IGF 2019 – Day 0 – Saal Europa – High Level Internet Governance Exchange Plenary

>> ANDREA THILO:  Dear ladies and gentlemen, a quick announcement.  Is there any panelists in the room who haven't taken their seats in the first rows that are dedicated seats for you?  The panelists slated this day at 11:20.  Please take your seat in the first rows according to your colors.  Thank you very much.  We're going to start in a couple of minutes for sure.  Thank you.

Dear ladies and gentlemen, would you be so kind to take your seats all.  Thank you so much.

Dear Federal Minister Peter Altmaier, Excellencies, Ministers, distinguished representatives of all stakeholder groups, esteemed guests, welcome to the opening Plenary of our High Level Exchange on Internet Governance.  I want to extend a very special warm welcome to our keynote speakers Fatoumata Bâ and Joe Kaeser.  I welcome you to this High Level gathering where we'll discuss no less than the future of the global Internet.  We will enter into a multistakeholder dialogue on how to ensure an open and a free Web for all, how to create a reasonable and effective global governance framework and which information to take into account to pave the way together.  I'm a journalist based in Berlin, and I must say I'm very honored to be your host on this year's IGF.

Following the understanding of an open sphere, what we are creating here, we have people all over the world out there in various remote hubs, and they are going to join our discussions, not only in this room, but over the next days.  So you all please feel very heartily welcome to join us.  And I'm glad to hand over the stage to our Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, Peter Altmaier.  Very warm welcome on stage.

[ Applause ]

>> PETER ALTMAIER:  Good morning, everybody.  I will switch to my mother tongue, which is German immediately, but let me first of all extend a very warm welcome to all of you.  This Internet Governance Forum is perhaps the international meeting and Conference which is growing in importance meeting by meeting.  It's not just because of 5,000 participants are so important, but it is because the Internet, the World Wide Web, is so important and is growing even more important for all the citizens of this planet.

[ Captioner does not have English translation ]

‑‑ but that also villages in Africa and Latin America are connected to the Internet but also rural areas in Germany, France and the U.S.  So, yeah, we're discussing fast broadband which is increasing in importance.  How can users remain in control of their data and remain open for innovation, inspiration and the integration of new ideas.

What technical legal framework do we need where the freedom of the Internet is respected but where our business and private data is also safeguarded.  How can we make sure that the Internet does not become a place for hatred, crime, and slander, that it's used as a driving force for innovation.

What will the Internet be like in 30 years?  And what do we need to prepare today?  I'm looking forward to all this, and I'm proud to be also moderating this exchange.  The High Level Internet Governance Exchange is the starting point for an IGF that will preserve well established elements but also set new priorities.  Tim Berners‑Lee asked a new and important question:  What social Contract for the Web do we need?

We can only discuss this by working together.  These are political, social, and economic questions and they're all difficult questions but we cannot evade them and this is why I would like to present you a few ideas, what elements could be included in such a social contract.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the first time that we are also trying to focus more on the interests of small and medium sized companies and we've also organized a few workshops beforehand.  Germany will present a Charter, because we believe that the Internet is only there for the academics, for large companies and citizens, but that the Internet is also there for all economic players, and it's important for all of these players.

Ladies and gentlemen, if we want to create a new social Contract for the Web, then we need to look ‑‑ we also need the legitimacy by, we need Parliamentarians to sign this off in individual Member States but also in different regions and I'm also happy that representatives of the German states are here today.

Germany feels obliged to also be constructive to provide the necessary funds, one million per year up until 2025, and we also want to listen to others to work out compromises and this is why we want to make this process an irreversible process, and that our Polish friends which will organize the IGF next year will be able to pick up on what we work on this year.

Ladies and gentlemen, we want to overcome silo they thinking.  We want to make sure that we develop a common understanding, that we recognize the problems and that we also try to solve the conflicts.  I think the multistakeholder approach is the right one.  Everybody's talking with one another on an equal footing.  We must ensure that it's not the most powerful that dominate the Internet.  That is a principle that we need to hold dear.  Only if there's a very high level of flexibility will we have the opportunity to keep up pace with the dynamics of the Internet and digitalization.

