True to its commitments to ending digital isolation and in accordance with the G8 Deauville Declaration of June 2011 in support of Internet development in the countries of the South, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs has decided to contribute €400,000 to the AFNIC (French Association for Domain Names) International College Fund. Created in 1998, this college provides a structure for cooperation with emerging states in order to support their actions and projects to manage their national internet domains (equivalents of .fr).
This contribution will be devoted to generic extension projects in which sub-Saharan countries will participate in 2012. Financial support from this Fund can be obtained by responding to the call for project proposals which is due to open on January 2, 2012.
The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and AFNIC are continuing their cooperation initiated several years ago in order to encourage the emergence of an information society, combining the efforts of the North and the South in a spirit of co-development.
AFNIC, a not-for-profit association, manages the registry of domain names for the following geographic regions: .fr (France), .re (Reunion Island), .pm (St. Pierre and Miquelon), .tf (French Southern and Antarctic Territories), .wf (Wallis and Futuna) and .yt (Mayotte).
AFNIC also acts as a provider of technical solutions and registry services. AFNIC comprises public and private stakeholders: representatives from the French government, Internet users and Internet Service Providers (Registrars).
