The APNIC Foundation has enjoyed strong support over the past 18 months, which has seen more than USD 1 million raised to support APNIC training and technical assistance in the region.
Read: Introducing the APNIC Foundation
APNIC Foundation grants helped fulfil two significant projects involving APNIC training, security and technical staff in 2018 and 2019. These included supporting:
- Pacific CERT/CSIRT training and development, contributing to the establishment of PNG CERT and Vanuatu CERT.
- The ’Enhancing National Cybersecurity and Network Quality of Service in Advance of Papua New Guinea’s Hosting of APEC’ project, coordinated by The Asia Foundation in partnership with the APNIC Foundation.
The latter of these two projects included 10 technical training workshops (focusing on routing, network and information security, and the DNS), two technical assistance engagements, and interviews with APNIC Members. It was the largest technical training program APNIC has executed at a national level with more than 160 members of PNG’s technical community involved.
The APNIC Foundation, along with the KDDI Foundation, also supported two training sessions conducted by APNIC staff on network security for UCSY/mmREN (Myanmar).
Further, sponsorship by the Foundation, and APNIC 46 host OPT-NC, allowed APNIC to expand its APNIC 46 fellowship program, benefiting more community members requiring support to attend the APNIC conference.
The Board of the APNIC Foundation discussed these projects during its second annual meeting in Singapore in May, when it met to evaluate and approve the Foundation’s 2018 audited financial accounts and the 2019 budget.
All five Board members joined the meeting with Edward Tian joining by conference call from Beijing. Also, there from the Foundation was CEO/Executive Director, Duncan Macintosh, and Head of Programs, Sylvia Cadena.
Joining from APNIC was Director General, Paul Wilson, General Counsel, Craig Ng, and APNIC Financial Controller, Irene Chan. After the Board meeting, Paul Wilson chaired the Foundation’s Annual General Meeting on behalf of the APNIC Executive Council as the Foundation’s sole member.
The meeting concluded with the election of Sylvia ‘Efie’ Sumarlin as Board Chair for a second successive term.
The APNIC Foundation is an important initiative, and the early signs of success point to a promising future to help APNIC carry out its mission that benefits not only APNIC Members, but the entire Asia Pacific Internet community.
More information on the Foundation’s activities can be found on its website and Facebook page.
The views expressed by the authors of this blog are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of APNIC. Please note a Code of Conduct applies to this blog.