1. We, APEC Ministers responsible for the telecommunications and information industry, gathered in Lima, Peru, from 1-3 June, 2005, under the theme Enabling Digital Opportunities: harnessing infrastructures to advance the Information Society, make this Declaration to be presented at the next Economic Leaders' Meeting in Busan, the Republic of Korea in November 2005;

2. reaffirming our commitment to achieving the Bogor Goals of free and open trade and investment in the Asia Pacific region by 2010 for developed economies and 2020 for developing economies;

3. further reaffirming our commitment to the five objectives and ten core principles in the Seoul Declaration endorsed at TELMIN 1 (1995) as essential for the construction and the expansion of the Asia Pacific Information Infrastructure (APII) and the realization of the vision of the Asia Pacific Information Society (APIS);

4. welcoming the APEC Economic Leaders' Declaration entitled One Community, Our Future, issued in Santiago de Chile on 21 November 2004, in which APEC Economic Leaders reaffirmed the commitment to achieve sustainable and equitable growth and reduce economic disparities for the well-being of our people by meeting the Bogor Goals of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, enhancing human security, and promoting good governance and a knowledge-based society;

5. acknowledging and welcoming the progress made by TEL in its work on telecommunications market liberalization, mutual recognition of telecommunications equipment test reports and certification, broadband development, e-government, e-commerce, interconnection, Internet charging arrangements traffic measurement and analysis, business and research models to promote greater deployment of information and communication technologies (ICT), human capacity building, cyber security and computer emergency response teams (CERTs), authentication and the development of initial implementation of the Digital Divide Blueprint for Action;

6. commending the achievement of more than doubling Internet access in the APEC region since 2000, noting the need for continued efforts and strengthened statistical gathering in order to fully recognize the goal endorsed by Economic Leaders in Brunei Darussalam in November 2000 to triple Internet access in the APEC region by the end of 2005, as referenced in the status report to Ministers on TEL Digital Divide activities;

7. continuing the effort to create digital opportunities in the APEC region, consistent with the vision of the APIS which will contribute to creating the evolving Global Information Society as stated in the Singapore Declaration endorsed at TELMIN3;

8. recognizing that infrastructure development, in which the private sector is playing an increasingly important role, and enabling its effective use, are primary drivers for digital opportunities in APEC economies;

9. further recognizing the importance of the private sector in developing opportunities offered by the continued introduction and evolution of information and communications technologies, and acknowledging the tremendous potential offered by the integration of networks and services;

10. noting that in some developing economies, limited telecommunications infrastructure is a great challenge for the sector, and recognizing the importance of policies to promote services development in a liberal and competitive environment, and for meeting economies' universal access and universal services goals;

11. recognising the contribution that competitive telecommunications markets make to promoting economic efficiency, growth, increased development opportunities and enabling new industries;

12. stressing the importance of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) and the need for a successful World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong, China, in December 2005; supporting active participation in WTO services negotiations with a view to broadening and deepening continued liberalization;

13. noting the effort to conclude the accession of Russia and Viet Nam to the WTO;

14. taking notice of progress made in the liberalization of the telecommunications sector within the APEC region; recognizing the leadership demonstrated by APEC member economies in transforming the telecommunications and information industries; reaffirming the value of the principles outlined in the 1996 Reference List; and urging further work by the TEL to promote liberalisation within APEC economies;

15. encouraging APEC economies to renew efforts to liberalise telecommunications markets in line with the consensus of Economic Leaders to work "with a renewed sense of urgency" towards "substantially greater market access and fewer distortions" as reflected in the 2004 Santiago Declaration;

16. further encouraging the adoption and implementation of the WTO Telecommunications Reference Paper, taking into account the TEL's work on Best Practices on Implementing the WTO Reference Paper;

17. welcoming progress made to implement the Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) on conformity assessment, and its impact on enabling the free flow of telecommunications equipment within the APEC region, and encouraging economies to implement and participate actively in this MRA;

18. endorsing the TEL's guidelines on conformity assessment procedures for telecommunications equipment, and encourage economies to implement their conformity assessment procedures according to the TEL guidelines;

19. supporting economies' work to develop a new MRA on technical requirements for telecommunications equipment, and encouraging the TEL to place a high priority on its development while duly respecting the commitments already made by APEC economies with respect to the MRA;

