Within the EU funded project “CoE/EU Program “Protecting Internet Freedom through Legislation and Arrangements for Multi-stakeholder Dialogue” the Council of Europe (CoE)” in cooperation with the national and international partners such as the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Developments, Georgian National Communications Commission, Internet Society, ICANN, European IP Networks, Small and Medium Telecom Operators Association of Georgia and representatives of Academia, traditional and new media outlets organized the Third Multi-Stakeholder National internet Governance Forum 2017. The forum took place in Tbilisi on 11-12 September 2017.
The forum was opened by Mr George Cherkezishvili, deputy minister of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, Mr Raúl Echeberría – ISOC, Vice President, Global Engagement, Mr Cristian Urse, Head of Tbilisi CoE Office, Ms Sandra Hoferichter – EuroDIG, Secretary General, Mr Axel Pawlic - RIPE NCC Managing Director, Ms Aleksandra Kulikova – ICANN, Global Stakeholder Engagement Manager for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Mr Merab Katamadze – commissioner, Georgian national Communication Commission and Mr Chengetai Masango - United Nations Secretariat for the Internet Governance Forum (online), IGF Program and Technology Manager.
Traditionally the participants discussed broad range of topics which are actual in the telecommunication sector. Challenges facing Georgia in terms of broadband access as well as the regulations specialized in the Personal Data Protection framework were widely discussed by the experts and participants. Like in previous year the issues relating to the Competition and Regulations of Telecommunication Market of Georgia – Bottlenecks against development of Internet remained the important topic of the event. During the forum the representatives of the RIPE Network Coordination Centre RIPE NCC and Georgian National Communication Commission signed the memorandum of understanding.
The organizers and participants positively assessed the event and agreed to continue organizing the traditional internet governance forum in the future in order to enable the national stakeholders having the multi-stakeholder dialog with national and international partners at equal level.
