The Committee on Information and Communications Technology, Science, Technology and Innovation, Third Session was held at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok from 19 to 20 August 2020. The Committee session was held virtually via videoconference on 19 and 20 August 2020. Bangkok-based representatives from member States and international organizations were welcome to participate in person at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok.

The cost of transit between networks in Oceania, coupled with the high cost of international bandwidth, are likely to be driving factors behind the rise in Internet Exchanges Points (IXPs) in the region, according to Narelle Clark, CEO of the Internet Association of Australia (IAA).

Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway concept was defined at the 1st meeting of the Working Group on the Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway. The  AP-IS Master Plan identified the following four thematic pillars: (a) Physical infrastructure upgrade and interconnection; (b) Internet traffic management; (c) Building regional network resilience and (d) Promoting broadband access in underserved areas.

Worldwide, many countries continue to experience an extended period of COVID-19 risks. There are no off-the-shelf solutions for managing such a complex crisis, in which measures to prevent transmission will have colossal economic and social costs. Countries are forced to confront hard choices of balancing the needs to save lives and to save livelihoods. The threat imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic therefore needs a systematic approach, in which the restrictions, states of lockdown and exit strategies all balance public health, societal, and economic needs.

In Asia and the Pacific, the impact of COVID-19 has been tremendous due to the high concentration of people, economic activities and resource consumption. Coronavirus threatens economic, social and medical well-being of millions and we must act now to protect Asia's most vulnerable Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, the UN Under-Secretary-General and ESCAP’s Executive Secretary wrote in the Nikkei Asian Review on the 2nd of April.