region's joint response to PP-14.

At this first meeting, it was decided to form and run three Working Groups (WGs) to deal with administration and management issues, legal and policy issues, and ITU sectoral issues, respectively, under the leadership of the chairperson and vice chairperson of the Preparatory Group.

Mr. SH Lee, Deputy Secretary-General of the PP-14 Preparatory Secretariat of MSIP, was elected vice chairperson of the Preparatory Group, with an additional post as chair of WG2 for legal and policy issues, which will take the initiative in deciding PP-14 agenda items.

o WG2 is tasked to deal with overall ICT policy issues such as ITU Stable Constitution, Internet and other emerging issues. Thus, Mr. Lee's election as the Working Group’s chair will greatly help Korea lead the regional effort to prepare joint contributions on agenda.

In addition, Korea, as host country, submitted important contributions on major global issues, such as how to facilitate convergence between ICT and other industries and diffusion of IoT or M2M, earning support from fellow members. The country plans to continue discussions about specific matters at WG2, and have them officially adopted at PP-14.

The full-scale discussions to produce the region's joint contributions to be proposed to PP-14 will take place at the 2nd meeting to be held in Australia this October.