Preparations for UN-backed information summit make progress on final goals

Delegates preparing for a United Nations-backed conference on information technology later this year have agreed on a set of concrete targets to help bridge the digital divide between developed and developing countries.

Meeting in Geneva, the preparatory committee for the World Summit on the Information Society also decided today to reconvene from 10 to 14 November to continue negotiations on the draft Declaration of Principles and draft Plan of Action. Some of the issues that are still to be resolved include financing, Internet security and Internet governance.

"The Summit will be successful if it achieves three goals: raising awareness among world leaders of the implications of the information society; getting their firm commitment to tackle the injustice of the digital divide; and developing new legal and policy frameworks appropriate to cyberspace," said Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the lead UN agency organizing the Summit. "The importance of communications and access to networks is no longer just a technical matter, but a fundamental policy goal for every nation."

The Summit will be held in two phases, with the first running from 10 to 12 December in Geneva, and the second scheduled for 16 to 18 November 2005 in Tunisia.