ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL CONTINUES HIGH-LEVEL SEGMENT ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Press Release
ECOSOC/5897

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL CONTINUES HIGH-LEVEL SEGMENT ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

The poor would only benefit from information and communication technology (ICT) if their governments were able to participate in the process of change as equal and well-informed partners with the more technologically advanced countries, Hartwig De Haen, Assistant Director-General, Economic and Social Department, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), told the Economic and Social Council this afternoon.

As the Council continued the High-Level segment of its 2000 substantive session, Mr. De Haen said the priority was to first understand the needs of the poor and to adapt information content so that it was directly or indirectly relevant to them. Second, information must be made accessible to those who could make the best use of it.

“If we want to circumvent the digital divide, or widen the access to relevant knowledge, our common aim must be to empower the poor with the knowledge they need to improve their livelihood”, he said.

Freedom of expression, access to information and the right to education were stressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the cornerstones of effective participation of citizens in civil society, Koichiro Matsura, Director- General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), said. Today, ICT had opened up unheard-of possibilities to implement those basic rights. Still, the question, what is the knowledge economy for? had to be answered. The aim must be to construct a "knowledge society", based on knowledge-sharing.

“We believe that the international community, especially the developed countries, should demonstrate the political will to pay more than just lip service to developing countries in the latter’s efforts to bridge the digital divide”, said China’s representative. That community should also take earnest steps to provide financial support and transfer technology to them and help them to improve education and train high-tech personnel.

Viet Nam's representative called for the promotion of technology transfer, capacity-building and human resources development, and identified the establishment of a strong linkage between ICT development and the common goals of reducing poverty and narrowing the development gap. “It is our immediate task to turn ICT into a powerful tool to achieve the goal of development for all. With

Economic and Social Council - 1a - Press Release ECOSOC/5897 14th Meeting (PM) 6 July 2000

the strong and concerted efforts of the entire world, that task could be fulfilled”, he said.

The representative of New Zealand noted that the opportunities ICT could offer had never been more apparent than in Small Island Developing States. Development there had been constrained by isolation and small internal markets, and those countries had lacked opportunities to promote themselves to the world at large. The use of ICT had led to the growth of new markets and increased revenue from areas such as tourism.

Statements were also made by the Secretary of State in charge of Post and New Information Technologies of Morocco; the Minister for Science and Technology of Pakistan; the Minister of Development of The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia; the Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland; the Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs of Iran; and the Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria.

The director-General of the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation, the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union and the President of the State Council of the Canton of Geneva, as well as a representative of Seikei and Teikyo University also addressed the Council.

The representatives of Mexico, Colombia, Japan and Bangladesh also spoke.

The Council will meet again at 10 a.m., Friday, 7 July, to continue the high-level segment of its 2000 substantive session.

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Economic and Social Council - 3 - Press Release ECOSOC/5897 14th Meeting (PM) 6 July 2000

Council Work Programme

The Economic and Social Council met this afternoon to continue its 2000 substantive session with the second day of its high-level segment for 5 to 7 July, addressing the main theme, “Development and International Cooperation in the Twenty-First Century; the Role of Information Technology in the Context of a Knowledge-based Global Economy”.

(For background on the session see Press Release ECOSOC/5892 issued 28 June.)

Statements

WALTER FUST, Director-General, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Permanent Observer Mission for Switzerland, said connectivity was a crucial factor for development, as it opened new markets and supported economic growth. The focus for governments, supported by the United Nations, should be the creation of an appropriate policy regulatory framework enabling private sector investment, promoting access, security and privacy in information and communication technology (ICT). Moreover, those governments and the Organization, in close cooperation with the private sector, civil society and developmental agencies, should commit themselves to undertaking special efforts to promote adequate solutions for marginal areas and social groups.

He also expressed support for a paradigm shift from individual to community connectivity, particularly in those areas marginalized by globalization. The very selective translation of relevant information into useful knowledge was essential. In addition, the values dimension of that knowledge, as well as its sharing and good governance, must be considered. It was vital to promote diversity -- especially in the areas of culture and language -- to avoid further exclusions. Local content had to flow into the networks. The needs of local populations and marginal groups had to be reflected. Special attention also had to be given to specific needs of women, as well as to those of particularly vulnerable groups such as disabled people.

“We need more solution- and demand-oriented platforms in the South, promoting empowerment and exchanges within the regions”, he said. In conclusion he informed the Council that his Government had asked him to express its readiness to host a “a world summit on the information society” in Geneva in 2003.

ROGELIO MARTINEZ, Chief Advisor to the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, said ICT had suddenly become a key to gaining access to the new knowledge- based global economy. Approaches that both incorporated developing countries into that new economy and eradicated poverty had become the main engine of the new economy. Those approaches were geared to addressing a number of basic challenges. First, they required adjustment of development policies to ensure the best use of available knowledge by such means as the strengthening of cultural diversity. Second, they require development of strategies that benefit sectors participating in the economy at all levels. Finally, they require development of policies leading to the closing of the knowledge gap both nationally and at the international scale by a focus on developing human resources and skills.

