FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, April 29, 2016

CONTACTS: Duncan Neasham (ITI); +1-202-524-5543
Paul Meller (DIGITALEUROPE); +32 497 322 966
Akiko Harada (JEITA); +81 3 5218 1060

Tech Groups See Promise for Innovation Policy in Upcoming G7 Summit

G7 Ministers, Tech Industry Engage on ICT policy challenges during Ministerial Meetings

WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS/TOKYO ? Today, the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), Digital Europe and JEITA, three leading global technology trade groups announced they held a successful engagement between senior G7 government policymakers and tech industry experts to discuss global information and communications technology (ICT) policy challenges. The meeting, held on Wednesday, comes just weeks before the upcoming May summit of G7 leaders being hosted in Ise-Shima, Japan, as G7 ICT ministers meet this weekend in Takamatsu.

The groups characterized the discussions as productive, saying policymakers engaged with them to better understand the role that data flows and digital technologies play in innovation and economic growth across all sectors of the global economy.

During the meeting, tech industry officials urged G7 leaders to promote policies that simultaneously advance privacy protections, enhance national security and data security, and enable the cross-border data flows. They noted that to power innovation and growth, while keeping markets free and open to trade, policymakers should address protectionist forced localization measures such as requirements to store data locally and build local data centers.

Earlier this year the three groups announced their ICT recommendations and urged G7 leaders to commit their governments to:

·Facilitate cross-border data flows that are key to the health and growth of the modern, global economy.
·Ensure that measures taken to enhance cybersecurity are not also used for protectionist purposes.
·Promote policies that protect consumer privacy while building on international norms of interoperability and the promotion of commerce.

After concluding their meeting, the groups noted that a G7 agreement on a common approach to ICTs in May would help pave the way for further discussions and commitments at the G20 Leaders meeting in Hangzhou, China, in September.

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