20. acknowledging and welcoming the TEL's work on Effective Compliance and Enforcement Guidelines and Practices as a tool to help economies create an environment of investor certainty and consumer confidence;

21. also recognizing the importance of spectrum resources as an important means for deploying infrastructure for basic as well as advanced services; and the importance of policies encouraging continued awareness of new technologies for the efficient use of spectrum;

22. commending the comprehensive work undertaken by the TEL on broadband deployment, and encouraging continued rapid deployment of broadband access as referenced in the Broadband Report to Ministers;

23. supporting continued work on next-generation networks (NGNs), including interconnection/interoperability; trade facilitation; NGN security, reliability and confidence; and capacity building in NGNs for underdeveloped areas;

24. reaffirming the importance of economic and technical cooperation in achieving equitable growth and sustainable development;

25. highlighting that rapid technological advancement, convergence of telecommunications and information networks and the globalization of services and applications require sharing of information, exchanging best practices and experiences in approaches regarding policy-making and regulation amongst economies;

26. recognizing and sharing the understanding that, to ensure marketplace choice and competition, to promote security, to encourage innovation, to affirm transparent, technology-neutral and balanced policies, and to realize open standard-based interoperability, both open source software and commercial software play an important role;

27. noting that progress made in the TEL is supportive of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), where world leaders have declared their common wish and commitment to build a people-centred, inclusive, and development-oriented information society, where everyone can create, access, utilize and share information and knowledge, and enabling individuals, communities and peoples to achieve their full potential in promoting their sustainable development and quality of life;

28. confirming the importance of life-long human capacity development, for all age groups and genders, as well as for people with disabilities or special needs, in terms of providing more opportunities for training and skill development; and improving the access, awareness, mastery, and application of ICT for the benefit of people in the region;

29. noting that Ministers urged the TEL to encourage information sharing and collaboration on e-Government initiatives in the Programs of Action agreed at TELMIN4 and TELMIN5;

30. recognizing the importance of ensuring the security and integrity of the APEC region's communications infrastructure, in particular the Internet, in order to bolster the trust and confidence of users and enable the continued advancement of this infrastructure;

31. commending the TEL's work in promoting network security to fulfil the APEC Economic Leaders' Statement on Fighting Terrorism and Promoting Growth (2002) and the APEC Cybersecurity Strategy (2002), especially in promoting the development of, and cooperation among, computer security incident response teams (CSIRTS) to exchange information on threats, vulnerabilities, and responses to security challenges; and also recognizing the assistance that has been provided through the TEL to economies in drafting legislation on cyber-crime as well as in conducting a series of regional and bilateral meetings of cybercrime experts, law enforcement officials, legislators and others;

32. encouraging all economies to study the Convention on Cybercrime (2001) and endeavour to enact a comprehensive set of laws relating to cybersecurity and cybercrime that are consistent with international legal instruments, including United Nations General Assembly Resolution 55/63 (2000) and the Convention on Cybercrime (2001);

33. acknowledging the need for regional cooperation to support communication networks and ICT applications for disaster mitigation and relief operations on APEC region and recognizing the importance of ICT infrastructure in the dissemination of early warning information in each economy and in providing medical and humanitarian assistance in disasters and emergencies;

34. noting that the Tampere Convention on the Provision of Telecommunication Resources for Disaster Mitigation and Relief Operations came into effect on 8 January, 2005; and

35. recognizing the effectiveness to date of the Steering Group structure of the TEL, and encouraging the TEL to conduct an ongoing review of this structure, particularly in light of challenges posed by the rapid advancement of new technologies and the changing regulatory and security environment.

36. ADOPT the Program of Action for the APEC Telecommunications and Information Working Group attached as Annex A;

37. ADOPT the Key Principles for Broadband Development in the APEC Region attached as Annex B;

38. ADOPT the Compliance and Enforcement Principles attached as Annex C;

39. ADOPT the Guiding Principles for PKI-based Approaches to Electronic Authentication attached as Annex D;

40. ADOPT the Principles for Action Against Spam and the Implementation Guidelines for Action Against Spam attached as Annex E;

41. NOTE that this Program of Action will contribute to the Action Plan to be considered at the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Busan, Korea, in 2005.