Last night I was at a dinner organized by Ambassador Ishinger, and I talked with Vint Cerf and I said the Internet is similar to the Big Bang billions of years ago.  At the beginning you see development where you don't really know where it's headed and 50 years ago, nobody really, nobody was really aware of the potential that the Internet held and today, we've made seen a glimpse of the potential there is in the next decades and centuries, all of this potential that's there for the citizens and we must not lose these developments.

We need to create a framework that we can continue to expand.  Many people today are asking how we can provide Internet access for everyone.  Many think that it is something that we cannot provide and are despairing.  In Berlin we had a wall for 28 years and this wall separated Germany and Europe and then we were convinced that we would never be able to overcome it and so it was not the policymakers but the people who believed that we must not restrict freedoms and it's not possible to restrict freedoms for ever so they exerted their rights and they made sure that the wall fell and peacefully so the cold war is a thing of the past today.

But the hopes of the people now that the Cold War is over, have not all been fulfilled.  In many areas we're still seeing disparities.  We have different levels of access to the Internet but also to energy, to education and health care, and to life quality, and we will only be able to change this if we're ready to use the new digital opportunities we have and ensure that many people can live a dignified and prosperous life.  And that's what the founding fathers had in mind, freedom, emancipation and progress.  The Internet does not belong to one person or to one country.  It belongs to all of us.  It belongs to humanity.  And this is why we also need to say that we've achieved a lot already but there are still big risks and threats.  We can see there are attempts to exert control over the Internet or parts of it.  We can see that there are attempts to take a unilateral approach to shape the Internet to restrict the free flow of data, and to use filters, firewalls and to disconnect from the Internet.  Ladies and gentlemen, I am convinced, based on my experience, that all of these attempts will fail, but it really depends when we will realize that our future can only be realized in a multi‑stakeholder approach.  We need to look at the heritage of the people and provide free access to the Internet for people.  That is a physical issue of course.  You need tablets, Smartphones, you need electricity and you also need also some education to be able to use these new opportunities.  I am convinced that Internet access has become a fundamental human right.

It is more than a right.  It is a human right in all countries of the world.  So it's not a question of infrastructure or technology.  It's a question of our joint human values.  It's also a question of growth, innovation, and employment.  Digitalization is the right tool to realize the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, and this is why all countries, also the developed countries, emerging countries, should be interested in having the Internet available in all regions of the world so that their people will be able to realize their potential.

The Internet has the potential to connect the entire world?  Many are looking at the risks as well but I am convinced that the benefits of the Internet are far greater than the risks.  I am convinced that a truly global and interoperable Internet where we have a free flow of data where the individuals have the opportunity to use the Internet for their purposes, to move ahead in their lives.  I'm convinced that this Internet is a positive thing and that we as policymakers have the responsibility to develop a certain type of governance that ensures that everybody can share in the benefits.

So we need to avoid a politicization that are with is vested interests.  The Internet must not become a power tool for certain institutions, states, or regions.  So if you only think about the Internet in terms of spheres of influence, then this is not going far enough.  If you try to organize the Internet alone, then you will miss out on many opportunities that other countries have, and this is why, ladies and gentlemen, we have a shared responsibility.

We have overcome the Cold War between states, and we need to make sure not to fall into old habits.  This is why we need a cooperative multi‑stakeholder approach.  This is why we need an Internet Governance that represents what the IGF is all about:  Openness, broad participation and the productive ‑‑ and productive cooperation and different opinions.  The United Nations have asked us to take a coordinating role in order to implement the recommendations on the future structure of the Internet Governance and we feel obliged to this.  We want to continue existing processes.

We do not want to create ever new institutions in Spring 2021 to present results, and in Autumn 2020, the United Nations will celebrate its 75th anniversary and this will be fed into the documents that will be released on this anniversary.  We will think about which International Organizations, which Forums will also be included in this process.

Ladies and gentlemen, I think we should think about maybe forming an Internet 20 group, a Multistakeholder Advisory Group for the digital Ministers and Heads of States of Government.  We also need to be ready to talk with one another, to send us emails and text messages and to use the Internet also in order to work together at the political level.

