Appendix 2_____________

SELECTIVE DOCUMENTS ON GII

US. GOALS AND OBJECTIVES FOR THE G7 GII CONFERENCE*

Provided to European Commission Secretariat on September 1 [1994] for input in the development of the G7 Conference

Japanese is here**

Introduction

The United States Government strongly believes that the emerging Global Infor-mation Infrastructure (GII) holds significant economic and social promise for all nations and their citizens. Advances in information and communications techno-logies are transforming societies and markets around the globe by increasing the speed and efficiency, while decreasing the costs, of creating, processing, and distributing information. In changing the nature of firms and the way they operate, information technology has profound effects on the structure of our economies. Governments around the world have come to recognize that the infor-mation and communication technology sectors are not only dynamic growth sectors themselves, but are vital engines of development and economic growth in other sectors of the economy. With this recognition governments have sharply focused their public policy on the capabilities, and prospects for improvement, of their underlying telecommunications infrastructures to support the broadest possible dissemination of information resources.

The United States is one of many countries currently pursuing national initia-tives to capture the promise of the "information Revolution" for their societies. These different national initiatives have at least one objective in common -- to ensure that the full potential of advances in information and communications technologies are realized to the benefit of all citizens. The GII will be the vehicle for expanding the scope of these benefits on a global scale. As a "network of networks", the GII can substantially further global economic growth, job crea-tion, and democratic values, while at the same time promoting broad-based social discourse within, between, and among all countries.

While the private sector will clearly lead the development and implementation of the GII, as investors, builders, operators, providers and users, we believe that cooperation and collaboration among nations is essential to realize the full potential of the GII. Concerted action on such issues as regulatory and competi-tion policies, interoperability, global applications, and protection of information content, will be critical in advancing the development of the Global Information Infrastructure.

Foundation for the GII

Vice President Gore proposed the GII as an international cooperative initiative at the ITU World Telecommunications Development Conference in Buenos Aires, and outlined five core principles as the basis for the development of a truly global information infrastructure. These principles include : encouraging private invest-ment ; promoting competition ; creating a fixable regulatory framework ; providing open access to the network for all information service providers; and ensuring universal service.

These principles, which were incorporated into the Buenos Aires Declaration at the conclusion of the Conference, have already gained gorad internation con-sensus.

USG Objectives for the G7 Conference

1. Reach Agreement to Advance GII Principles: A key objective for the United States is to achieve support among the G7 countries for the five principles as the foundation for the GII. We believe that commitment by the G7 members to advancing tthe GII and would be a critical step in building a broader international consensus on the emerging GII.

2. Identify Policy Actions Necessary to Advance GII Principles: The United States seeks agreement among G7 members to translate the GII principles into concrete policy actions. The United States expects the discussions among G7 members to increase understanding of and cooperation on the relevant policy and technical issues related to the development of national information infrastructures and the interconnection of these networks to create the GII. The Conference should also provide a report to the Halifax G7 Summit on these issues. We believe this will facilitate the identification of issues/areas for collective efforts among G7 countries and others.

3. Address Areas of Further Work: Many of the policy and technical aspects of the GII, such as standards, market liberalization, infrastructure development, and protection of privacy and intellectual property rights, are under discussion and consideration in different bilateral, regional, and multilateral fora. The United States believes that the G7 members could discuss specific areas for further work, which could provide a stimulus to international consideration of GII-related issues.

4. Explore Cooperative Efforts on Applications: Review by the G7 members of one or more application areas could help demonstrate the potential of the GII. Possible pilot projects, among G7 members and other countries (inclu-ding developing countries) in one of the following areas could be consider-ed: environmental monitoring, electronic commerce testbeds, telemedicine, distance learning, and digital libraries.

Agenda for the G7 Conference

The United States believes the G7 Conference will provide an invaluable oppo-tunity for frank exchanges among member countries on the approaches they are taking to develop their respective national information infrastructures and the emerging GII. We believe the Conference agenda should be structured to further the objectives outlined above, leading to tangible results.

In our view, this Conference will permit the G7 members to share information on topics such as:

1. current levels of national infrastructure development and identified areas for improvements;

2. estimates of the social and economic benefits of the GII and ways to improve such estimates;

3. different national information infrastructure initiatives, including an overview of the respective roles of industry and government, and:

a. the different processes of regulatory reform underway to support informa-tion infrastructure development (i.e. procedural reform to increase trans-parency and private sector input, privatization and investment, competition in infrastructure and basic voice telephony services, cost-based pricing, interconnection and interoperability, integration of telecommunications, mass media, broadcasting services and markets, etc.);
b. measures underway to ensure and broaden universal service; and

4. innovative efforts in applications (e.g. education, health care, etc).
In addition to information exchanges, the agenda should provide time for reaching agreement on the five fundamental principles of the GII, and for the identification of areas of further work and cooperation. Consideration of the broad range of policy and technical issues associated with the worldwide integra-tion of information infrastructure at the Ministerial level will help shape the "vision" of the GII, and can constructively create common ground for the further development of the GII. We further believe that, however designed, input from the private sector will be critical to the success of the Conference.