Meanwhile, in his welcome speech ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush brought up the host city's most significant contributions in the world economy. He acknowledged that South Korea is the largest ship builder and among the top five automobile manufacturing nations in the world. In terms of modern gadgets, Thrush quipped the high probability that the international guests are using a Korean-made mobile phone and also a Korean-made monitor with your computer, since South Korea is the leading manufacturer of LCD and LED TVs and monitors. “Korea is a global economic power,” Thrush said, adding, “(the) devices and ideas of this nation impact the lives of millions, if not billions, of people every day.” He said that this economic power of South Korea makes it a fitting venue for the 36th ICANN meeting, considering the great deal of matters that will be discussed here throughout the week.

Thrush updated the international audience that South Korea has said that it wants to be part of ICANN's fast track so it can establish a national TLD in Hangul characters, “because they have the same vision that ICANN does: Making it possible to use the Internet in their own languages from the start of the address to the end.”

ICANN's 36th meeting is expected to be productive as it will deal with the issues of competition in the Internet industry, consumer protection, as well as security and stability issues. Malicious abuse processes and the infrastructure's resiliency to these abuses will also be discussed. ICANN's sovereignty concerns together with the consumers' rights protection will also be discussed by the multi stakeholder group. And of course, the entire industry awaits more information and clarifications on the third version of the draft applicant guidebook for new gTLDs. Thrush said that by the time the application process for the new gTLDs is launched, the aforementioned topics for discussion will have been resolved.