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EUROPEAN, JAPANESE AND U.S. INDUSTRY GROUPS REACH AGREEMENT ON GLOBAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE ISSUES TO BE PROPOSED TO THE G-7 INFORMATION SOCIETY SUBMIT

Brussels January 27 - The leading information technology industry associations of Europe, Japan and the United States today announced agreement on six public policy issues essential for the full realization of the Global Information Infrastructure (GII). The discussions resulted in a joint paper that will be presented to the G-7 ministers at their upcoming meeting on the Global Information Society, 25/26 February in Brussels.

The trilateral meeting was attended by forty-five high-ranking company and association representatives from Europe, Japan and the U.S. It was hosted by the European Association of Business Machines and Information Technology Industry (EUROBIT) and chaired by its President Dr. Bruno Lamborghini, Olivetti. The U.S. industry was represented by the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) whose spokesman Mr. Marshall Phelps, IBM, led the American delegation. The delegation of the Japan Electronic Industry Development Association (JEIDA) was led by Dr. Takeo Miura, Hitachi.

Agreed upon at the two-day meeting were the six basic principles, upon which the GII must be built. They are:

I Interoperability

3. 4. 5. 6.

Privacy and trust in an information society Intellectual property rights Universal access Access to R&D and new applications Market access

A sketch of these principles was elaborated during the first meeting of the three associations at their Tokyo summit in September '94. The more detailed understandings on GII presented in the IT industry's position paper now in Brussels had been worked out by six expert groups. The implementation of these fundamental principles is crucial for the rapid and efficient building and operation of the Global Information Infrastructure.

At the end of the Brussels meeting Marshall Phelps stated that "without the capability of different systems, products and services to work together easily and transparently the GII cannot succeed. The keys to interoperability are open inter faces developed and implemented in a private-sector-led, voluntary standards process".

Dr. Lamborghini said that "without pervasive cryptographic techniques, there can be no basis for privacy or trust. Agreement on both legal and technical issues cannot be achieved without the active cooperation among governments, industry and users".

Regarding intellectual property rights Dr. Miura pointed out "the importance of appropriate balancing of the rights and interests among participants in the GII, adequate IPR protection and global harmonization".

According to Dr. Miura "universal access depends in large part on the wide-spread availability of interoperable networks offering basic information and telecommunication transmission services. Universal service should be provided by private enterprises and a competitive marketplace".

International cooperation is fundamental for the development of the Global Information Infrastructure. Dr. Lamborghini said that "in this perspective, access to government funded R&D and application development programs should be open to all entities contributing to the general economic benefit of the funding country regardless of nationality".

Marshall Phelps concluded "to achieve a Global Information Society an environment of open competition, especially in telecommunications, is fundamental. The G-7 ministers can greatly assist this effort by making two clear points. First, they should indicate their support for open markets and second, they should commit themselves to a reduction in barriers of all kinds - regulatory, trade, investment, and technical - that limit competition".

Brussels, 27 January 1995