Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, Chair of ICC’s Commission on E-business, IT and Telecoms, signed the “Statement on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and the Internet for Economic Growth and Social Development,” with Maria Livanos Cattaui, ICC’s Secretary General, at the International Chamber of Commerce’s (ICC) 35th World Congress held June 6 - 9, 2004 in Marrakesh.
In the Statement, world business leaders called on governments to join them in creating the right conditions for information and communication technologies and the Internet to reach their full potential as engines of economic growth and social development.
Citing some 5.7 billion people worldwide who are still not participating directly in the networked economy, ICC’s members from business around the world urged governments to take action in six specific areas: Intellectual Property Rights protection; stable and predictable legal systems; trade liberalization; education and capacity building; technology neutrality; and a regulatory framework which promotes competition and fosters entrepreneurship.
"In turn, the private sector will continue to play its critical role in building and deploying the necessary infrastructures and innovating and developing applications and content," the statement explained. It also outlined the key issues concerning the work of the UN Secretary-General’s Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) and his task force on financing.
Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh said: "Telecoms liberalization is a perfect example of how governments and businesses, working hand in hand, can unleash the power of the communications revolution to benefit all citizens. Government reform initiatives together with private investment create new communications services and vastly improve the quality and value for money of fixed line services, which is a first step in allowing many countries and citizens to use ICTs and benefit from the information society.”
“The ICC will work with governments and business and all partners to raise awareness, share information and experience and keep pushing this effort forward,” he added.
Meanwhile, globalization, intellectual property piracy, bilateral trade deals and ICTs and the Internet were among the other pressing issues, which were discussed in the Congress.
World business leaders urged governments to allocate substantially greater attention and resources to combat the rapidly growing rate of piracy of Intellectual Property Rights and production of counterfeit goods.
In a statement issued by the (ICC), businesses also expressed profound concern over recent Interpol reports that piracy and counterfeiting are increasingly being used to fund organized crime and other international criminal networks.
"Copyright, trademark and design industries are particularly affected by IP theft, but virtually no industry is untouched by this illegal activity. Food, pharmaceuticals, electrical appliances, watches, cigarettes and cosmetics are all popular targets of counterfeiters; and music, movies, video games, software and other copyrighted digital content are also being pirated,” the statement said.
To counter this growing scourge, action needs to be taken in all countries and at all levels of the supply chain through which illegitimate products are produced, distributed and consumed, the ICC said.
The statement made specific recommendations including:
• International implementation of current World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and World Trade Organization (WTO) and other multilateral intellectual property rights agreements.
• Strengthening and/or creation of national legal frameworks to ensure implementation and effective enforcement measures against copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting.
• Closer, more effective cooperation between business and government in formulating policies to upgrade enforcement measures.
• More effective enforcement of existing laws.
• Industry and government cooperation in conducting training and awareness-building programs for customs, police and judiciary officials.
• Government and industry sponsored education campaigns and media coverage to help raise public awareness of the benefits of IP protection and the ill-effects of piracy and counterfeiting.
• Improved data collection and sharing by government, industry and multilateral institutions.
• Improved exchange between industry sectors, associations and governments of anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting best practices.
More than 1,000 business leaders from 86 countries participated in the ICC’s 35th World Congress to emphasize the following theme “Standing Up for the Global Economy