APNIC supported the first Pacific IGF in Noumea, New Caledonia from 9-10 April 2011.

The first Pacific Internet Governance Forum (Pacific IGF) was held in Noumea, New Caledonia, from 9-10 April 2011 with more than 70 participants joining from various island nations across the Pacific. The Pacific IGF follows the same tradition of the global IGF that came about as a product of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis, including a multi-stakeholder dialogue with a broad agenda covering all matters related to the governance of the Internet in the Pacific region.

"We are travelling together in a grand canoe, facing the opportunities and challenges of this journey toward connecting the Pacific island nations to the Internet." - Dr Jimmie Rogers, Director General of the local host organization, Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC).

In particular, the Pacific must deal with the challenges of security issues and high cost of connectivity across the region.

APNIC Director General Paul Wilson remarked that the Asia Pacific region as a whole has consumed most of the IPv4 address space during the past few years, and the AP Internet community is ready to manage the approaching regional IPv4 exhaustion with policies aimed to secure limited small allocations for the future.

"The Final /8 policy will particularly benefit networks in the Pacific within developing economies, but most importantly we need to focus on IPv6 deployment. Anyone who uses Internet products or services should be asking their providers for IPv6 services, or at least timelines for availability, upgrade, and compliance," Mr Wilson said.

The event featured robust discussions from a wide range of stakeholders, including representatives from APTLD, ICANN, ITU, PITA, PICISOC, SPC, and Pacific island governments. Topics included gTLDs, DNSSEC, bridging the digital divide, inclusiveness and access for disabled users, children and low ICT literacy users, and policy and regulatory issues.

APNIC proudly supported the first Pacific IGF, signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with SPC to confirm mutual collaboration in the area of Internet related issues, particularly pertaining to IP addressing and IPv6 deployment.

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