Ladies and gentlemen, we all know what's at stake.  We have all come here, ladies and gentlemen, because we are convinced that the Internet will have a positive impact on our countries, on our world, that it will contribute to reduce poverty, foster education, and also protect health care and the environment, that it can also help us ‑‑ it can also foster tolerance and peaceful co‑existence of the people.  And this is why I wish you an inspiring Conference.  I'm looking forward to the keynotes that will be held shortly.  Thank you.

[ Applause ]

>> ANDREA THILO:  Thank you very much, Minister.  In your speech you just raised, or at the beginning you raised the question how to frame a new societal contract for the digital era.  With the Charter of Trust initiated by Siemens, the company has been sizing for data security that was in February 2018, in cooperation with the Munich Security Conference, and various High Level partners from politics and the economy.  It has been backed by the Paris peace call for trust and security in signer space so the Charter of Trust initiative called for binding rules and standards to build trust and cybersecurity and to drive digitalization forward so I'm very honored to introduce to you now the man who is not only behind this initiative, I'm sure there's more to come in a minute, so please with a very warm welcome, welcome with me Joe Kaeser, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Siemens AG.  The floor is yours, please, Mr. Kaeser.

[ Applause ]

>> JOE KAESER:  Thank you very much for this very kind introduction.  It's always about a team, not so much about a Chief entertainment officer, who eventually then brings forward what the team has actually been capable of doing.  Thank you for your kind introduction on Siemens, too, and thank you all for the invitation to speak to the ‑‑ in front of the United Nations, and when I look into the audience, as far as I can see ‑‑ I always have a tendency to look for the next quarter so I try to look all the way to the back.

This is the world, it's the world in terms of gender.  It's the world in terms of internationalism.  It's the world in terms of technology.  When we talk about Internet Governance today here in Berlin, this ladies and gentlemen has never been that timely.  It has never been that timely as it is today, not just because of the 30 years anniversary when the wall was torn down.  No, it's timely because we are at the time that on the one side Nationalism calls for borders, for restrictions.

And on the other side, technology, technology opens up the space for realtime connectivity all over the world.  So there is a decisive moment in time, because we see people go this way, and we see other things go that way.  The question is how are we going to bring this together in a media called the Internet, which is extraterritorial by nature, which connects people and things all together.

So how do we do this?  If we have nations who naturally, naturally are being used by territorial integrity, borders, laws, habits, cultures, they're all territorial by nature, and so we need to figure out how are we going to do this, because 44 Zeta bytes, that's the expected size of our digital University version by next year 2020 which is today already.  44 zettabytes, that's 44 with 21 zeroes behind it.  That's a number 40 times larger than the number of stars of the observable universe today.  So that's the amount of data we are going to deal with.

That's with technology and the Internet.  We are living in a hyperconnected world, with 5G, we are realtime connectivity with or without certain companies.  It doesn't really matter, the technologies is there and we will have it, and we will have more data being produced, more things and people being connected all over the world, and we need to find out how are we going to organize that?  How are we going to deal with it?  How to make sure that there is unlimited access to something which will be decisive for the 21st and potentially the 22nd century in a planet like ours?

At the same time, of course, you need to understand how are we going to deal with cyberattacks, they have become much more common than they used to.  In Siemens alone, we have this old‑fashioned company which really doesn't have a lot to, let's say, to hide, but still, we get about 1,000 cyberattacks each month.  I do know of companies which get 1,000 a day.  Maybe they are more fashionable, more interesting, I don't know, but to look at it that by 2021, that's not that far away, the world will likely spend more than 6 trillion, 6 trillion to avoid damages being caused by Cybercrime.

So there needs to be one way or the other and the players are not just some amateurs or some disgruntled employees, or some people who need some popcorn.  Some are in an apartment and never show up in life.  No, ladies and gentlemen, those are also very powerful nation intelligence sources, also in the private sector, because believe it or not, know how has a value and know how is data and therefore people are after those.  We need to think about how do we handle data, how can we support clear rules, and how can we help to correct global extraterritorial standards in order to deal with that what we call a free Internet and I believe ought not just to look at Governments and say, tell us what the law is, or wait and see.  No, I do believe that we do have a responsibility to work also together with the Governments all over the world because companies like ours, Siemens, we work in 203 countries, 203 countries in the world.  We're in China, we are in Russia, in Iraq, in the United States, Germany, France, everywhere, everywhere, and that means that we too have a natural interest on the free flow of data, all making sure that those data are flowing realtime, yet be protected on the other hand.

