On July 19, a one-day workshop titled Universal Acceptance Capacity Building was held at the Chengdu International Convention Center in China as part of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Digital Week. Organized by the APEC Telecommunications and Information Working Group (TELWG), the event brought together internet policymakers, technical experts, academic researchers, and representatives of multi-stakeholder communities. Experts from the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ presented the experience of the Russian top-level domain registry and discussed key challenges in developing a multilingual internet alongside their colleagues from the Asia-Pacific region.
The event, supported by Australia’s Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts, brought together internet policymakers, technical experts, academic researchers, and representatives of multi-stakeholder communities.
The primary goal of the workshop was to help APEC economies implement Universal Acceptance (UA) principles, ensuring equal access to internet services for all users regardless of language or script. The agenda included:
- A presentation of UA principles and an overview of the technical resources required to achieve UA-ready systems.
- A discussion of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) and Email Address Internationalization (EAI).
- Panel discussions and breakout sessions focused on developing policy and technical solutions for UA.
- Sharing best practices, case studies, and tools for advancing UA across the region.
A central highlight of the program was the presentation of preliminary results from the study Universal Acceptance in the APEC Region: Awareness, Priorities, and Policy Approaches. The document analyzes the current landscape of UA support, drawing on survey data from APEC economies.
The study categorizes economies based on the importance of implementing UA. Russia is classified as “highly relevant” – alongside China, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, and Japan – due to its use of the Cyrillic alphabet, where supporting UA for domain names and email addresses is critical for user convenience, accessibility, and digital inclusion.
The study also highlights a significant gap between awareness and deep understanding of UA principles. While most respondents are familiar with the concepts of UA, IDN, and EAI, their level of deep understanding of technical and policy aspects remains basic to moderate.
The authors emphasize that implementing UA is directly linked to greater participation in the digital economy. Experts estimate that full UA support could unlock additional economic potential and help provide internet access to millions of new users whose native language is not English.
The main obstacles remain technical incompatibility of legacy systems (browsers, email services), budget constraints, and a lack of awareness among both developers and decision-makers.
The Coordination Center’s participation in the workshop’s panel discussions helped draw international attention to successful UA implementation practices and Cyrillic domain support in Russia. The exchange of experiences is expected to contribute to the further development of digital internet infrastructure, strengthening its resilience and promoting digital equality on a global scale.
The materials and recommendations developed during the workshop will be compiled and submitted to the APEC Secretariat for use in shaping future digital development cooperation programs.
