Finnish information society on display in Tunisia
Press release 353/2005
14 November, 2005
The second phase of the UN World Summit on the Information Society will begin in Tunisia on Wednesday. In connection with the Summit to be held in the capital of the country, Tunis, on 16 - 18 November, there will also be an extensive exhibition related to information society, and information and communication technologies. The displayers on the Finnish section will include, among others, Finnish universities and certain towns with their e-programs. Well over ten thousand people will participate in the parallel events organised during the Summit. The European Union and other countries representing the Western group of participants have on several occasions emphatically expressed their demand that all sectors of society, also representatives of the civil society, should be free to participate in the events.
The Finnish delegation will be chaired by Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Mari Kiviniemi and the vice chair will be Minister of Transport and Communications Susanna Huovinen. The delegation will also include President Martti Ahtisaari, who will participate in a panel discussion about the meaning of information and communication technologies in prevention of conflicts and crisis management, to be organised in connection with the Summit.
The first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society was held in Geneva in December 2003. It approved the Declaration of Principles and an extensive Plan of Action aiming at harnessing the information and communication technologies to implementation of the UN Millennium Goals in every way.
In the second phase, the goal is to agree on the implementation and follow-up of the action plan drafted in Geneva. In addition, also the questions related to financial mechanisms and Internet governance that could not be solved in the Geneva Summit were postponed to the second phase. The Tunis Summit has been prepared in three Preparatory Committee Meetings, the last of which is currently being held in Tunis. On Monday, the most difficult issues on the agenda concerning the Internet governance as well as arrangement of the implementation and the follow-up of the Summit results were still open.
Additional information: Counsellor (of Foreign Affairs) Yrjö Länsipuro, GSM +358 40 7544 448
the UN World Summit on the Information Society(Link to another website.)