Tunisia to host world summit on information society

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Tunisia -- a small Northern African country -- will host the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) from Nov. 16 to Nov. 18, which endeavors to bridge the "digital divide" and consolidate the information society through public-private partnerships.

The Embassy of Tunisia in Jakarta said in a statement that the summit, whose process was launched in Geneva in December 2003 under the auspices of the UN, would be a boon for Tunisia.

In 1998, Tunisia called for this type of summit during the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) conference in Minneapolis in the USA.

The summit will coincide with the 18th anniversary of an important event -- the Change of 7th November, 1987 -- when then Prime Minister Zine El Abidine BEN ALI took charge as President of Tunisia.

The ITU said about 50 heads of state and government have so far confirmed participation in the Tunis meeting, to be held at Kram PalExpo.

The private sector will be present in force, with more CEOs confirmed to participate than at the Summit's Geneva phase in 2003. Corporate partners of the Tunisian Organizing Committee, WSIS Tunis 2005, include Alcatel, Ericsson, Huawei, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung and ZTE.

With regard to the WSIS summit, Tunisia will also organize a series of events including meetings, debates, workshops and exhibitions on information society from Nov. 14 to Nov. 19.

The Tunis WSIS, to be attended by an Indonesian delegation, is to follow up the implementation of the ambitious agenda agreed to at the first phase of WSIS.

In Geneva, 175 countries adopted a Declaration of Principles outlining a common vision for the information society and a Plan of Action that set targets to improve connectivity and access in information and use of communication technology (ICT).

The targets, to be achieved by 2015, include connecting villages, community access points, schools and universities, research centers, libraries, health centers and hospitals, and local and central government departments.

Governments will also seek agreement on issues such as effective financial strategies to promote the deployment of ICTs in the developing world and possible options for the governance of the Internet.

According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the 942-million people living in the world's developed economies enjoy five times better access to fixed and mobile phone services, nine times better access to Internet services, and own 13 times more personal computers than the 85% of the world's population living in low and lower-middle income countries.

ITU also estimates that 800,000 villages still lack connection by telephone line, the Internet or any other modern ICT.