And therefore, we need to be really clear on how do we organize that.  And I very much welcome Minister Altmaier's approach to creating infrastructure in order to make sure we can protect what needs to be protected and that we also cause and create that they also cause and create competitive environments, so that we have something to offer.  Ladies and gentlemen, that's the good news.  The other news is of course now we need to get to work.  It's got to be operational.  It's got to have content.  It needs to be organized.  We already are very much looking forward also to what Tim Berners‑Lee will be saying about the Contract for the Web which is being launched later today.  I'm really curious because this philosophy a very important voice has been one of the founders, the pioneers so his work certainly counts.

And for us in Siemens, of course, this is not about big companies.  It's also about how are we going to include the small to medium enterprises into the value chain?  Because everything is connected.  The weakest link in the value chain will be the issue, so we need to make sure that small‑medium enterprises have free access to our cloud‑based Internet platforms so that they can use the protection, the realtime connectivity which we can offer as big companies.

We in Siemens believe many things have to be done but we have 6 proposals we want to make and we are working on.  First proposal for a free operational protected yet accessible Internet.

First one is we need to make sure, we need to make sure that the intent of any use of data has to be clearly defined and transparent.  I call it the integrity of the intent, integrity of the intent.  We've got to make sure that everyone who uses platforms knows what the data he or she is going to give are being used to, the integrity of data.  This needs be done.  This is relevant and the integrity of the intent needs to be enforceable, ladies and gentlemen, by international law, because of the territorial nature of the Internet.

Second, make sure that the data owners are in control of their data.  Nobody wants to send photos to anybody anywhere and know the intent, that's fine but think about data which have been introduced as know‑how.  We spend about 7 billion Euros every year on R & D and that R & D has an outcome as cost, that's IPR, that's intellectual property rights, know‑how.  Know‑how is obviously well sought and people want to know about it.  That's why cybersecurity breaches are happening, know‑how so with data are know‑how, we need to make sure the people who want to use that data are going to pay, the ones who have been curating that knowledge for billions and billions and billions of dollars in R & D and engineering and productivity.

Third one, cybersecurity.  I mean, this is very clear.  We did discuss it time and again and we can talk till we are blue in the face about cybersecurity.  What we wanted to do and this is why Siemens has been initiating this Charter of Trust, we wanted to make sure that we create a set of rules which are being applied to by all of our value chain contributors, our suppliers, our partners, in terms of ecosystem partners which we are going to work with, a set of integrity that if you follow those, you will have easier access to our supply chain.  You'll have easier access to go and get purchase orders as we do.  In the meantime, we have more than 16 of most international companies having followed that, and there's going to be more and we are going include the small‑medium enterprises which are not that capable, which do not have those many resources to protect their own data and their own value chain.  We're going to be there for them because managing companies, doing business in the future, is about creating ecosystems by partnership and helping out the smallest for the greater good of the bigger ones.  That's also how things are going to work.

Next one, obviously, very important, practical and very important, co‑creation.  An ecosystem creates data.  People working together, universities, suppliers, customers, you all work together for a greater good of a better product of a better solution so if that is the case we also need to make sure that co‑creation which creates so much value for society, for businesses, that this co‑creation is legally possible and that means if we work together with competitors for setting standards, that needs to be looked at as a co‑creation, as a positive way of giving greater good to people in society and not as a breach of European anti‑trust rules, and fine companies for billions and billions of dollars, it's outdated because it's looking backwards.  Also those regulatory methods need to be looked at because co‑creation in an ecosystem is the place to go in the future using the Internet.

Next one, data for the public good.  And I'm not talking about sharing messages, photos, or whatever you want to share with your friends and colleagues and the world and hopefully other places in 30 years, but doesn't matter.  I'm talking about data for the greater good of society.  There are many.  However I want to mention one, and that's the method of health care.  Medicine, pharmaceutical research.  We've got to make sure that those tera, terabytes of data are being put together and analyzed by artificial intelligence so that we can defeat the human pains in the world.  If we want to defeat cancer, quicker than before, if you want to defeat critical issues like Alzheimer's and the like we've got to work together.  We need to use the data which is available.  We cannot wait till some Governments or public sector people are getting their act together, till we can use those data for the greater good of our people.

