In cooperation with the Government of the Lao PDR, ICT4Peace organised it’s Workshop on Cybersecurity Policy and Diplomacy in Vientiane for the CLMV Countries Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Over 40 Diplomats and Officials from Certs and other Ministries, Academics and Private Sector Companies from CLMV countries as well as international experts participated in this two day Workshop on 31 October and 1 November 2016. The Workshop was opened by the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications of Lao PDR. H.E. Dr. Thansamay Kommasith and Dr. Daniel Stauffacher of the ICT4Peace Foundation, Switzerland. An article in Vientiane Times/ANN can be found here.

The Agenda of the Workshop can be found here.

The short term objectives of the workshop were:

  • A better understanding by public officials and diplomats of CLMV Countries of international norms, CBMs and international cooperation in the Cyber space such as the ones outlined in the UN GGE Report and at OSCE, AU, OAS etc.;
  • To enable a more effective participation of CLMV countries in the international debates and bilateral, regional and global consultations/negotiations in fora such as the London Process, UN, UN GGE, ASEAN, ARF, AP-CERT;
  • A better understanding of the concerns, best practices, policies and institutional arrangements in the field of cyber security at the national and CLMV/ASEAN level;
  • A better understanding of the best practices and requirements for national cyber security legislation as well as a National Cyber Security Strategy building;
  • A strengthened and possibly institutionalized cooperation among CLMV countries at the diplomatic and CERT-level;
  • Build a network of alumni, lecturers and experts of the workshop course, to up-date and exchange information on future developments in the global and regional international cyber security debate, research and negotiations.

The lecturers of the workshop were:

Dr. Eneken Tikk, Estonia, Senior Advisor, ICT4Peace, Fellow; IISS, Dr. Sazali Sukardi, Senior Vice President, Strategic Research, CyberSecurity Malaysia; Asst. Prof. Phannarith Ou, Director, Department of ICT Security, Cambodia; Dr. Serge Droz, Former Head of Swiss CERT, Member of the Board FIRST, VP Opensystems and ICT4Peace Consultant; Mr. Sebastian Müller, Cyber Policy Coordination Staff, Federal Foreign Office, Germany; Dr. Mika Kerttunen, Finland, Senior Advisor, ICT4Peace; Mr. Martin Bierwirth, Federal Office for Information Security BSI, Germany.

The workshop was generously supported by the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) Vientiane, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, private Donors and ICT4Peace Foundation, Switzerland.

ICT4Peace has held such a workshop already in 2014 in Bogota for Latin American countries in cooperation with OAS, and subsequently in Nairobi with the Government of Kenya for 12 East African Countries, with the Government of Singapore for ASEAN Countries, at the African Union in Addis Ababa, and at GCSP in Geneva.

For more photos, click here.

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