The Chair of the UN Open-Ended Working Group on security of and in the use of information and communications technologies 2021-2025 (OEWG), Ambassador Burhan Gafoor of Singapore, prepared the Zero-Draft of the first annual progress report. The Zero-draft should serve as a starting point for discussions, with an intent for the OEWG to adopt its first annual progress report by consensus at the end of the third substantive session of the OEWG, 25-29 July 2022 in New York.
According to the Chair, the Zero Draft is intended to be a balanced text that captures the range of concrete ideas and proposals raised during the first and second substantive sessions, and to provide a framework for more focused and in-depth discussions on the topics under the OEWG mandate, thus serving as a roadmap for future work in 2023.
Hungary’s Parliament has adopted a resolution opposing the proposed deal on a global minimum tax. This comes days Hungary blocked the directive at the EU Council.
The reasons given for the resolution were inflation and the economic crisis due to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. Hungary said the OECD Pillar Two’s minimum tax, which the EU directive is seeking to implement, will put European countries at a competitive disadvantage.
Hungary’s corporate tax rate stands at 9%, the lowest in Europe. The country remains the only member state opposing the proposed EU directive.
In a turn of events at today’s Economic and Financial Affairs Council meeting (17 June 2022), Hungary has withdrawn its support for the proposed EU directive to implement Pillar Two of the OECD’s global minimum tax. Poland, which was the only country with reservations so far, announced its support for the compromise text – the third compromise text by the French candidacy (published 16 June 2022) since the start of the negotiations at ECOFIN.
Hungarian Finance Minister Mihaly Varga explained his position by referring to ‘critical voices’ within the Hungarian Parliament. The parliament’s concerns related to the economic impact of the Ukrainian war, and the uncertain consequences that would flow from the introduction of the minimum tax at such an early stage.
In response, French Finance Minister Bruno le Maire said that Hungary had already supported the proposed directive at previous ECOFIN meetings.
Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Telecom Egypt for the construction of the first subsea cable directly connecting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The MoU was signed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia by Salman Al-Badran, CEO of Mobily, and Adel Hamed, managing director and CEO of Telecom Egypt. The MoU is part of Mobliy’s efforts to enhance its global infrastructure, boost the digital economy and provide digital solutions that align with the goals of the government’s Saudi Vision 2030.
Telecom Egypt has been a key partner for subsea cable projects globally, and has recently entered into an agreement to become a landing partner for Aqua Comms’ EMIC-1 cable project. Through this agreement, both companies will explore new ways to connect international capacity in Europe through Telecom Egypt’s network, to the GCC through Mobily’s network. Both companies’ networks will be expanded and interconnected with neighbouring countries.
Following a 2018 agreement between Cape Verde Telecom and EllaLink in 2018, where the two agreed to deliver connectivity from Europe and Latin America to Cape Verde, the EllaLink International cable has been launched. The partnership has been supported by the European Bank of Investments and the local Government of Cape Verde and now Praia is connected directly and neutrally to Brazil and Europe.
This new cable offers the lowest latency available on the market, as well as a capacity of 30 Tbps, providing Cape Verde with the benefit of secure and optimised connectivity. The EllaLink connection between Latin America and Europe has reduced the latency between the two continents by close to 50%, from +100 milliseconds to circa 60 milliseconds compared to traditional routes.
The EllaLink subsea cable will additionally help strengthen the Cape Verde digital economy having connected Praia to three continents with neutrality and independence. DE-CIX in March confirmed plans to provide EllaLink with access to its interconnection ecosystem in Southern Europe, through their internet exchanges in Lisbon, Madrid and Marseille. The new system also creates opportunities for the country to increase the quality of the internet service offered to the country, and can be extended to all West Africa.
A Turkish court has jailed 16 Kurdish journalists for “belonging to a terrorist organisation” and their close cooperation with the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in Diyarbarkir. They were also accused of spreading terrorist propaganda and since 2016 several hundred HDP members have already been detained.
Nazim Bilgin, the president of the Journalists’ Association of Turkey warns that: “We are living in the darkest days of our country as far as press freedom is concerned.” It is also alarming that Turkey has jailed more reporters than most other countries in the previous decade, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The project started in 2020 and became operational on 1 June 2022. This cable system is an additional alternative international gateway for Indonesia to Kuching, Sarawak and Hong Kong and supports XL Axiata’s efforts to add new upstream international capacity to Indonesia.
BaSIC will deliver 6 fibre pairs offering an initial capacity 2Tbs, which will be gradually increased until it arrives at a maximum capacity of 48Tbs. The project is part of XL Axiata’s mission to provide infrastructure for better global internet access as well as to support the Indonesian government’s goal to encourage the use of digital technology.
Singapore-based satellite company Kacific has been working with Bis Data Indonesia and Primacom Interbuana and has completed deployment of over 2,500 sites for Bakti, the Indonesian government’s Telecommunication and Information Accessibility Agency.
Bakti director of infrastructure Bambang Noegroho has stated that, “With this satellite connectivity project, we take a significant step forward to our goal of the equal distribution of information and communication technology, to strengthen national unity, fuel economic growth and strengthen national resilience for disasters and emergencies.”
Indonesia’s universal service has been the source of funds for the project with one of its major aims being the provision of public internet access, through satellite services, in areas that have little or no access to affordable internet service including border areas and places that are not considered economically viable by terrestrial service providers.
Kacific’s CEO Christian Patouraux stated, “Bakti’s project aligns with Kacific’s mission to bridge the digital divide by providing access to affordable, high-speed internet in the most remote and under-served areas.” While deploying sites at remote destinations in multiple islands throughout the length of Indonesia was logistically challenging, the Kacific sites allow Bakti to secure guaranteed bandwidth at every single site with each terminal achieving speeds of over 85Mbps.
As part of the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) goal to transform the country from social exclusion to an all-inclusive that would guarantee communications services for all, the commission convened an awareness and engagement programme for persons with disabilities in Lafia, Nasarawa State. The ongoing programme has accorded the commission opportunity to develop policies and regulatory guidelines that would address concerns of persons with disabilities regarding ICT accessibility.
In the welcome address read by Mr. Isa Olatiwo Deputy Director, Zonal Operations of the NCC on behalf of the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said: ‘An industry consultative meeting on service provision with respect to the disability group which was held in July, 2008 in order to sensitise both operating companies and equipment manufacturers on the need to jointly address challenges faced by people with disabilities. To join the information-rich countries of the world, the government of Nigeria pursued a continuous programme and aggressive market liberalisation policy that has made Nigeria one of the most liberalised telecom markets in the world.’
U.S Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) joined by several other Senators, have written a letter to the U.S Department of Justice (DOJ), through the Attorney General Merrick Garland, urging the department to provide better guidance and regulations to help State and local governments better comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act’s (ADA) accessibility requirements on their websites, mobile applications and other forms of technology . The letter read in part ‘For people with disabilities, website accessibility and other forms of accessible [technology] are necessities—not luxuries or conveniences—that foster independence, economic self-sufficiency and active, meaningful participation in civic life. Although the Department has clearly stated that the ADA applies to such digital spaces, the lack of specific requirements or technical compliance standards incorporated in regulation has led to a widespread lack of meaningful digital accessibility for people with disabilities. It is past time for the Department to issue robust clarifications and remedy this exclusionary status quo.’
