[WSIS CS-Plenary] President Ben Ali calls on Tunisian civil society to play larger role during second phase of WSIS

[Robert Guerra]

http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200404230643.html


President Ben Ali calls on Tunisian civil society to play larger role 
during second phase of WSIS

Tunisia Online  (Tunis)
  NEWS
  April 23, 2004
  Posted to the web April 23, 2004
  Tunis


President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali called upon Tunisian civil society 
to enlarge its participation to the World Summit on the Information 
Society (WSIS) on the occasion of the second phase of the Summit 
scheduled for next year in Tunisia.(www.wsistunis2005.org)

  The first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society was 
hosted by Switzerland, from 10 to 12 December 2003. The second phase 
will be hosted by Tunisia in November 16-18, 2005.

  "While appreciating the participation of the Tunisian civil society 
in the first phase of the Summit, and its role in enriching dialogue 
on the issues submitted to the Summit", said President Ben Ali, "I 
exhort it to enlarge its future participation and to consolidate the 
fields of cooperation and coordination with all the components of the 
international civil society, and especially at the regional level, so 
as to demonstrate the degree of awareness achieved by Tunisians as 
regards the current rapid changes, and their capacity to keep pace 
with the new technologies and to actively contribute to disseminating 
a balanced and solidarity-based development all over the world."

  The Tunisian leader was addressing participants to National 
Associations' Day, a celebration dedicated to NGO's. On this 
occasion, President Ben Ali received the 2004 Gold Mercury 
International award for "Peace, Cooperation and Solidarity". 
(http://www.goldmercury.org/index.html)

  President Ben Ali pointed out that Tunisia had called in 1998 for a 
World Summit on the Information Society, "as part of our 
determination to strengthen the bonds of solidarity and the fields of 
cooperation among nations, in order to establish the foundations of 
an equitable and balanced international growth, capable of narrowing 
the existing gaps and reducing the growing disparities."

  Tunisia had taken the initiative of calling for a world summit under 
the United Nations auspices in 1998, in Minneapolis, Minnesota (USA).

  The Tunisian President added, "at the opening of the first phase of 
the Summit, held in Geneva last December, we exhorted all concerned 
parties to assume their historic responsibilities in taking up this 
challenge, and in offering all the peoples of the world the 
opportunity to assimilate the digital and cognitive revolution, and 
to benefit from it in order to create new sources of wealth and 
improve their quality of life."

  "Building the society of knowledge, information and Communication 
constitutes, for us, a fundamental challenge which we have to meet," 
he said.

  Addressing the participants to Geneva phase of the WSIS, last 
December, President Ben Ali had invited "all parties: states, 
governments, international and regional organizations, civil society 
and the private sector" to take part in the Tunis phase of the Summit.


 

 


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Robert Guerra <rguerra at privaterra.org>
Privaterra - <http://www.privaterra.org>