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"MADE IN AFRICA - FOR AFRICA"
"Participation Builds Unity"
"MADE IN AFRICA - FOR AFRICA"
PRESENTS
President Thabo Mbeki says World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) must be inclusive
BuaNews
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17 November 2005
By Zibonele NTULI
Pretoria – President Thabo Mbeki says decisions to be taken at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) must be inclusive and reflect earlier resolutions to build a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented information society.
Addressing the WSIS summit in Tunis, in Tunisia yesterday, President Mbeki said the decisions should enable individuals and communities to achieve their full potential in promoting their sustainable development and improving their quality of life.
The three-day summit aims to build a global, inclusive and development-orientated information society.
The first phase of the WSIS took place in Geneva in 2003 and laid the foundation for achieving this inclusive information society through the Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action.
The Plan of Action outlined internationally agreed development goals and targets to be achieved by 2015. It also recommended the creation of national strategies for the development of information society.
This time, the focus is on the implementation and follow-up processes pertaining to decisions taken in Geneva.
It is expected that, for the first time, there will be a global agreement that addresses the crucial issue of Internet governance as an important part of public policy.
President Mbeki said these decisions should, as agreed in 2003, enable all stakeholders to work together, among other things, to improve access to information and communication infrastructure and technologies (ICTs).
They should also build capacity, increase confidence and security in the use of ICT, develop and widen ICT applications, foster and respect cultural diversity and encourage international and regional cooperation.
In this regard, Mr Mbeki welcomed the agreed position that Internet governance was an essential part of a “people-centred, inclusive, development-oriented and non-discriminatory information society”.
“We commit ourselves to the stability and security of the Internet as a global facility and to ensuring the requisite legitimacy of its governance, based on the full participation of all stakeholders,” said Mr Mbeki.
The President said the creation of an inclusive information society was in the interests of the majority of humanity because those from the developing countries were confronted by the challenge of exclusion in the global economy.
He said the challenge facing the world was to build multilateral and multi-stakeholder institutions and systems rooted within the United Nations system to ensure inclusive and equitable access to ICT.
“We also believe that we should move with the necessary speed to implement the agreement to utilise various technologies and licensing models, including those developed under both proprietary schemes and open source and free modalities to expedite access to ICTs and the elimination of the digital divide by fostering collaborative development, inter-operative platforms and free and open source software.
“Our country and continent are determined to do everything possible to achieve their renewal and development, defeating the twin scourges of poverty and underdevelopment,” he said.
The Summit ends on Friday
BuaNews
COMMENTS RECEIVED
18 November 2005
President Mbeki is getting a taste of what it feels like been excluded from development processes - Something most of us live with daily when it come to NEPAD!
Peter METCALFE
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