[WSIS CS-Plenary] Fwd: [wsis-pacific] Fiji Government report on the WSIS Prpecom3

[Adam Peake]

Report from Fiji -- information about a possible PrepCom4 in December.

Good to see that some are finding WSIS useful.

Thanks,

Adam



>From: "Abel Caine" <acaine at itc.gov.fj>
>To: <wsis-pacific at list.sopac.org.fj>
>Subject: [wsis-pacific] Fiji Government report on the WSIS Prpecom3
>Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2003 14:56:00 +1200
>
>To all,
>
>I'm very pleased to offer the official Fiji Govt report on the WSIS
>Prepcom3 that was held in Geneva from 15 - 26 Sep. It is available at
>www.itc.gov.fj/docs/prepcom3_report.doc and I apologise for any
>cross-postings. Soft-copies can be e-mailed directly on request.
>
>Despite the great progress, Prepcom3 failed to agree on the final text
>of the Declaration and Action Plan, and had to be suspended and
>reconvened for 1 week from Mon 10 Nov - Fri 14 Nov (aka Prepcom4).
>
>It is generally agreed that Prepcom4 may be able to finalise the
>Declaration but that another week will be needed for the Action Plan.
>Prepcom5 has been tentatively scheduled from Fri 5 Dec - Tue 9 Dec which
>will result in a document given to Heads of State/Govts only hours
>before the actual Summit from Wed 10 Dec - Fri 12 Dec.
>
>The reference to SIDS has been retained in the Declaration, however,
>several of the scattered references to SIDS among specific lines in the
>Action Plan have been removed. It will be the responsibility of the
>Pacific and Caribbean delegations to Prepcoms 4 and 5 to ensure all
>existing references are retained and additional references including a
>SIDS-specific action line be incorporated.
>
>Although Prepcom3 was a 'political' failure for all delegations, the
>Fiji delegation enjoyed considerable 'economic' success securing offers
>of technical assistance from 5 IGOs on Fiji's e-Commerce Policy
>Framework. Taking advantage of the fact that most UN IGO Headquarters
>are located in Geneva, and that the Secretary- and Director-Generals of
>the IGOs attend the opening formalities of Prepcoms, the Fiji delegation
>were able to meet with the highest ranking officials and secure close to
>US$100,000 worth of assistance and funding for identified projects.
>
>It is extremely difficult to justify attending a 2-week long talk-shop
>especially when the big donor agencies (World Bank, InfoDev, etc) have
>made no commitments as yet to providing WSIS-specific funding, and the
>big donor countries (US, Japan, Western Europe, etc) are fighting the
>mainly African calls for a Digital Solidarity Fund. The continual series
>of assistance starting with the Asia Regional Conference in January has
>seen Fiji secure close to US$500,000 worth of technical assistance and
>small grants.
>
>After the Geneva Summit, Pacific leaders will have to start thinking
>about the WSIS Action Plan implementation to have something to show for
>the Tunis Summit in 2005. We need a very strong, capable, and
>well-funded Pacific organisation to help all 22 PICTs to achieve
>significant progress for Tunis 2005. The Pacific organisation would
>directly assist National ICT Committees with Strategy Plans, Project
>Identification and Prioritization, Resourcing & Funding, and
>Implementation. The Pacific organisation would also coordinate the ICT
>technical assistance offered by IGOs.
>
>The Pacific presence at Prepcom3 was the largest to date with Govt
>delegations from Fiji, Samoa, and the Federated States of Micronesia.
>Also present was the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) as an
>IGO, the Office of Post & Telecom, New Caledonia as a Pacific
>private-sector rep, and the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) as
>Pacific civil society.
>
>Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
>
>Regards,
>
>Abel Caine
>Manager Business & Systems Development
>responsible for E-Government
>
>ITC Services (Ministry of Finance)
>310 Victoria Parade, PO Box 784, Suva, Fiji Islands
>
>Ph: +679 3225-203/3306-005 x203
>Mb: +679 9934-726
>Fx: +679 3300-954
>
>e-mail: abel at itc.gov.fj
>web: www.itc.gov.fj
>
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>"Visiting distant lands and talking to different people makes men wise."
>M. De Cervantes
>
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