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)