PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRIME MINISTER OF ANDORRA

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRIME MINISTER OF ANDORRA

Prime Minister Marc Forné Molné of Andorra briefed correspondents at Headquarters this afternoon on a computer information system designed by his country to store documents of the Western European and Other States Group, to be officially presented tomorrow to the Working Group on Informatics, chaired by Ahmad Kamal (Pakistan). With the use of software designed by Andorra, the database will allow members of the Group to access documents of the Group from as far back as 1992.

According to a press release available at the press conference, Andorra was mandated in 1994 to put in digital format the archives of the Group. The Prime Minister's visit coincides with the implementation of that mandate, which also demonstrates the capacity of small States to promote activities related to United Nations reform.

The database would be created by "scanning" documents into a computer the day they were written, the Prime Minister said. The plan was based on Andorra's own information storage system and the database will be stored and maintained in computers in the office of the Andorran Mission to the United Nations. It could be accessed through the Intranet and it was also available on CD-ROM. In the future, the database would be accessed through the Internet, where it would be password protected.

In a meeting today with Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Prime Minister said he told the Secretary-General that he was happy to work with small and large countries at the United Nations to create improved information systems. In addition to the Western European and Other States Group, the database and software could be used by other United Nations bodies that were still storing documents in paper files.

The Prime Minister was joined in the press conference by the Permanent Representative of Andorra, Juli Minoves-Triquell. The Spokesman for the Secretary-General, Fred Eckhard, introduced the Prime Minister.

A correspondent asked if the Prime Minster hoped that United Nations reform measures being considered by the General Assembly would give small countries more of a voice in United Nations affairs. The Prime Minister said that Andorra had a record of peace that had lasted over seven centuries, and it should be able to share its national experiences with other countries.

In response to questions on what kind of documents would be held in the database, he responded that all documents issued by the Group would be collected in the database along with treaties and memorandums of understanding between countries in the Group. The database currently holds 7,000 documents, he added.

Andorra Press Conference - 2 - 27 May 1998

What other role did Andorra play at the United Nations? a correspondent asked. The Prime Minister said that Mr. Minoves-Triquell had been appointed to be a member of the Special Group on Iraq's presidential sites established as part of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the United Nations and Iraq on 23 February. That was the first time an Andorran had been chosen to take part in a body of the United Nations of such importance and it was an example of Andorra's increased role in the Organization.

Due to its booming economy, Andorra had been called the "Kuwait of Western Europe", a correspondent said. How had the development of the European Union affected Andorra's role in European Affairs? The Prime Minister said that Andorra's economy was very dependent on the European Union for many things, especially for the millions of tourists that come into the country each year. Andorra hoped to establish other business links with the European Union countries through more open trade laws and a diversified economy.

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