The world economy showed large gaps between those having access to the new economy and those being marginalized, he said. Challenges to governments included broadening of educational opportunities, promotion of polices supportive of trade and support of public policies to promote research and development. The Council could be critically helpful to them in maximizing development potential by providing a global forum for guiding the technological revolution in a manner that balanced technological progress with developmental considerations. It could also promote partnerships that benefited all parties and could help strengthen capacities for developing technologies, particularly in the developing countries, by including all components of the United Nations system.

LARBI AJJOUL, Secretary of State in Charge of Post and New Information Technologies of Morocco, said that so far, all speakers had unanimously stressed that ICT in itself was not a solution to problems, but rather an integral part of an unfair global economic structure. That called for a new consensus based on economic growth and the integration of developing countries into the global economy.

The international community must therefore think of concrete strategies and approaches to integrate all countries of the world into the digital era. In that light, the United Nations proposal for a team of special experts to provide advice on the role of ICT in development should be endorsed. Also, the Secretary- General’s suggestion of a fund to bridge the digital divide should be welcomed. Technical assistance, official development assistance (ODA) and the easing of debt were all factors that were important in the thrust to integrate the poorer countries into the new information era.

He stressed the need to submit, for the consideration of decision makers at the forthcoming Millennium Summit, the various suggestions and recommendations made during the current substantive session. He hoped the Summit would adopt an inclusive strategy to mobilize the necessary resources to reduce the digital divide.

ATTA-UR-RAHMAN, Minister for Science and Technology of Pakistan, said that when the leaders of the South had met last April in Havana, they had unanimously expressed their conviction to create a new spirit of international cooperation based on the principle of equity, shared benefits and common but differentiated responsibilities between the developing and developed countries.

At the Summit, the Chief Executive of Pakistan had declared his intention to establish a South Institute of Information Technology in Pakistan. The process for the establishment of the institute had already started. Pakistan had enhanced its budget for the development of science and technology by 12,000 per cent.

Pakistan, like many other developing countries, had endeavoured to strategically place itself so that it could benefit from the immense potential of information and communication technology, he said. Those policies and efforts were highly unlikely to yield the desired results without the commensurate international effort to place ICT at the service of development.

TRAJKO SLAVESKI, Minister of Development of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, said information and knowledge had emerged as a strategic factor of economic and social progress. The ICT and Internet-related sector created new types of workers and working places, decreased unemployment, and increased gross domestic product and the level of technological development. It was important that developing countries and countries with economies in transition created appropriate conditions for promotion of ICT, but it was even more important that the international community put forward a solid effort in incorporating those countries in the global knowledge-based economy.

At the national level, he said each government should mobilize the necessary resources for ICT development using entry points such as education, health, governance and e-commerce, he said. In the area of connectivity, governments must ensure that there were appropriate material and physical access to the global information infrastructure and services even for the most remote areas. There should be appropriate investment in human and institutional capacities, and governments ought to pursue application of information technologies in public institutions such as schools, hospitals and libraries.

His Government had established a special Department for Informatics within the Ministry of Science, with the main purpose of increasing the level of “informatization” of the Government's ministries and other State institutions, and at the same time creating conditions for a higher presentation of ICT in education and in the private sector. The number of Internet connections in the country was rapidly increasing, but there was a lack of personal computers, and access to the Internet carried a relatively high price.

He said the international community, and in particular the United Nations system, had to help the creation of conditions for using the benefits of globalization for all the countries in the world. Allowing free and full transfer of ICT from developed countries to the developing countries and countries with economies in transition was one of the most important things.

MARTHA RODRIGUEZ, High Level Director for the Connectivity Agenda in Colombia, said that her country had integrated information technologies into its development model, and had committed itself to increase digital opportunities through the development of concrete strategies and activities in Latin America, as a signatory to the Florianopolis declaration.

Colombia's State connectivity policy, she said, focused its efforts on the community, the productive sector and the State, in promoting and facilitating the use of ICT. For the first in those sectors, Colombia had started installing community access centres in all municipalities, along with awareness and training programmes. In the productive sector, the information technologies industry should be assisted through a positive business environment that increased competition and productivity. Finally, content in Spanish should be developed, and information technologies should be used to improve State efficiency, transparency and ability to provide for the needs of the citizenry.

The international community could assist developing nations in such efforts through cooperating in technology transfer and exploring new financing strategies, she said. It should not be forgotten that the ultimate goal was not increasing the use of technology, but eradicating poverty.

JERZY KRANZ, Under-Secretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland, said that for countries like his, globalization and new technologies offered a chance to catch up to more developed nations. But this, he said, could not be accomplished without cost. Economic and social structures had to be reformed. Skills had supplanted labour in importance -- young and better educated people had begun to dominate the labour market to the detriment of those suited to the old economy.

