Announcing the Asia Pacific Internet Development Trust (APIDT)

By on 25 Mar 2020

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The APNIC Executive Council is pleased to announce today the establishment of the Asia Pacific Internet Development Trust (APIDT).

APIDT was created in line with the wishes of the Founder of the WIDE Project, Professor Jun Murai of Keio University, following his decision on the future use of IPv4 address space in the 43/8 block, announced today.

The Trust will use the proceeds of the sale of the address space to create a fund to benefit Internet development in the Asia Pacific region. This will include funding technical skills development and capacity building, improvements to critical Internet infrastructure, supporting research and development, and improving the community’s capability to build an open, global, stable and secure Internet.

The Trust will also be able to accept other contributions in future.

A corporate Trustee* has been established in Australia by APNIC and WIDE Project, who serve as guardians of the Trust. All details including the Trustee and Deed of Trust are available at the APIDT website. The Trustee is a member of APNIC, and has today received a transfer of the address space (43/9, 43.128/10, 43.192/11) under the APNIC Historical Resource Transfer policy.

The next step will be for the Trust to determine a fair, transparent, efficient and accountable process for the sale of the address space on the IPv4 address market, in accordance with the original terms of the transfer from the WIDE Project. For this purpose the Trustee will engage KPMG and Maddocks Lawyers to help manage an appropriate and proper process for the sale, in line with these objectives and terms, and all applicable policies. KPMG and Maddocks will also serve as Probity Advisors to assure and attest to the proper conduct of all transactions involved in the transfer and sale.

The proceeds of the sale will be initially invested by the Trust, in a fund whose proceeds will support Internet development in the Asia Pacific region, through the APNIC Foundation and other channels. For the APNIC Foundation, the Trust will help to scale up and build on the achievements of the past three years, which have included:

  • Training of more than 500 technical and cybersecurity staff in 11 economies
  • Technical assistance for IXPs in five economies
  • The creation of CERTs and NOGs in five economies
  • More than 30 fellowships to technical training workshops and conferences
  • Investment of USD 500,000 in Internet operations research grants via ISIF Asia.

These positive outcomes have been achieved on relatively modest funding of USD 1.6 million. The potential social and economic benefits to the entire Asia Pacific region from the establishment of the APIDT are therefore substantial.

On behalf of the APNIC membership and community, the APNIC EC thanks Professor Murai for initiating this very exciting development, and we reiterate our commitment to working together for the development of the Internet in our region.

APNIC will be holding a live webcast Q&A session on Friday, 27 March at 13:30 UTC+10 to discuss the creation of the Trust, with all interested members of the community invited to attend. Join the webcast via Zoom.

*APIDTT Pty Ltd (Australian Company Number 638 389 072) as Trustee for the Asia Pacific Internet Development Trust.

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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.

3 Comments

  1. JINLONG LI

    Good news for IAAS vendors. Iaas vendors can get IP space from The Trust, and Trust can use the money to develop Internet technology, a win-win situation.
    Congratulations on the Trust established!

    Reply

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