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Cisco Government
Affairs E-Update
Volume
1, Issue 3
02 March 2001
Brought to
you by Cisco Government Affairs Online: www.cisco.com/gov
This Week@Cisco
in Government Affairs
CISCO@INTERNATIONAL
·
In July 2000, the heads of state of the
Group of Eight (G-8) sought to address the Digital Divide and created
the Digital Opportunity
Taskforce (dot force) project (http://www.g8kyushu-okinawa.go.jp/e/genoa/index.html#1).
The dot force plans to present a final report by this summer at the
next G-8 meeting in Genoa, Italy and will distribute its first draft
of a report very soon.
·
“Is there an
e-Economy?” – (http://europa.eu.int/comm/stockholm_council/speech1_en.htm)
Opening address by Romano Prodi,
(http://europa.eu.int/comm/commissioners/prodi/index_en.htm)
President of the European Commission, to the conference on "The
e-Economy in Europe: its potential impact on EU enterprises and policies",
Brussels, Belgium.
·
The EU ministers for education and for
research have this week discussed how the interest among young people
for the natural sciences and technology can be stimulated and how the
member states can increase the recruitment to education and research
in these areas. The Education and Research ministers have also discussed
how the communications and relations between science, education and
the general public can be strengthened. (Council
of the European Union)
·
The budget the European Commission proposes
for the period 2002-2006 is for EUR 17.5 billion. Compared with the
present (fifth) framework programme, the proposal means an increase
of 17 per cent in the allotted resources. The Commission's proposal
includes research areas that will be given priority, including:
- information
society technologies
- sustainable
development and global change
- citizens
and governance in the European knowledge-based society. (Council of the European Union)
·
There are now over 22.5 million Internet
users in China, according to the latest study from the China Internet
Network Information Center (CNNIC).
Read
more here. http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905356475&rel=true
·
Use of the Internet by both individuals
and businesses in Germany is increasing rapidly.
It is reported that more than a third of Germans over the age
of 14 now have Internet access. Read
more here.
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905356471&rel=true
·
This
week, Isabella de Michelis di Slonghello, Cisco’s EMEA Government Affairs
Manager, was in Cisco headquarters in San Jose, CA to meet with executives
and interact with corporate leaders on e-government, education and broadband.
CISCO@WASHINGTON, DC
·
President
George W. Bush this week unveiled his Economic
Blueprint. (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/usbudget/blueprint/budtoc.html)
Among other policies, the 206-page budget plan:
·
Increases
funding for elementary and secondary education by $1.9 billion in 2002
over 2001 funding, a 10-percent increase.
·
Permanently
extends the research and development (R&D) tax credit.
·
Earmarks
$100 million for federal e-government initiatives.
·
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d01277.pdf
The General Accounting Office this week released a report on the federal
government's public key infrastructure (PKI) strategy for e-government
security, finding that while agencies have made progress, there are
many challenges ahead.
·
Cisco Telecommunication Policy Counsel Bruce Mehlman
(http://www.cisco.com/gov/multimedia/index.html#Mehlman)
addressed the Precursor Group's "Reset: New Market -- New Politics"
conference on Friday. Appearing on a panel with former Senior
Technology Advisor to President Clinton, Tom Kalil and Release 1.0 (http://release1.edventure.com/index.cfm) Editor Kevin Werbach, Mehlman contended
that productivity improvements enabled by broadband networking (http://www.cisco.com/gov/networks/broadband_deploy.html)
and e-business methods have only just begun to reshape the world's economies
and improve standards of living. Pointing to economic data showing
robust Internet health last year and optimistic expectations for future
growth, Mehlman suggested that policy makers' support for broadband
deployment will be the key variable determining the pace of economic
growth and productivity gains going forward.
·
Last Thursday Cisco filed comments with the Federal Communications
Commission on the 3G rulemaking (.pdf document – Adobe Acrobat
required) (http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6512560386),
affirming the need for policy makers to allocate more spectrum for high
speed Internet access. Cisco commented that while "prompt
efforts to identify new radio frequencies for Third Generation (“3G”)
services are essential . . . policy makers will not achieve this broadband
imperative by switching spectrum from one high-speed use to another."
Cisco urged the Commission to maintain the integrity of the MMDS/ITFS
bands -- which are presently allocated for high speed fixed wireless (http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/779/servpro/solutions/wireless/)
uses -- and find alternative spectrum for 3G services.
·
U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioner Orson
Swindle this week released a commentary on Privacy, entitled “Privacy
in a Digital World: Industry
Must Lead, or Government Will Follow.” (http://www.pff.org/POP_8.4.htm)
CISCO@US STATES
·
Cisco President and
CEO John Chambers, will speak at the 2001 Global Internet Summit in McLean, Virginia
next Tuesday, March 5th. Chambers
is the Summit’s co-chairman with Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore. The event will present a variety of perspectives
from those most affected by the Internet: Industries, Governments and
Consumers.
·
The
state of Florida’s “IT Taskforce” recently released a 162-page report
on the state of IT in Florida. The
report examines education, e-government and more.
