As a member of ITU Broadband Commission, NIA President, Seang-Tae Kim was in Paris, France for the Commission || chr(39) || || chr(39) || || chr(39) || || chr(39) || s 3rd meeting.On 6 June 2011, the Broadband Commission for Digital Development held its third meeting in Paris, France, at the headquarters of UNESCO. A total of 33 commissioners attended or were represented at the meeting. As a member of ITU Broadband Commission, NIA President, Seang-Tae Kim attended the meeting after being an integral commission member and attending 2 meetings in 2010 after the Broadband Commission was officially launched in Geneva on May 10, 2010.



The Commission is co-chaired by President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Mr. Carlos

Slim Hel?, Honorary Lifetime Chairman of Grupo Carso, with ITU Secretary-General

Dr. Hamadoun Tour? and UNESCO Director-General, Ms. Irina Bokova, serving as

joint vice chairs.



President Kim participated in the first of the Broadband Commission || chr(39) || || chr(39) || || chr(39) || || chr(39) || s high level meetings that took place in Geneva, Switzerland on July 11, 2010 and then again, he was on hand for the presenting of Broadband Commission || chr(39) || || chr(39) || || chr(39) || || chr(39) || s Broadband Report that was presented to UN Secretary-General, Ban, Ki-moon on September 19, 2010 at an official side event of the UN MDG Summit that was held in New York.



The Commission is co-chaired by President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Mr. Carlos Slim Hel?, Honorary Lifetime Chairman of Grupo Carso, with ITU Secretary-General Dr. Hamadoun Tour? and UNESCO Director-General, Ms. Irina Bokova, serving as joint vice chairs.



The meeting was opened by Ms Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, in her capacity as Co-Vice-Chair of the Broadband Commission. She emphasized the need to create || chr(39) || || chr(39) || || chr(39) || || chr(39) || Knowledge Societies || chr(39) || || chr(39) || || chr(39) || || chr(39) || that are truly inclusive of all citizens, and explained that UNESCO has identified four key principles for development of these societies: freedom of expression; universal access to information; respect for cultural and linguistic diversity; and high-quality education for all.



Broadband has a fundamental role in supporting the achievement of these goals. But for this to happen, we must transform information into knowledge that can support individual, social and economic development, including institutional and political transformation, she said. It || chr(39) || || chr(39) || || chr(39) || || chr(39) || s all about partnership.



In his opening remarks, ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Tour?, in his capacity as Co-Vice-Chair of the Broadband Commission, reminded the Commissioners that broadband represents a unique, once-in-a-generation opportunity to drive social and economic development, and to help accelerate progress towards meeting the

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).



In addition, a major new report from the Commission was issued at the meeting, entitled Broadband: a Platform for Progress. The report describes why broadband is so valuable in driving economies and societies forward, how

these networks can be created and what services they deliver. Significant policy issues are considered too, along with an overview of the status of broadband around the world. The report includes links to more than one hundred studies that indicate the positive effects of broadband deployment upon a nation || chr(39) || || chr(39) || || chr(39) || || chr(39) || s gross domestic product (GDP), as well as on growth in productivity and the creation of jobs. Two in-depth roundtable discussions took place during the meeting. Once focused on Education - Empowering women and girls in LDCs. The other roundtable

discussion focused on Broadband business models.



NIA President Kim also took part in one the sub-Working Groups that has held various meetings already in 2010 and at side meetings from this 3rd meeting. Working groups include the following: Climate Change, Public Private Partnerships, Health, LDCs,[Least Developed Countries], Youth, Education, Science and Multilingualism.

NIA President Seang-Tae Kim took part in the Working Group on Education that held a meeting on June 5th.At that Education Working Group Meeting, he gave the example of very successful use of e-education in Korea. As well as for remote locations, it has been adopted even within the regular curriculum in 81.4 per cent of educational institutions, he said, including nearly 89 per cent of primary schools. In total, more than 21 million people have taken part in digital literacy training programmes in the Republic of Korea.



The meeting had agreed that the Broadband Commission should publish advocacy targets, and that establishing a global broadband index should be investigated, as well as other possible || chr(39) || || chr(39) || || chr(39) || || chr(39) || advocacy targets || chr(39) || || chr(39) || || chr(39) || || chr(39) || . It was agreed that the details should be examined by a new working group, in preparation for launching the new targets and/or index at the next meeting of the Commission. That meeting will take place on 24-25 October 2011 in Geneva, alongside ITU Telecom World

2011.



The Meeting of the Broadband Commission for Digital Development, Paris, June 6, 2011 (Source: UNESCO)

Dr. Kim Seang-tae, President, National Information Society Agency, Republic of Korea, at the Meeting of the Broadband Commission for Digital Development in session, Paris, June 6, 2011 (Source: UNESCO)