[WSIS CS-Plenary] Digital Solidarity Fund

[William Drake]

Hi,

I just read a news report saying that the US State Department's David Gross and Phillip Bond, the Commerce undersecretary for technology, traveled two weeks ago to Senegal to promote the U.S. view that no new financing mechanisms are needed.  Senegal of course led the effort at WSIS to establish a new fund, but was also the first state selected for a Bush administration initiative to get the private sector to invest in developing countries' tech industries.  The report said that Gross and Bond met with the Senegalese president and others, and later told a State Department advisory group that he is "cautiously optimistic" that Senegal will accept the U.S. view that no new multilateral fund is needed.  So I guess we'll see if their money was well spent....

Cheers,

Bill

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William J. Drake
Geneva, Switzerland
wdrake at ictsd.ch 
http://www.citi.columbia.edu/affiliates/wdrake.htm 
Director, Project on the Information Revolution 
  and Global Governance
Senior Associate, International Centre for Trade
and Sustainable Development www.ictsd.org  
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