For the full report, go to IT Florida’s homepage. The report is accessible in .pdf format.
http://www.itflorida.com
·
Former
North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt visited Cisco headquarters in San Jose
this week to meet with executives and talk about “Measuring Up 2000: The State
by State Report Card for Higher Education.” (http://measuringup2000.highereducation.org/)
See how your home state measures up and what can be done to improve
the overall state of education.
·
This
week, US President George W. Bush met with US Governors at their annual
meeting. Read
his speech here. (http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/transcripts/bushtext022601.htm)
·
President
Bush spoke today to the National Association of State Legislatures about
his tax-cut plan. Read the
Reuters story. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010302/pl/bush_taxes_dc_2.html)
·
Tax
Time!!! Visit our U.S.States
(http://www.cisco.com/gov/us_states/index.html) page to find your state
and federal income tax forms. Download
the forms or file electronically. eGovernment (http://www.cisco.com/gov/people/e_government.html)
in action!
SITE OF THE WEEK –WWW.WHITEHOUSE.GOV
President
Bush’s budget and tax cut plan sets the tone for the debates in the
US Congress on many important tech issues.
View the
President’s Budget. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/usbudget/blueprint/budtoc.html)
GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS LAUNCHES “VIRTUAL THINK TANK”
· To
read about the newest Cisco Government Affairs web supported public
policy initiative please visit News@Cisco.
(http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/index.shtml)
FACTS AND STATS OF THE WEEK:
“British e-Revolution, Broadband, and Japanese e-shopping”
UK
BUSINESSES ONLINE
·
A recent study done by The Confederation
of British Industry (CBI) and KPMG Consulting found that 50% of businesses
in the UK with an online presence expect that in the next three years
10% of their revenue will come from e-commerce transactions. Also, 99%
of respondents expect e-business to be an integral part of overall trading
by 2003. Currently 41% of companies find that e-business is an integral
part of their structure while 17% say it plays a limited role.
THE
BROAD REACH OF BROADBAND
·
Kinetic Strategies reports that 7.8 million
households in the US and Canada subscribe to broadband internet services
-- 5.5 million of which use cable modems and 2.3 million of which use
digital subscriber line (DSL) connections. Kinetic says that multiple
service operators (MSOs) currently possess 70% of the residential broadband
internet market. By the end of 2000, MSOs installed 4.8 million cable
modem customers compared to 1.8 million
households that added DSL connections.
JAPANESE
FEAST ON eHOLIDAY SHOPPING
·
According to the latest Nikkei Market
Access report, 45.8% of internet users in Japan went online to research
or buy gifts during the 2000 holiday season. The number of users who
bought gifts increased by 12.9% from the same period in 1999, and 56.1%
of these users were first-time buyers. The most popular e-purchases
were local specialty foods (bought by 28.3% of users), followed by clothing
(23.7%) and general foods (21.4%).
“THE STATE OF THE
INTERNET”
·
A special report from Cisco Government
Affairs is now available online.
Some of the information included:
The year 2000 year saw a...
* 67% rise in GLOBAL INTERNET USAGE
* 230% increase in the NUMBER OF WEB
PAGES
* 103% increase in BUSINESS-TO-CONSUMER
E-COMMERCE
* 132% jump in BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS E-COMMERCE
The future looks even brighter, with
expectations that by 2005 we'll see...
* 1.17 billion WORLDWIDE INTERNET USERS
(up 183% from today)
* $6.2 trillion in B2B E-COMMERCE (up
1,775% from today)
* 3,300 COLLEGES OFFERING E-LEARNING
(up 120% from today)
·
For
more Facts and Stats on the New Economy, visit our Facts and Stats (http://www.cisco.com/gov/factsNStats/index.html)
page.
·
For
daily, topical Facts and Stats visit our Hot In Tech (http://www.cisco.com/gov/hot_tech/index.html)
page.
CISCO GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS@2001
Cisco’s top policy focuses for 2001
are the areas of Education, Broadband Deployment and eGovernment. To read or listen to our thoughts on these
issues, please visit our Government
Affairs home page or our visit our multimedia section.
(http://www.cisco.com/gov/multimedia/index.html)
E-UPDATE ARCHIVE
To
view past issues of Cisco’s Government Affairs E-Update, visit our E-Update Archive page.
(http://www.cisco.com/gov/archive/eupdates/index.html)
CISCO.COM/GOV AND E-UPDATE FEEDBACK
As
we continue to build out Cisco’s Government Affairs web site, as well
as our new service, this E-Update, we welcome comments, criticisms,
praise and suggestions. Please send any feedback to John Earnhardt
at jearnhar@cisco.com.
To
contact any member of the Government Affairs team, please visit our
“Contact Us” page. (http://www.cisco.com/gov/contact/index_ext.html)
DISCLAIMER
Positions
in articles and papers from outside sources are in no way endorsed by
Cisco Systems' Office of Government Affairs. We offer articles
on topics of interest to our audience to further the debate on the issues
that are important to high-tech. To
view our positions on the policy matters that we care about, please
visit our Government Affairs homepage.
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