Following a Submarine Cable Protection Information Sharing Workshop held at the 39th APEC
Telecommunications and Information Working Group( APEC TEL )Meeting in 2009, the Australian government prepared and administered a questionnaire intended to gather information on: (1) points of contact for cases of actual or suspected piracy, terrorism or similar emergency; (2) relevant legislation and regulations; (3) industry codes and standards; and (4) government and industry submarine cable protection initiatives. Although just eight economies submitted responses to this initial survey, the respondents together represent a developmentally diverse cross-section of the APEC region (results are summarized in the following section). At the 2011 Trade Policy Dialogue on Submarine Cable Protection co-sponsored by Australia and New Zealand in San Francisco , APEC government regulators, trade officials and industry gathered to: (1) raise awareness of the importance of submarine cables to APEC economies; (2) share information and best practice examples of submarine cable protection and resilience regimes and regulations in APEC economies; and (3) engage with submarine cable owners and operators to raise awareness of cable networks and provide an industry perspective on submarine cable protection regimes.