The work of the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), in which 170 participating countries approved a Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action terminated on 12 December, in Geneva.
These two documents congregate a set of measures with a view to, in the second phase of the WISIS that will take place in Tunes (Tunisia), in 2005, diminish the digital divide between the developed countries and the developing countries. Therefore, the Declaration of Principles emphasizes the importance of the new information and communication technologies (ICT) for the growth of the developing countries economy, drawing up attention to the prevailing role that the governments must have, in special concerning the generalization access to ICT . In that sense, Kofi Annan declared that ?the future of the information technology sector relies less on the developed world, where the markets are saturated, than developing world, where thousands of individuals are still not embraced by the computer revolution?.
The Plan of Action conceives among other measures, the creation of a working group to study the Internet control and the financing of the ICT in the developing countries. In this scope, the discussion in the Summit consisted in the creation of a Digital Solidarity Fund for the financing of the ICT implementation projects in the developing countries, which did not bring up consensus amongst the participating countries. However, at end of the Summit work, the cities of Geneva and Lyon and the Government of Senegal have announced contributions, totalling 1 million of euros, to finance ICT projects in the developing countries.
Other initiatives approved in this Summit directed to the needs of developing countries, were: the decision from the United States of America Government financing the ICT sector, with a total of 400 000 dollars; the Agreement Memorandum between ITU and Cisco for the opening of more than 20 Internet training centers; the announcement by Hewlett-Packard offering low cost products with a view to surpass the ICT ?illiteracy? barrier.
Jose Luis Arnaut, Assistant Minister to the Prime-Minister, representing Portugal, stated that the future regulation of the new technologies will have to honour the principle of the Human Rights Charter, and at same time establishe a freedom development factor in the heart of the societies. The Minister still defended the importance of the Portuguese language at that level, in particular through the promotion of Portuguese related contents in the Internet. Also pointed out the importance of several pilot-projects in progress in Portugal at Information Society level, namely, world?s first ?Virtual Campus? project, and ?Citizen Site?, in which the ICP-ANACOM also participates.
Consult:
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Declaração de Princípios
(PDF 211 KB)
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Plano de Acção
(PDF 315 KB)
Further information:
- WSIS http://www.itu.int/wsis/
- Portal do Governo (UK) http://www.portugal.gov.pt/en.aspx
Related information on ANACOM's website:
- Portugal at the World Summit on the Information Society https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=147141
