DHAKA, July 18, 2019 (BSS) – Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Information Ministry Hasanul Haq Inu today proposed four global agreements under a United Nations framework as he joined the Asia-Pacific Regional Internet Forum conference in Russia, an official press release said.
He said the nations of the globe now crucially needed to reach the agreements to ensure cyber security, harmonize digital economy and democratic governance on the internet and free access to all to the facility.
“The expanding digital space has to be free from cybercrimes and cyber-wars (and) for that, we need a Global Cyberspace Treaty,” said Inu, also the Jatiya Samajtantri Dal (JASOD) president and Bangladesh Internet Governance Forum Chairperson.
He said simultaneously a framework agreement was a must to harmonize national regulation versus global business objectives and cross-border digital trade as “concentration of global north-based international e-commerce is a threat to the tax-revenues of the global south”.
Inu said every human being must have the right to access this enabling technology for free while “democracy in Internet Governance is a key factor for its sustainability”.
“Fifty seven percent of the 7.5 billion population of the world are still offline because of unavailable internet in poverty-stricken and rural parts of the globe,” he said.
Inu, however, informed the forum that despite being a developing country, under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s leadership, Bangladesh is ‘ready for tomorrow’ as “out of 160 million people, we have 90.4 million internet users, (Net dinsity-54 percent) and 130 million mobile users, (Technology 93 percent)”.
APRIGF is a major regional initiative on internet governance involving stakeholders of over 20 countries across the Asia-Pacific region.
The four-day 10th conference of the Forum was opened on July 16 in Russia’s Vladivostok city, while Inu joined the today’s session as a special guest.