The opening statement of ESCWA was delivered by the Deputy Executive Secretary, Dr. Nadim Khoury.  The statement of LAS was given by Mr. Khaled Foda, Acting Manager of the ICT Department.  The host country opening statement was delivered by Mr. Samir el Daher, Advisor to the Prime Minister.  Inaugural sessions included notes for setting the scene of the conference discussions on the IGF process, and a keynote speech by Dr. Tarek Kamel, former minister of the Egyptian Ministry of Communication and Information Technology entitled "Internet Governance Priority Issues: Global versus Regional Dynamics".  

In the first day of the conference, participants addressed the global IGF process, experiences and lessons learned, and engaged in open consultations on the need and nature of the envisaged Arab IGF.  The envisaged forum will be the vehicle to implement the Arab Regional Roadmap for Internet Governance, which was overviewed in the conference. Furthermore, consultations deliberated on the proposed Arab IGF process in terms of components, mandate and positioning with the global IGF process, secretariat and multi-stakeholder advisory group.

A drafting team from represented countries prepared a correspondence to be submitted by LAS to the meeting of the Executive Bureau of Arab Telecommunications and Information Council of Ministers (ATICM), to be held on 2 February 2012 in Beirut at the same venue of the conference.