That's relevant.  That gives us the opportunity to bring this world forward also in terms of diseases and other issues which we can help serve society.

Ladies and gentlemen, transparency control, security, co‑creation, shared data and sustainable values, those are the principles we've been putting together in this Siemens Data Charter, Charter of Trust, and this is what we are going to pursue with all our partners in our value chain because at the end of the day, it is really important.  At the end of the day we need provide some actionable ways of dealing with extraterritorial way and in dealing with the Internet and with our partners going forward so it should be an inspiration, a motivation for policymakers to work more with the private sector on this so that we get the legal issues out of the way that you can have what we want, the Internet being there for everybody, data being protected as long as they generate knowledge and know‑how, because that's also IPR going forward.

And together we must, this is really important, we must define those standards, rather than waiting till we are being defined.  We have been late in doing this, very late, but it's not yet too late.  So if we don't define the rules, somebody else will, and that's the second preferrable option.

Second topic is, ladies and gentlemen, we need to make sure that we can organize the Internet in a way that the Internet is going to serve the people, it's going to serve society, but make sure that it's never going to be unfair, never going to be unfair, that the Internet also enables us to deal like human beings still:  Respectful, telling the truth, be honest about what we want to do with the data, and then make sure that the human being, every individual, every company, every society, is not going to be let down by the power of some certain powers in this world.

And if I hear decoupling, if I hear decoupling, decoupling the Internet, decoupling societal values, decoupling the value chain, it's terrible to hear that, decoupling.  Decoupling means dividing.  The wall, the physical examples on how to decouple two German nations has been something which we could see every day for many, many years till the wall has been built so we could see it.

But, ladies and gentlemen, decoupling the society and the Internet is invisible, is invisible and that's why we have this responsibility that we integrate, we tolerate, we tell the truth about our intent, and what we want to achieve and at the end of the day, companies, ladies and gentlemen, are not there, are not there.  Companies are not being built for serving Wall Street.  Companies are not being built to serve society for the greater good of its people and that's why we do need the Internet so that we can enhance the purpose going forward.

With that, I thank you very much.  Different view from a different company, how to make it operational, so thank you for being here, all the very best for the United Nations Forum and I look forward to the discussion.  Thank you very much.

[ Applause ]

>> ANDREA THILO:  Thank you very much, Mr. Kaeser, for this really highly passionate keynote.  I'm now very happy to introduce Fatoumata Bâ to all of you in the room and out there who don't know her yet, she's a tech entrepreneur and VC investor.  Currently the Founder, Executive Chair of Janngo and the managing partner of Janngo capital.  Shall I stop now or go on?  It grows and invests tech, with a very inclusive social impact and I shorten a bit.  She's a passionate leader, very passionate about leapfrogging development through technology in Africa.  She serves on various boards and her commitment has been rewarded with several distinctions, including the World Economic Forum young global leader, economic leaders of tomorrow and Forbes Africa 30.  Very happy to have you here, Fatoumata Bâ.  Enjoy her.

[ Applause ]

>> FATOUMATA BA:  Ministers, ladies and gentlemen, when the organizing team asked me to come and give this keynote, I fell a huge sense of responsibility, because in Africa today, technology in general and Internet in particular is helping us leapfrog development.  On the global stage it's already acknowledged that roughly 30% of the global economic activity, which is $60 trillion, is transiting through tech platforms.  And I was very happy that in the morning you were asked to bring your passport to go through security checks because you needed to come with me for the next 15 minutes and see in many African regions how this is actually already happening on the ground.

