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Project Title

Universal Acceptance (UA) Capacity Building

Project Year

2025

Project Number

TELWG_202_2025A

Project Session

Session 2

Project Type

Standard

Project Status

Project in Implementation
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Project No.

TELWG_202_2025A

Project Title

*
Universal Acceptance (UA) Capacity Building

Project Status

Project in Implementation

Fund Account

*
APEC Support Fund

Sub-fund

ASF: Digital Innovation

Project Year

2025

Project Session

*
Session 2

APEC Funding

143,226

Co-funding Amount

7,373

Total Project Value

150,599

Sponsoring Forum

*
Telecommunications and Information Working Group (TELWG)

Topics

Telecommunications; Digital Economy

Committee

SOM Steering Committee on Economic and Technical Cooperation (SCE)

Other Fora Involved

Other Non-APEC Stakeholders Involved

 

Proposing Economy(ies)

Australia

Co-Sponsoring Economies

China; Japan; Korea

Expected Start Date

01/03/2026

Expected Completion Date

30/06/2027

Project Proponent Name 1

Ellie Barclay

Job Title 1

Policy Officer

Organization 1

Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts

Telephone 1

+61261366568

Email 1

Ellie.BARCLAY@infrastructure.gov.au

Project Proponent Name 2

Not Applicable

Job Title 2

Not Applicable

Organization 2

Not Applicable

Telephone 2

Not Applicable

Email 2

Not Applicable

Declaration

Ellie Barclay

Project Summary

Universal Acceptance (UA) is an integral part of the digital inclusion agenda, and advances the development of ICT services for all. It is a technical requirement which involves either configuring or updating existing systems so that all valid domain names and email addresses, regardless of length, language, or script, are recognized and treated equally. This means all domain names and email addresses can be used seamlessly by all Internet-enabled applications, devices, and systems.


To raise awareness about the importance of UA and encourage its adoption across the global internet community. This project would see Australia inviting fellow APEC economies and related stakeholders, including subject matter experts, to exchange ideas and case studies on UA initiatives, measures and policies.


Universal acceptance will support all Internet users in the APEC region to experience the social and economic power of the Internet.

Relevance

Region

Access and meaningful use of the Internet is increasingly recognised as a fundamental aspect of social and economic opportunity. However, only a fraction of the world’s spoken languages are fully accessible online. The Internet is instead dominated by a limited set of languages and scripts, creating linguistic barriers for those who don't use them. Further, many programming languages, email tools, online applications, and social media applications are not designed to handle the expanded character sets and domain names that are now available, creating technical barriers for users.


The project seeks to contribute to addressing the digital divide that persists within APEC economies by reducing these linguistic and technical barriers to accessing the Internet. It will promote a more digitally inclusive and multilingual Internet, where all people can navigate and communicate on the Internet using domain names and email addresses that reflect their language and cultural preferences.


As APEC is a region of multiple languages and scripts, the promotion of Universal Acceptance of all legitimate domain names and email addresses regardless of language, script or character length, will enable a range of benefits for Internet users of the region. This includes increased employment opportunities, enhanced consumer choice, competition, digital trade, innovation and economic development. Sustained benefits are also likely to be achieved if APEC economies are able to adapt and implement the project outputs domestically. To support this, the project will include a recommendation report.


Eligibility and Fund Priorities

The project seeks funding through the APEC Support Fund Sub-fund for facilitating growth of the digital economy (the Digital Innovation Sub-fund). The project demonstrates that it will address the following priority area of “Enhancing inclusiveness of Internet and Digital Economy” by providing best practice measures and recommendations for digital inclusion policies. See Alignment to APEC section.


In further alignment with the Digital Innovation Sub-fund, this project focuses on promoting dialogue and cooperation on regulatory approaches affecting the Internet and Digital Economy among government agencies and other related stakeholders, including private sector.


Additionally, the project will contribute to the Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy (PPWE)’s five key pillars by delivering recommendations for capacity building activities and digital skills building, which are concrete ways to increase women’s business competencies and encourage their participation in the digital economy and innovation. The project will also actively seek to involve women though all stages as advisors, participants and speakers.


Capacity Building

The project will support the capacity building goals of APEC by:

  1. Promoting policies that support the adoption of enabling technologies to achieve a more digitally inclusive Internet and Digital Economy and which can be implemented in the Asia-Pacific region.
  2. Supporting actions to reduce the digital divide, and through this promote a multilingual Internet which enables global users to communicate effectively and allows organizations, governments, and businesses the ability to reach more Internet users.
  3. Sharing experiences, case studies and best practices to improve UA adoption and the ways this impacts economic and social wellbeing.
  4. Deepen economies’ understanding of UA principles and policy, including the capability and technical resources required to become UA-ready.


