[WSIS CS-Plenary] WSIS press statement on Summit

[sburch at alainet.org]

This press statement was published on the official WSIS site yesterday.  Take a 
look at the commercial partnerships that have been offered.  No comment...

Sally

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Geneva, 12 December 2003 — The World Summit on the Information Society closed 
on an optimistic note of consensus and commitment, but Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary-
General of the International Telecommunication Union and Summit cautioned that 
the meeting was only the start of a long and complex process.

"Telephones will not feed the poor, and computers will not replace textbooks. 
But ICTs can be used effectively as part of the toolbox for addressing global 
problems. The Summit’s successes now give us the necessary momentum to achieve 
this," he said.

"Building the inclusive information society requires a multi-stakeholder 
approach. The challenges raised — in areas like Internet governance, access, 
investment, security, the development of applications, intellectual property 
rights and privacy — require a new commitment to work together if we are to 
realize the benefits of the information society."

Seeing the fruits of today’s powerful knowledge-based tools in the most 
impoverished economies will be the true test of an engaged, empowered and 
egalitarian information society, he added. 

Over 54 Heads of State, Prime Ministers, Presidents, Vice-Presidents and 83 
ministers and vice-ministers from 176 countries came together in Geneva to 
endorse a Declaration of Principles — or a common vision of an information 
society’s values – and a Plan of Action which sets forth a road map to build on 
that vision and to bring the benefits of ICTs to underserved economies.

The three-day Summit is the first multi-stakeholder global effort to share and 
shape the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) for a 
better world.

But the Summit was groundbreaking in other ways too. It offered a 
genuine "venue of opportunity" in a unique meeting of leaders, policy-makers, 
ICT business people, voluntary and non-governmental organizations of every 
possible kind, and top-level thinkers and speakers. Alongside the three-days of 
Plenary meetings and high-level roundtables, nearly 300 side-events helped 
bring the dream of an inclusive information society one-step closer to becoming 
reality. 

Partnership announcements included a USD 400,000 grant by the US Government for 
ICT development in low-income countries. Cisco and ITU also signed a Memorandum 
of Understanding to open 20 more Internet Training Centres in developing 
countries. As well, Hewlett-Packard will provide low-cost products that will 
help overcome the illiteracy barrier to ICT. Handwritten texts for example will 
be recognized for e-mail transmission. Microsoft, working with UNDP, will 
provide a billion dollar programme over 5 years to bring ICT skills to 
underserved communities. One innovative initiative announced to bridge the 
digital divide is the Bhutan E-Post project. For faster, cheaper and more 
reliable communication to remote, mountainous areas of Bhutan, the Government 
of India will deliver e-post services to the Bhutanese Postal Service via a USD 
400,000 a V-satellite network and solar panels power system. The partners 
include ITU, Bhutan Telecom and Post, Worldspace and Encore India. And at the 
very close of the Summit, the cities of Geneva and Lyon and the Government of 
Senegal have announced contributions totaling about 1 million euros to fund 
information technology in developing countries. The contributions will 
represent the first three payments towards the Digital Solidarity Fund, the 
creation of which is to be considered by a UN working group for the Tunis phase.

The second phase of the Summit takes place in Tunis in 2005 and will measure 
ambitious goals set this week. With WSIS phase I over, the hard work begins and 
hard work lies ahead in the two years before Tunis, to show that the 
information society is on the right path. 

The overarching goal of the Summit has been to gain the will and commitment of 
policy-makers to make ICTs a top priority, and to bring together public and 
private sector players to forge an inclusive dialogue based on the interests of 
all. In these two respects, the Summit has been heralded a success.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan told delegates "technology has 
given birth to the information age. Now it is up to all of us to build an 
information society from trade to telemedicine, from education to environmental 
protection, we have in our hands, on our desktops and in the skies above, the 
ability to improve standards of living for millions upon millions of people.

Top Summit targets now remain to be achieved, including connecting all schools, 
villages, governments and hospitals, and bringing half the world’s population 
within ICT reach, all by the year 2015.

The Summit has clearly identified national e-strategies as the key vehicle to 
meet the targets. Connecting public places, revising school curricula, 
extending the reach of TV and radio broadcasting services and fostering rich 
multilingual content are all recognized as needing strong national-level 
governmental commitments. To encourage and assist national and local 
governments in this work, the Summit also foresees the development of 
international statistical indicators to provide yardsticks of progress; 
exchanges of experience to help develop "best practice" models, and the 
fostering of public-private partnerships internationally in the interests of 
sustainable ICT development.

Indeed, collaboration across the complex information society chain — from the 
scientists that create powerful ICT tools, to the governments that foster a 
culture of investment and rule of law, to the businesses that build 
infrastructure and supply services, to the media that create and disseminate 
content and — above all —human society which ultimately employs such tools and 
shapes their use —lays the foundation for an inclusive knowledge-based world on 
which the riches of an information society can flourish. 

The Summit’s most notable achievement was across-the-board consensus earned for 
a Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action wording around several 
contentious issues, and the spirit of cooperation that permeated the Summit.

Internet governance, and financing ICT investments in underserved economies 
were two of the issues which called for long negotiations. On the issue of 
Internet management, the involvement of all stakeholders and intergovernmental 
organizations to address both technical and public policy issues has been 
underscored although global Internet governance is set to be the subject of 
deeper talks up to Tunis in 2005. An open and inclusive working group will be 
set up on the topic, in order to review and make proposals for action by the 
2005 Summit.

Similarly on the issue of financing for underserved economies, a task force 
will be established to undertake a review of existing ICT funding mechanisms 
and will also study the feasibility of an international voluntary Digital 
Solidarity Fund.

On the areas of intellectual property rights and the need for enabling 
environments, universal access policies, and multilingual, diverse and 
culturally appropriate content to speed ICT adoption and use — particularly in 
the world’s most underserved economies — government-level commitment to follow 
a set of common values and principles has been attained.

Although these achievements fuel hope and may stoke further collaboration, Mr. 
Utsumi, together with many world leaders, appealed to all stakeholders keep the 
spirit of cooperation alive well beyond the two years to Tunis, and to back up 
universally agreed principles with concrete actions to spark more peace and 
prosperity across the planet.

"The realization of the Plan of Action is crucial to the long-term success of 
the Summit. We need imagination and creativity to develop projects and 
programmes that can really make a difference. We need commitment — on the part 
of governments, the private sector and civil society — to realistic targets and 
concrete actions. We need the mobilization of resources and investment," he 
said.

"With the unique occasion of a World Summit, we have the chance to scale up our 
ambitions to the global level, which is equal to the size of the challenge. Let 
us not miss this opportunity."

To access the Declaration and the Plan of Action go to: 
http://www.itu.int/wsis/documents/listing-all-en-s|1.asp


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