Today, we already have more Internet users in Africa than Europe or the U.S., and in 2050 it will be even more massive.  We'll have actually roughly 1 billion Internet users by then which is twice as much as Europe and 3 times as much as the U.S. and basically the importance for us is critical because not only it's creating an impact in terms of GDP and economic empowerment, but most importantly it's helping us find massive ways to bring inclusivity and by that I mean you all know that we have this huge demographic question ahead of us, we're roughly 600 million Africans 30 years ago and in 30 years as I've said it will be 2.2 billion and basically we use technology as a way to have access to very fundamental needs such as Financial Services, education, health care, products for retails, agriculture and even services and I wanted to give you examples about how every one of these key services is today being accessed through the Internet in Africa.  If I take Financial Services for instance, overall we have less than 20% of people who own a Bank account and have credit cards through traditional banking in Africa.  Yet because we have been witnessing a very strong technology and mobile revolution, you actually have today more mobile phones on the Continent than actually people.

And in a country like Kenya for instance, you have already today as I speak 50% of the GDP that is transiting through mobile Financial Services, and it's acknowledged that by 2050, we'll actually have up to 90% of people in Africa being able to access Financial Services through wallets and 60% of them having access to Bank and Financial Services through technology.

When we look at education which is also a huge question in terms of development ahead of us, we have to keep in mind that by 2025, we'll have roughly 25% of the youth will be on the African Continent so education challenges are massive.  If I take the example of a country that I know very well is which is Côte d'Ivoire, I'm investing in several companies.  You actually need already today to build every day one classroom to get all kids to school.  That's very tough and that's impossible taking into account we'll be having millions and hundreds of millions of kids and here also technology is a very powerful tool to bring knowledge to these kids and make sure they have access to the same opportunities and software education especially with young girls.

There is a third dimension which is health and health care.  Today on the Continent we have roughly one doctor for 100,000 habitants and 3 nurses, and here as well we are increasing productivity for improving public service expenditures for Governments, I think with up to 60 billion Euros that can be served up till 2025, it's actually vital and a matter of life and death improving access to hospitals, medical labs, improving access to information about quality nutrition, information about chronic disease, so beyond the economic impact the social impact is huge and massive.

There is another sector which is also very close to my heart which is retail and the reason is before becoming a venture capital investor myself I used to be a tech entrepreneur and I co‑founded what today is the largest marketplace in Africa which is listed on Wall Street, and in a matter of 6 to 7 years we have created 5,000 direct jobs but most excitedly we enabled roughly 500,000 SMEs to leverage technology and be able to serve the customers giving them products in terms of choice, in terms of quality, in terms of convenience.  It's also very important because if you are lucky enough to be born in the U.S. you actually have there today one retail outlet for every 400 inhabitants.  In Africa today we have 1 retail outlet for every 60,000 inhabitants, so here technology also becomes a way to magnify access to goods.  It's not only about selling Smartphones and very expensive Smartphones.  I was actually very proud to have some ‑‑ in Black Friday 2015, when I was leading our company in Nigeria to have something that people they eat there being a top seller on the market, so access to products has leapfrogged in a very strong way in Africa today, and beyond retail you actually have everything around global trade and value chains.  It's always very frustrating for me to see these numbers about Africa inclusion in global trade.  We're actually less than 3%, 3 to 5% of global trade which doesn't make sense and when I look at the reasons why, one of the aspects is because of the very high cost.

In the U.S. usually it takes I think 6 to 7% of the cost of a product to move goods.  In Africa, in East Africa for instance it can be as high as 75% to move goods so how can you competitive to trade globally when it's this expensive to move goods from one point to another?  And with my venture capital friends for instance we have started to invest 18 months ago in a platform in Côte d'Ivoire, and the reason why was that basically you have so many farmers that don't have the opportunity to sell their products because they stay rotten on the stem and in Africa you have as much food waste in Europe but it happens upstream because the products aren't moving fast enough into value chains and they're creating very bad impacts because environmentally it's also producing rotten, socially the farmer has worked, has sweated and he's not getting his income back, and economically of course it creates a huge waste, and one of the other portfolio companies that is very exciting to me is actually in East Africa called Twiga Foods and basically what we have been doing through the investment is to have SMEs and farmers in particular get higher wages because you reduce the number of territories while reducing the final cost to the end users we call it mom and pop stores, they are people that are selling on the streets fruits and vegetables and they started with bananas so it's better for the farmer, it's better wages, it's better for the end customer and the SME selling on the street because the cost is better.  It's better for the planet.  Because usually I think food waste in East Africa is across 45% of the production and here it was brought down to 15% loss so it's really critical.