This project is expected to benefit all APEC developing economies by removing technical barriers for international engagement, allowing businesses and individuals to connect with users globally through iInternationalised Domain Names (IDNs). UA can also support better representation of cultures, geographies and special interests by enabling the using of domain names that are longer than 2 or 3 characters.

Objectives

The objective of this project is to promote a more digitally inclusive and multilingual Internet, where all people can navigate and communicate on the Internet using domain names and email addresses that reflect their language and cultural preferences.


This project aims to explore the transformative impact of UA in creating an equitable digital future, aligning with the broader APEC TELWG goal of enabling innovation, economic integration and inclusiveness through the use of advanced technology/ICT. It also seeks to provide recommendations to support all APEC economies to be UA- ready.

Alignment

APEC

This project aligns with the APEC Putrajaya Vision 2040, specifically the section on Innovation and Digitalization. The project aims to contribute to the empowerment of all our people and businesses to participate and grow in an interconnected global economy. Sharing information on best practice policies and initiatives for inclusion, and gaining insights from participants, will inform future actions and promote innovation, productivity and dynamism.


The project supports goals from the APEC Internet and Digital Economy Roadmap (AIDER) such as the promotion of Interoperability (Key Focus Area (KFA) 2) through an open interconnected Internet, adoption of enabling technologies and services (KFA6), and enhancing inclusiveness of the digital economy (KFA10). This project also contributes to the Cross-Border E-Commerce Facilitation Framework, by promoting policy exchanges among public and private sectors to facilitate cross-border e- commerce and digital trade; and supports key area C of the Lima Roadmap to Promote the Transition to the Formal and Global Economies (2025-2040), by promoting digital tools for inclusive economic participation.


Additionally, this project aligns with the La Serena Roadmap objective to achieve gender equality and the economic empowerment of women and girls by encouraging the participation of women as project advisors, participants and speakers.


Forum

The project will build on existing APEC TEL WG priorities of promoting the digital economy through innovation and digitalization. It will facilitate technological and policy exchanges among member economies to promote innovative, inclusive and sustainable growth, and bridge the digital divide in the APEC region.

The workshop is expected to contribute to the following priority areas of the TEL Strategic Action Plan 2021-25:

  1. ICT Policies and Regulations to Enable Innovation, Economic Integration and Inclusiveness, by promoting regulatory and policy environments that encourage inclusiveness, innovation and competition by facilitating a best practices and ideas exchange.
  2. Collaboration in Telecommunications/ICTs and Applications, through engagement with groups and other fora within APEC to consider how to take advantage of the benefits of telecommunications/ICT and address issues arising from their application. Additionally, it will contribute toward the reporting of the Final Review of the Connectivity Blueprint for 2015-2025, which sets out “to strengthen physical, institutional, and people-to-people connectivity…”.

Beneficiaries and Outputs

Output


1) Preliminary Survey and Research

A preliminary survey and research will provide a basis for the capacity building workshop by assessing the current application of Universal Acceptance (UA) amongst APEC economies. The scope includes survey design (online questionnaire) for all 21 APEC member economies to assess level of understanding of UA concepts and use; use of internationally- recognised data where available and relevant; consultation through TEL and DESG with policy areas and academia; and examples of UA initiatives, measures and policies from the region through desktop research. The insights will be conducted by the project contractor and disseminated through the capacity building workshop.


2) Capacity Building Workshop

The one-day, in-person, APEC-wide capacity building workshop, to be scheduled alongside TEL73, provides a platform for in-depth discussions on the insights from the first output, fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange among policymakers, regulators, industry experts, academia and civil society representatives. It will focus on; deepening economies’ understanding of UA principles and policy, including the capability and technical resources required to become UA-ready; and sharing experiences, case studies and best practices to improve UA adoption.


The rough workshop agenda is as follows (noting this is subject to change):

(1) Morning sessions:

  1. UA principles and overview
  2. Incorporating UA into public policy
  3. Available resources


(2) Afternoon sessions:

  1. Demonstration/practical advice on how to create a UA-compliant website
  2. Practical examples/case studies from participating economies on UA measures they’ve taken, or challenges they’ve addressed
  3. Future-looking discussion: Embedding UA principles into academic curricula and/or youth engagement


In order to evaluate the workshop, a post-workshop survey is carried out on site immediately after the workshop has finished. The result of this evaluation shall be reported in the Completion Report.


3) Project Report (APEC Publication)

The project report (minimum of 20 pages, excluding annexes), will provide a broad analysis of UA in the APEC region, summarise the presentations and discussions held during the capacity building workshop; including case studies, trends and lessons learned, recommendations for best practices, and opportunities for future APEC activities and action in support of UA. The report will be an APEC publication. Additionally, to ensure timely completion a draft interim project report will be circulated for consultation in late 2026 to participating economies.


Outcome

1) Enhanced understanding: Deepen economies’ understanding of UA principles, policy development and implementation, including the capability and technical resources required to become UA-ready. This outcome will be measured through evaluation of the post workshop survey and comparison with the preliminary survey and research.


