Fifth Internet Governance Forum of Panama (V Foro de Gobernanza de Internet Panamá 2022) — In-Depth Report: Minutes Digest & 3-Line Summary

The 3-Line Summary

The fifth Internet Governance Forum of Panama ran all day on 31 August 2022 at Ciudad del Saber in Panama City, led by the University of Panama — 150 in-person seats plus a livestream.
Under the theme 'a resilient Internet for a common, sustainable future', sessions covered the evolution of money, preserving the Internet for national development, data protection, e-commerce cybersecurity, and connectivity as a rights issue.
The series' hallmark is its rotating stewardship — chamber-born in 2017, NGO-run in 2019, university-led by 2022 — and with the UN resident coordinator on stage, the link to the SDGs was explicit.

Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on Fifth Internet Governance Forum of Panama (V Foro de Gobernanza de Internet Panamá 2022) draws on official outputs, session records and on-site reporting. In a hurry? The three lines above and the diagrams carry the gist.

Conference at a Glance (from official records)

Item	Detail
Official name	Fifth Internet Governance Forum of Panama (V Foro de Gobernanza de Internet Panamá 2022)
Edition	Fifth edition (V Foro), per the University of Panama and AIG; editions III and IV were the 2020–2021 online dialogue formats
Dates	31 August 2022, 9:00–17:00
Venue	Convention Centre, Ciudad del Saber, Clayton, Panama City
Theme	'Gobernanza de Internet en Panamá: Por una Internet resiliente para un Futuro Común y Sostenible' (A resilient Internet for a common, sustainable future)
Participants	Up to 150 in person (free Eventbrite registration) plus a livestream
Host	Led by the University of Panama (Faculty of Informatics, Electronics and Communication), co-organised with Ciudad del Saber, the innovation authority AIG, NIC.pa, IPANDETEC, the ISOC Panamá chapter and the IEEE Panama section

(See the source list at the end of this article.)

Discussion Digest — from the Session Records

Key exchanges extracted from session records and transcripts.

1. A Resilient Internet — Preserving the Network for National Development

Sessions: Panel 'Preserving the Internet for development' and related sessions

"We all have to take part and generate synergies and articulations"
— Alkin Saucedo (Director of Telecommunications, AIG; translated from Spanish) [1][2][3]

The University of Panama's Dr Iván Armuelles framed the IGF as a unique space for society to share information on the Internet's challenges across every sector [1][2][3]
UN resident coordinator Cristian Munduate cast digital transformation as key to the 2030 Agenda, explicitly wiring the national IGF into UN goals [1][2][3]
ISOC Panamá chapter president Nayreth González pressed the Internet's role as a catalyst for development [1][2][3]

2. E-Commerce Cybersecurity and the Evolution of Money — Managing the Risks of a Pandemic-Boosted Economy

Sessions: Panels on e-commerce cybersecurity and the evolution of money

AIG national cybersecurity director Juan Ramón Anria addressed securing the e-commerce environment — defending online commerce that had ballooned through the pandemic [1][2]
The 'evolution of money' session weighed digital payments and new financial instruments from both consumer-protection and innovation angles [1][2]

3. Data Protection, Connectivity and Rights — The Inclusion Agenda

Sessions: Sessions on personal-data protection and connectivity

The workings of Panama's data-protection regime (Law 81 of 2019, in force since 2021) were examined alongside e-commerce growth [1][3]
Connectivity was tied to rights guarantees, social development, education and gender equality — human rights in the information society as a load-bearing theme [1][3]

4. The Move to University Stewardship — A Seven-Institution Coalition

Sessions: Organisational record (from official announcements)

The fifth edition was led by the University of Panama's informatics faculty with seven co-organising institutions — Ciudad del Saber, AIG, NIC.pa, IPANDETEC, ISOC Panamá and IEEE Panama — putting every stakeholder group on the organising side [1][3]
The 150 free in-person seats ran on Eventbrite with a livestream alongside; local firms such as Vida Digital and Soluciones Seguras sponsored [1][3]
Coordinators González (ISOC), Armuelles (University of Panama), Hernández (IPANDETEC) and López (UTP/NIC.pa) linked the stewards of every edition since 2017 [1][3]

Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered

Q. What was discussed?

A. Under the banner of a 'resilient Internet': the digitalisation of money, e-commerce cybersecurity, personal-data protection, and connectivity as a matter of rights, education and gender equality — across a full day.

Q. Who organised it?

A. The University of Panama led a seven-institution coalition — AIG, NIC.pa, IPANDETEC, ISOC, IEEE and Ciudad del Saber — with the UN resident coordinator on stage tying the forum to the SDGs.

Q. Why should I care?

A. The forum survived by relay: chamber, then NGO, then university stewardship. Not depending on any single institution is a pragmatic model for keeping a national dialogue alive.

What Is Panama IGF? (for first-time readers)

Panama IGF is a National or Regional IGF Initiative (NRI), aligning local internet governance discussion with global IGF principles.

Why It Matters to You

What was discussed here becomes the baseline for national digital policy, platform rules and AI regulation worldwide within a few years. The principles confirmed at the 2022 meeting are the foundation of the "next rules" for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.