From the Newsroom
São Paulo – Tunisia is going to host between March 30 and April 2 next year the international information technology and communications fair, Intec, organized by company Promo Tunisia in association with the Tunisian Technology, Communications, and Transport Ministry. The event will take place some months before the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society to take place in Tunis, the country capital.
The telecommunications sector will be present at the fair (telephony, television, radio, satellite transmission, GPS, etc); computers and office equipment, including networks; radars for speed control, vigilance and air traffic control; electronic components and optic fibre.
According to Promo Tunisia, the event should attract visitors mainly from the Mediterranean region, the Middle East, and the Far East. The company is renting stand space, at prices ranging from US$ 150 per square metre, for a simple space, to US$ 220 per square metre for an equipped space. The span for registration will end on May 31.
Summit
In November 2005, the country will be hosting the second part of the World Summit on the Information Society, which began in Geneva, Switzerland, in December 2003, organized by the UN International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Participants in the event will include 176 countries, among them heads of state and government, and other authorities.
One of the main objectives of the summit is to develop actions to promote digital inclusion and access to information technology, telephony, Internet, radio, TV, etc. At the General meeting in Geneva a Declaration of Principles was elaborated, making participants promise to build an information society centred on people, one that is inclusive, oriented to development, where everyone can create, access, and exchange information and knowledge, permitting individuals, communities, and peoples to reach their maximum potential and promote sustainable development, increasing their quality of live, based on purposes and principles in the United Nations Letter, and respecting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The main challenge of this information society, according to the text, is to "use the potential of information and communications technologies to promote the development targets in the Millennium Declaration, eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, universalising primary education, promoting equality between men and women, reducing infant mortality, elevating maternal health standards, fighting against the HIV and AIDS viruses, malaria, and other infectious diseases, guaranteeing environmental sustainability, and development of global partnerships for a more peaceful, fairer and more prosperous world."
Action plan
From the meeting in Switzerland an Action Plan to implement the principles agreed on was also born. This document lists the targets to be reached by 2005, among them connecting settlings to information and communication technology (ICT) and establishing community access points; connecting universities, primary and secondary schools; scientific and research centres; public libraries, cultural centres, museums, post offices and archives; health centres and hospitals; all central government departments and locations, establishing internet sites and e-mail addresses; adapting school curricula to the challenges of the information society; guaranteeing that all populations have access to radio and TV; encouraging the developing content and creating technical conditions to simplify the presence and use of all languages on the internet; and guaranteeing that more than half the world population have access to ICT.
So as to reach these objectives, the text establishes various activities to be taken by governments, by private initiative, organizations in civil society, and international organizations, some to be presented by 2005 at the meeting in Tunis. Among them are the development of national strategies for the sector and the creation of at least one public-private partnership connected to the sector in each country participating.
At the meeting, the "relevant" international and financial institutions should present their own strategies for use of information and communication technology for sustained development.
UN secretary general Kofi Annan was put in charge of establishing a work group to study "internet governing," which should present action proposals at the event next year. An "agenda of digital solidarity" was also established, with the objective of creating conditions for "mobilization of human, financial, and technological resources, in favour of inclusion of all men and women in the emerging information society."
Despite the list of principles and actions being discussed in Geneva, the organizers of the summit stated that it is only the beginning of a long and complex process.
Preparatory meeting
Still in the first term of 2004 there should be preparatory meetings for the summit in Tunis, to evaluate the progress of items agreed on in the first meeting and establish a schedule for the second. Brazil may host a conference about the subject this year, according to information published in December by newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.
In the evaluation of Tunisian ambassador in Brasília, Hassine Bouzid, Brazil will have an important part in the meeting in Tunis. "The information technology sector is very important for Brazil and the country participated in all preparatory meetings for the conference in Geneva, and is also going to participate in the summit in Tunis," stated Bouzid to ANBA.
Definition of the Tunis schedule, however, is already under way. An informal meeting about the subject took place in Tunisia at the beginning of the month.
Contact
Intec
Promo Tunisia
Tel: (00–216 + 71) 58-4364
Fax: (00–216 + 71) 58-4355
e-mail: info@promotunisia.com.tn
World Summit on the Information Society
International Telecommunications Union
www.itu.int
Summit site
www.itu.int/wsis/
Summit site in Tunisia
www.smsitunis2005.org
