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The More Leaders and Nations of the World Unite, the Stronger
the United Nations Becomes, Says Lebanese President
ESCWA Draft should Help Delegations Come up with Declaration of
Principles, Says Executive Secretary of the Regional Commission
Beirut, 4 February 2003 (United Nations Information Service)--The
Western Asia Preparatory Conference for the World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS) opened today at the United Nations
House in Beirut under the auspices of the President of, Emile
Lahoud, and in presence of a riveting crowd of Lebanese and Arab
ministers and experts. The Conference is organized by the Economic
and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) in cooperation with
the Cairo Office of United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU).
Speakers at the opening session were: ESCWA Executive Secretary
Mervat Tallawy; Charles Geiger, Senior Policy Advisor of the WSIS
Executive Secretariat; and Lebanese Minister of Telecommunications
Jean-Louis Kordahi, representing President Lahoud.
In her statement, Tallawy thanked the Lebanese government’s
initiative for its call to the preparatory conference, whose
outcome will be forwarded to the World Summit, the first phase of
which will be held in Geneva in December 2003. She also said that
ESCWA had prepared a draft, which highlighted the points of
strength and weakness in information and communication technology
in the Arab world. Tallawy hoped that the draft would help
delegations come up with a declaration of principles and the
"Beirut Initiative" towards the establishment of an information
society in the countries of the region.
The Executive Secretary of the UN Regional Commission noted that
the challenges facing the developing countries in seeking the
knowledge economy did not mean a lack of knowledge as much as it
meant a lack of competency in using that knowledge. "Contrary to
the capitalist resources, mainly allocated by political decisions,
knowledge resources could be disseminated through individuals and
societies", she said.
Charles Geiger said that the WSIS is the second United
Nations-type world summit after Johannesburg. He identified three
objectives for the Information Summit. The first was to raise
awareness among political leaders; the second, to explore the
digital divide; and the third, to start a public debate on some of
the key aspects of the information society.
The WSIS representative said that the modern world is undergoing a
fundamental transformation, as the industrial society that marked
the 19th and the 20th centuries rapidly gave way to the
information society of the 21st century. "This dynamic process
promises a fundamental change in the private, social, cultural,
economic and political aspects of our lives," he noted.
Speaking on behalf of the President of Lebanon, Minister Kordahi
called on his audience to notice the shift in the need of
telecommunications and information from political and security
matters to being tools for modernizing production and developing
human resources. He asked whether the long-time Arab investment in
infrastructure was needed for technological advancement; whether
the young Arab society can trespass the 1 percent threshold of
Internet usage, and whether the state should interfere in this
sector.
He noted that the state should play a monitoring role, and give
the private sector a bigger role for the increase in investments
and eventually the development of the sector.
Kordahi concluded his statement by saying, "As we assemble today
around a UN initiative in the field of information and
communication technology (ICT), we call on the parties to the
conflict in this region to reach peaceful settlements for their
disputes under the umbrella of the United Nations, and through the
implementation of its resolutions." "The more leaders and nations
of the world unite, the stronger the United Nations becomes", he
said.
Following the opening, and before starting the plenary session,
Minister Kordahi was elected as Chairperson of the Conference; the
Saudi head of delegation, Minister of Higher Education Khaled bin
Mohammad Al-Ankari, as Deputy Chairperson; and the head of the
Egyptian delegation, Nadia Hegazi as Rapporteur.
In the first plenary session, Abdel-Wahid Khan spoke on behalf of
the UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura, saying that UNESCO
has been involved in the preparations for the WSIS, which he
described as a major event on the global agenda. Khan also said
that between mid-December 2002 and mid-January 2003, the UNESCO
hosted an online conference for civil society organizations as
part of the WSIS preparatory process. He added that several ESCWA
member States were affected by political context and that their
future is closely linked to the current conflicts and the outcome
of peace negotiations in the region as a whole.
Speaking on behalf of Jose Maria Figueres Olsen, Chairman of
United Nations Information and Communications (UNICT) Task Force,
Mustafa Nasseriddine, praised ESCWA’s work in the area of ICT for
development, saying that further collaborative links between ESCWA
and UN-ICT, particularly at the regional level, needed to be
established. He added that ESCWA member States have made
significant strides in using ICT for their socio-economic
development but much more needed to be done.
A second plenary session was held today during which the World
Bank Director of Global Information and Communication Technologies
Division, Mohsen Khalil, highlighted the Western Asian situation.
Khalil said that behind the center of serious international
conflict, the Western Asia region faced a uniquely demanding
situation. He also highlighted the World Bank’s position in
relation to the objectives of the Summit; the challenges and
opportunities for Arab countries in building a prosperous
information society in Western Asia; and the World Bank assistance
to the region in this regard.
Abdel-Rahman Solh, the Arab League Assistant Secretary-General,
delivered a statement in which he underlined the interest of ESCWA
member States in preparing for the Summit. He said that the
importance of the Information Summit reflected on the Arab
countries, as they held three preparatory meetings in Damascus,
Tunis and Cairo in which delegations produced recommendations and
forwarded them to the Council of Arab telecommunications
ministers. Solh stressed the importance of broadcasting and
transmitting information at the highest quality and the cheapest
price. He referred to the UN Human Development Report 2002, which
reported a digital gap among Arab countries.
Mohammed Mrayati, ESCWA Regional Advisor on Science and
Technology, presented a paper on Western Asia Information Society
in which he recommended that ESCWA member countries debate their
different perspectives on the issue of information society in
order to reach a common understanding.
The Head of the ITU Arab Regional Office, Ibrahim Qadi, said that
the information revolution of this century is equivalent in
importance to the agricultural revolution, which transformed the
world 100 centuries ago, and the industrial revolution of three
centuries ago. He stressed the importance of producing Web sites
that are in Arabic and which safeguard ethical concerns. Qadi said
that the Arab society still depend on oral newsm, rather than
written reports.
The final document adopted by the Beirut Conference, which will
conclude Thursday, is expected to include its main recommendations
regarding policies, preliminary plans and initiatives that address
the key issues and tackle the identified problems in building the
information society. The document will be presented at the Second
Intergovernmental Preparatory Committee meeting to be held in
Geneva from 17 to 28 February 2003. The second preparatory meeting
will discuss the agenda of the Summit and the elements to be
incorporated into the final document for the World Summit on the
Information Society.
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