In its bid to advance and strengthen regional cooperation, free trade and sustainable development among APEC Member Economies, the APEC Telecommunications and Information Working Group (TEL) will be staging its 35th meeting in the Philippines with the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) jointly undertaking the event as hosts.

In his message to the APEC TEL35 participants, CICT Chair, Secretary Ramon P. Sales reiterated that participant economies “will be working together to institute changes in the region's ICT framework. Through the sharing of information and through consensus we hope to develop relevant regulatory policies, e-government and security initiatives, as well as the introduction of new technologies." The discussions and deliverables from the APEC TEL35 would be a valuable basis for the 7th APEC Ministerial Meeting on Telecommunications and Information Industry (TELMIN) 2008. The preliminary activities prior to formal opening of TEL in plenary focused on MALWARE, Network Security, MRA Task Force initiatives, Interconnection and WTO with two roundtable discussions. The roundtables are held to exchange views and experiences on market developments in the case of the Industry Future roundtable and specific regulatory theme on wireless technologies in the case of the Regulatory Roundtable. These activities, together with the discussions during the three steering groups of TEL, which are the Liberalization Steering Group (LSG), ICT Development Steering Group (DSG) and Security and Prosperity Steering Group (SPSG), would help achieve the establishment of the Asia Pacific Information Society as well as APEC’s main goals including trade and investment liberalization, business facilitation and economic and technical cooperation.

The Philippines, through the Commission on ICT and Intel Philippines, will be presenting to the APECTEL ICT Development Steering Group a project proposal on the Community Knowledge Commons. The project was conceptualized with the belief that as APEC member-economies move from building the infrastructure (i.e. access), the development of applications becomes just as critical. Through the project, the target beneficiaries - members of the APEC communities - would be provided with the tools on how to develop applications that are relevant to their needs. The project involves creating a venue for experiences and issues on developing content, defining an APEC-wide agenda on the knowledge commons, as well as establishing a network of experts on the subject matter. The project aims to support the directions of the APEC Economic Leaders who, in 2006, affirmed the significance of ICT for APEC's development.

APEC Telecommunications and Information Working Group (TEL) Chair, Dr. Inuk Chung, Executive Director, APIICC, Korea Information Society Development Institute of the Republic of Korea will lead the APEC TEL35 Meeting and will be joined by around 200 APEC Member Economies’ representatives from Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russian Federation, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Viet Nam and the United States.

Dr. Inuk Chung, TEL Chair, will complete his chairmanship of last two years as of this meeting. During his time, among other APEC fora, TEL has been acknowledged to have raised its work efficiency and effectiveness of deliverables through restructuring to three steering groups from former four steering groups and setting up internal guidelines.

Dr. Arnon Tubtiang from Thailand, the Vice Chair, will be the next TEL Chair.