On September 21, on the eve of the 19th International Conference for Country‑Code Top‑Level Domain Registries and Registrars of Eastern Europe and Central Asia (TLDCON 2026), an expert session was held in Tashkent. The session focused on the development and implementation of indicators to support Universal Acceptance (UA) of domain names and email addresses within the framework of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

The event was organized by the RCC in cooperation with the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ, an RCC participant and the organizer of TLDCON 2026. It continued the discussion initiated at the second meeting of the Joint Expert Group of the RCC and the CIS Statistical Committee on ICT Statistics (JEG‑ICT).

Session participants discussed the possibilities for developing such indicators on the basis of the ITU and submitting a corresponding initiative as a regional position for consideration by the ITU's authorized bodies. In particular, they examined:

• The role of UA in ensuring an accessible, truly multilingual Internet for all, and the corresponding economic aspects

• The institutional foundations for developing indicators on the basis of the ITU

• The activities of ICANN and UNESCO in developing UA implementation indicators

• A possible list of key ITU UA implementation indicators

• Potential data sources and methodologies for collecting the relevant statistics.

The session was moderated by Ms. Maria Kolesnikova, Chair of the Regional Coordination Group on Universal Acceptance for the CIS and Eastern European Countries, Chief Analyst at the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ.

The discussion featured:

• Ms. Maria Bolshakova, Deputy Director General of the RCC

• Ms. Tatiana Kuznetsova, Chief of the Division of Statistics of Foreign Economic Activity, Transport and Communications, CIS Statistical Committee

• Mr. Arseniy Plosskiy, Chairman of JEG‑ICT

• Mr. Sergey Povalishev, CEO of Hoster.by.

The event was attended by:

• Members of the Regional Coordination Group on Universal Acceptance for the CIS and Eastern European Countries and of the Russian Working Group on Universal Acceptance

• Members of JEG‑ICT — representatives of RCC communications administrations and statistical services of CIS member states

• Technical specialists from registries and registrars of national domain zones in the region.

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