2) Actionable insights: The project report will provide best practice recommendations to support policymakers in realising the benefits of UA in the region, and promote a multilingual Internet.


3) Multi-stakeholder collaboration: The workshop will serve as a platform to bring together key experts, government officials, organisations, academia and civil society to discuss and exchange ideas to improve UA adoption, and advance digital inclusion goals within the APEC region. This outcome will be measured through the workshop attendance list and evaluation form.


Beneficiaries

APEC economy Internet Governance and Policy Professionals including representatives from relevant domestic agencies are anticipated to directly experience and use the outputs of the project. The project is intended to develop their capacity to participate in the development and implementation of the technical requirements necessary for UA adoption. The project will particularity benefit all APEC economies with non-Latin scripts and/or multiple languages and nationalities.


Additionally, academia within APEC economy universities and research institutes, international organizations and multi-stakeholder groups such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), and the Internet Society will be engaged in the project either as workshop expert speakers; sharing best practices, case studies and exchanging views on UA technology or in consultation with to support planning and/or avoid duplication of efforts.


Internet users and businesses across the APEC region could also experience longer- term benefits – if APEC economies are able to adapt and implement project recommendations domestically. Benefits for users include increased employment opportunities, enhanced consumer choice, competition, digital trade, innovation and economic development. Businesses can benefit from increased reach and revenue potential from markets that might otherwise be inaccessible.

Dissemination

APEC Publications for this project will include one written output ‘Project Report’, it will comply with the APEC publications guidelines and copyright requirements, and will be available on the APEC website. The interim draft project report will be made available in electronic format by email.


Workshop materials including findings from the first output, presentations, papers and other resource documents used or prepared for the workshop will be collected to serve as reference documents for member economies and disseminated in electronic format by email. After the workshop, these materials will be stored onto the APEC Meeting Document Database.


The target audience for these publications will be APEC economies and APEC TEL project participants. There is no intention to sell outputs arising from the project report. The purpose for recording will be for notetaking by the PO.

Gender

Please see Project Proposal in Supporting Documents folder.

Work Plan

Please see Project Proposal in Supporting Documents folder.

Risks

Please see Project Proposal in Supporting Documents folder.

Monitoring and Evaluation

Please see Project Proposal in Supporting Documents folder.

Linkages

The project will encourage dialogue and interaction between government policy- makers, private sector experts and related organisations.


It will build upon the work of China’s Deployment of Multi-Language Email Address Technology project which aimed to promote the implementation of multi-language email address technology in the APEC region.


Additionally, the project team will consult Digital Economy Steering Group (DESG) in the planning process to promote cross fora collaboration. The project team would also share the project results with relevant third parties, such as ICANN and the Internet Society, and explore the ongoing synergies that could be built with them.

Sustainability

Through its recommendations, the project will continue to have impact after the APEC funding is finished by outlining actions APEC economies can take to carry forward the outcomes of the project. Comprehensive technical resources will be also be provided post-workshop to assist participants and favourable consideration given to any requests for in-formal follow-on capacity building assistance. To measure of likelihood of sustained benefits, feedback forms distributed at the workshop's closing will ask participants to rate the relevance of workshop topics and approaches to their job responsibilities and their potential to apply new concepts or ideas in their economy.

The Project Overseers will compile and summarize this feedback for review by TELWG members, ensuring continuous improvement and informing future initiatives.

Direct Labour

Please see Project Proposal in Supporting Documents folder.

Are there any supporting document attached?

Yes
Project No.
Project Title
Project Status
Fund Account
Sub-fund
Project Year
Project Session
APEC Funding
Co-funding Amount
Total Project Value
Sponsoring Forum
Topics
Committee
Other Fora Involved
Other Non-APEC Stakeholders Involved
Proposing Economy(ies)
Co-Sponsoring Economies
Expected Start Date
Expected Completion Date
Project Proponent Name 1
Job Title 1
Organization 1
Telephone 1
Email 1
Project Proponent Name 2
Job Title 2
Organization 2
Telephone 2
Email 2
Declaration
Project Summary
Relevance
Objectives
Alignment
Beneficiaries and Outputs
Dissemination
Gender
Work Plan
Risks
Monitoring and Evaluation
Linkages
Sustainability
Direct Labour
Are there any supporting document attached?
hdFldAdmin
Project Number
Previous Fora
Secretariat Comments
Reprogramming Notes
Consolidated QAF
Endorsement By Fora
PD Sign Off
Batch
Forum Priority
Committee Ranking Category
Committee Priority
PDM Priority
Priority Within Funding Category
Monitoring Report Received
Completion Report Received
PMU Field 1
PMU Field 2
PMU Field 3
On Behalf Of
Proposal Status
Originating Sub-Forum
Approval Status
Attachments
Content Type: Standard Proposal
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