OISTE and Malaga Valley Group today signed an agreement to use WISeKey’s Common Global Root and scalable PKI hierarchy to establish a Euro-African Hub

OISTE and Malaga Valley Group today signed an agreement to use WISeKey’s Common Global Root and scalable PKI hierarchy to establish a Euro-African Hub




OISTE will help the government of Malaga become the new Euro-African Hub, with the aim of optimizing economic-social-cultural relations between Europe and Africa. This will be accomplished using the infrastructure of the Technology Park of Malaga and Malaga Valley and its unique geopolitical location. The project will be financed by the private sector, the European Union (EU) and the Spanish government.

Spain is eager to increase support to its continental neighbour, and the establishment of a Euro-African Hub is a logical and essential step. The Hub will become both a super-platform for optimizing commercial, technological and cultural links between the European Union and Africa, and also meeting-point and a place for research and study. Its location in Malaga is the work of the International Organization for the Security of Electronic Transactions (OISTE), the provincial government and the local business sector. The Hub is a natural step following the significant investments already deployed to convert Malaga into a leader of Euro-African initiatives. The provincial government of Malaga, with the help of Madrid and Brussels, has the firm objective to instantiate this new Hub as one of the major superhighways of Information Technology and Worldwide Communications (ICT).

To make the most of the potential of this project, the signatories intend to transform Malaga with this important technological Hub, which includes Internet technologies, and the new generation of mobile technologies, to provide sustainable electronic solutions, where security barriers and trust related to the use of public networks can be discussed. The identification of requirements for security services and the cost effective and the profitable aspect of this platform will ensure the provision of highly innovative services.

The Euro-African Hub will operate in a first phase from Geneva, in the highly protected buildings of WISeKey. The subsequent transfer to Malaga will take place once the on-site infrastructure is fully operational. This innovative system will combine multiple physical and electronic security systems utilizing PKI solutions within a “zero risk” secure environment, thanks to the extensive use of VPN (private data network) systems.

The global growth of the Internet is leading the world of business in unimaginable directions. Maintaining data privacy and confidentiality is a huge cost for companies, and the greater the geographic scope, the more complex and expensive are its communications.

"This initiative is an evolution of the agreement signed during the TELECOM'99 ITU in Geneva in November 1999, based on a partnership between WISeKey and the ITU to establish certification authorities in developing countries. Thanks to OISTE and WISeKey, 198 member countries of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) understand the need for a global PKI structure under a shared common ROOT as it has been developed for OISTE and operated by WISeKey," said Philippe Doubre, president of OISTE, (http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/e-strategy/ecdc/ra/introduction.html)"

"WISeKey is currently mobilizing the public and private sectors in the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) to support the deployment of NETeID, a comprehensive system of electronic payment through Internet-based digital identification. It is hoped that the Hub of Malaga Valley can also join this ambitious project," said Carlos Moreira.

"The creation of a Euro-African Hub will give a clear and effective answer to all cooperation activities between African and European countries. Technology will allow us to build that sort of bridges that will contribute to the development of Africa by bringing knowledge to people, and thus by an initiative leaded also by Civil Society, where the Asociacion de Usuarios de Internet (AUI) is proud of being a protagonist in this project," affirmed Miguel Perez Subias, President of AUI and promoter of the HUB during the Malaga Valley meeting.