Megawati opens meeting ahead of G-15 summit
Megawati opens meeting ahead of G-15 summit
JAKARTA (JP): Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri opened a
meeting of businessmen on Friday from country members of 15
developing countries grouped under the G-15, marking the
preparatory negotiations of next week's G-15 summit here.
The business gathering, taking place at the Jakarta Convention
Center, is focused on how to distribute the advances in
technology information in developing countries.
In her speech, the Vice President pointed out that only five
percent of the six billion people in the world had access to
information technology, most of whom lived in industrialized
countries.
Meanwhile hundreds of millions of people lived in severe
poverty, she said. She also cited the fact that few people in
developing countries had access to computers.
"It is my passionate hope that this meeting will bring about
applicable outcomes, and yield concrete and equitable benefits
for all of us," said the Vice President.
President Abdurrahman Wahid is scheduled to open the two-day
summit on Wednesday. The leaders will focus their discussion on
cooperation in technology and debt relief and on how to enable
member countries to play a strong role in world financial
institutions.
The summit will be attended by all countries in the 19-member
group. The G-15 name has been maintained even though an
additional four members have joined the group. Participating
countries comprise Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia,
Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico,
Nigeria, Peru, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
The summit will also be preceded by the meeting of foreign
ministers and trade ministers to draft the summit declaration.
Antara reported Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo,
Senegal's Abdoulaye Wade, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Zimbabwe's
Robert Mugabe would attend the meeting. Meanwhile Malaysian Prime
Minister Mahatir Mohamad, Egyptian Prime Minister Atef Ebeid and
Jamaica's Percival James Patterson will also attend.
Malaysia's Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said in Kuala
Lumpur, the Jakarta summit would deal with "a lot of economic
matters to see how South-South countries cooperate in the field
of economy, finance and trade".
"The process of cooperation and increasing trade is ongoing,
there is more trade now than before, but there is still a lot of
potential for it to further develop," Syed said.
Meanwhile, Bali provincial spokesman I Gde Nurjaya said the
island was ready to receive visits from the summit participants.
Indian Vice President Krishan Kant was the first leader to
confirm his visit to the province. He will arrive in Denpasar on
Thursday after the summit and stay for three days. (prb)