VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - Indonesia is considering hosting the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in 2025, over a decade after it successfully held the forum in Bali.

Deputy Minister of Communication and Informatics Nezar Patria informed that Indonesia's proposal to host the IGF in 2025 is based on its success at holding the forum, especially in terms of experience and knowledge.

"Indonesia has experience in terms of (involving) multi-stakeholders and knowledge capacity to host the IGF global meeting again," he said.

He made the statement during a bilateral meeting with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Li Junhua at the IGF 2023 in Kyoto, Japan, on Monday.

At the meeting, Patria emphasized that it is important to involve several stakeholders ranging from the government, academics, practitioners, and civil society in the forum.

IGF, he said, is an important forum for multi-stakeholders to share their knowledge on Internet governance.

Meanwhile, Under-Secretary-General Li welcomed Indonesia's proposal to host the IGF in 2025.

"For the record, 2025 is a critical year because it will be two decades since the mandate to hold IGF was given by the UN. The UN will conduct a review of whether or not IGF will continue. However, looking at the existing dynamics, IGF is very likely to continue," he said.

According to Li, there are two countries that have officially expressed their interest in hosting IGF 2025: Russia, which submitted its proposal in 2020, and Norway, which wrote to the UN in 2022.

Li recommended that Indonesia propose hosting the IGF in 2026.

"This will be a good choice because if the IGF mandate continues, which I personally believe so, it will be the 1st IGF in its 3rd decade," he said. (Antaranews)