Government ministers from across the world have issued a call for greater vigilance against cybercrime at the close of meeting on the future of the internet economy.

The Seoul Declaration came at the end of a two day ministerial conference on the future of the web in the South Korean capital hosted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

OECD member countries, the European Community and ministers from Chile, Egypt, Estonia, India, Indonesia, Israel, Latvia, Senegal and Slovenia affirmed the declaration.

Participants agreed on the need for governments to work closely with business, civil society and technical experts on policies that promote competition, empower and protect consumers, and expand internet access and use worldwide.

“Given that this infrastructure has become critical to our economies and societies, we should all engage in developing better, more broad-based, governance arrangements and policies,” said OECD secretary general Angel Gurría in the closing session.

He called for a new approach to drawing up these policies. “A more decentralised, networked approach to policy formulation for the internet economy that includes the active participation of stakeholders.”

It is 10 years since the first OECD conference on the future of the web, and the Gurria committed to review the declaration within three years.

It had been 10 years since the landmark Ottawa OECD ministerial meeting on e-Commerce, he said, but “we cannot talk about the importance of the internet every 10 years, which is an eternity in internet time.”