And beyond agriculture you also have of course every kind of basic services for Government because at some point you don't have access to Internet and it's all promise of democratization if you don't have an ID.  In a country like Rwanda, I think 3 times in the last two months because I've been fascinated with technology happening there, you actually have 97 public services on line, so beyond a Visa or even as an investor if you come you can create a company in less than 6 hours through a Government led technology platform.

So this is really something very important and massive that's happening at scale.  You should not think these Sectors are not Representative of development at all.  Oftentimes I'm told yes, but Fatou, how can you make Internet a priority when people don't have access for instance to energy?  That's could be a fair question because in Europe you certainly need to have access to energy because before you can enjoy the benefits of technology services.

But let me tell you in Africa actually, accessing Internet and owning a mobile phone is helping you also access energy and there's a startup for instance in Kenya that realizes that so many people were left out access to energy because they could not afford paying monthly bills and they needed to have something tailored to their financial abilities and capabilities so they developed a pay as you go access to energy scheme, and today they enable more than 200,000 people and households that would not have had access otherwise in any ways to energy.  So even access to energy can be actually enabled through the democratization of technology.

Yet, I see so many times the conversation around Internet Governance being driven by fear and I can understand the fear.  We talked about risks, cybersecurity, data production and it's true but I firmly believe we have all the common responsibility to be first enabling the massive opportunities and I could not agree more with Peter Altmaier when he's saying the Internet is a human right today.  In my Continent it is certainly one and beyond the civic rights it creates opportunities for SMEs to have access to markets.  It creates opportunities for SMEs to access to working capital, to be able to trade globally, create jobs which is really something also not so acknowledged in developed countries.

We need 20 million jobs by 2050 to cope with our increase in Africa and only taking into account the impact of economic platform, there's a study by 2030 will create 3 million net jobs, so even with this, it is something that's received as an opportunity and a benefit.

However, we should I think regulate for the good, taking into account how to enable the opportunity for the many, while mitigating the risks, and also learning from the past insights or mistakes to make sure that the increased access to many citizens of all massive and essential services that Internet has enabled in the past decades also is something that happens on the supply side.  When you have new coming into a market that competition can be fostered and also the cost of Internet can be brought downwards.  It's really critical and is not always rational.  I was in Kigali for a similar Forum but for Africa and I was very shocked to see that the cost of producing the same unit of data was $8 in Rwanda.  They are a landlocked country and they don't have access to submerged cables.  Côte d'Ivoire has access to the sea so the role of policymakers is to see how to enable again all the positive and actually the development technology can help leapfrog while creating a competitive and affordable way to access Internet for the many, especially for emerging markets.  It's really something that is critical and I hope that when you finalize your workshops at the end of the four days, that you will make a significant improvement in addressing these very specific points because again beyond unlocking an economic opportunity we have actually a triple responsibility, which is how to keep striving economically but also how to make sure that we drive the social change that is needed, that we don't miss the opportunity to drive more inclusion and we also don't miss the opportunity to have positive impacts for the environment.

Thank you.

[ Applause ]

>> ANDREA THILO:  Thank you very much.  Thank you very much, Fatoumata.  I heard people whisper, I think you impressed us all.  Thank you very much for this very strong impulse.

We are a bit over time so what we're going to do now, you are spreading into your various panels you're individually interested in.  We have the panelists sitting in the first rows connected to the various colors I will show you now.  You follow your interest.  You can choose two panels.  That means you can go to one room in the first panel and choose another one in another room for the second panel.  We will squeeze the panels down to 30 minutes each because we will ‑‑ I'm so sorry.  Because we have to restart at 12:45 in this room again with Sir Tim Berners‑Lee.  We will have helpers outside with lollipops in your various colors so if you're interested in data rights, please go to Room II.  This is Europe, room II and III are to your right if you go out.  If you want to go to room V and IV you follow the vertical and go straight so please make sure and all the press members will please meet now with Minister Altmaier in front, take the left door out in front to your left for his press statement, and please leave your headphones on the seats.  Please you will be helped with other headphones in other ‑‑ yes, the hostesses, the helpers with the lollipops are just outside of the room and make it quick, please, the transfer to your room.  Thank you very much for your attention.

[ End of Plenary Session ]