The less advanced countries welcomed both technical assistance and infrastructure investment, in order to make sure those costly changes reaped rewards, he said. As national efforts were required to improve infrastructure, good governance would also play a key role. At the same time, transnational corporations and supra-national institutions should also be involved in the effort to make the changes successful in a way that benefited society.

He hoped that the United Nations could assist in the technical area, and was pleased with the Secretary-General's "UNITeS" initiative. He hoped that mobilization of new financial resources was within its purview. They also saw an important role for the Economic Commission of Europe, as a focal point for discussions of ICT impact on economies in transition. What was clear, he concluded, was that to achieve equitable distribution of the goods of ICT, political will at the highest levels was needed.

MOHAMMAD JAVAD ZARIF, Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs of Iran, said the tremendous potentials of ICT could be developed only through a programme of action based on cooperation and partnership at both national and international levels. At the national level, that involved developing a particular national vision, mustering the necessary political will, formulating a national strategic framework, establishing national priorities and providing an environment conducive to the diffusion, development and use of ICT. All related efforts and programmes should be integrated in a coherent national development strategy.

At the international level, he continued, the United Nations system should assist the developing world in integrating into the networked knowledge-based global economy. That could be done by assisting in such areas as providing secure and reliable connectivity, developing human and institutional capacity and developing content reflective of global diversity. The United Nations was central to achieving connectivity and maximizing the opportunities of ICT because it enjoyed a singularly global position in promoting consensus, building partnerships and harmonizing divergent interests.

An ICT task force should be established, he said. The Economic and Social Council should continue reviewing the subsidiary bodies dealing with ICT and resources for ICT development should be mobilized. Finally, 1 per cent of each developing country’s debt should be written off as an incentive for pursuing national endeavours.

VASSILY TAKEV, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, said that without the concerted efforts of the international community, and especially the policy guidance and coordinating activities of the Council, the digital divide between developed and developing countries and regions would inevitably widen. The current session, building on the proposals and recommendations of panel discussions already held on the issue of ICT, would provide a significant contribution towards the elaboration of a common vision.

He said his country fully agreed with the necessity of identifying adequate steps and actions at national and regional levels in order to ensure an environment that was favourable to rapid development, distribution and use of information technologies. Understanding the importance of ICT for the economic development of his country and its full integration into the world economy, his Government had adopted a National Information Society Strategy, which was already in the process of implementation. The main thrust of that strategy was to meet the major technological challenges for the purpose of prosperity.

KOICHIRO MATSUURA, Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), said his organization was mandated to promote the "free exchange of ideas and knowledge" and to "maintain, increase and diffuse knowledge". The emergence of a global knowledge-based economy, based on ICT, made the fundamental mission of UNESCO more topical than ever.

Freedom of expression, access to information and the right to education were stressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the cornerstones of effective participation of citizens in civil society, he said. Today, ICT had opened up unheard-of possibilities to implement those basic rights. Still, the question of what the knowledge economy was for had to be answered. The aim must be to construct a "knowledge society", based on knowledge-sharing.

Within the community of international organizations seeking to bridge the digital divide, UNESCO could offer an essential contribution. Its natural partners were the very professional communities that produced, disseminated, processed and conserved information and knowledge: teachers, scientists, journalists, researchers, librarians, archivists and artists. They were vital intermediaries with all segments of society. The UNESCO undertook to use its links with its professional partners to reach those who were unreached by ICT: the rural populations, the urban poor, the illiterate and the marginalized.

Equally important was UNESCO's role in promoting the use of ICT in informal education and in lifelong learning. It was a matter of providing education enabling people to adapt to the knowledge society. Developing countries and their educational communities needed wide access to ICT for education and educational content produced with public funds.

The international community, especially the United Nations system, should work to promote the sharing of educational experience and courseware and to make widely available educational material in the public domain. The UNESCO had proposed a "World Education Portal", a worldwide recognized reference Web site. Moreover, it had launched a number of pilot activities such as multi-purpose community information centres, including community radios linked with the Internet.

Other key concerns of UNESCO were the issues of cultural and linguistic diversity, freedom of expression on the Internet and the threat to privacy. In that context, UNESCO's new intergovernmental Information for All programme would provide a platform for international collaboration and partnerships on information access and on the ethical, legal and social impact of ICT, he said.

YUKIO SATOH (Japan) said that in order for ICT to help make the world a better place, it had to be used in a way that created digital opportunities for people in every country -- developed and developing. While ICT had the potential to provide valuable opportunities for development, the digital divide remained a concern for all in the emerging information society. The international community had to provide concerted support for the use of ICT by developing countries, with the private sector in developed countries assuming a vitally import role. The assumption of ownership by developing countries was critical in elaborating a strategy enabling developing countries to ride the ICT wave.

He reviewed a series of initiatives his country had taken to promote international cooperation using ICT in development, outlining a number of steps it would continue to take. Those included an announcement at the upcoming Kyushu- Okinawa Summit of a comprehensive cooperation package promoting use of ICT in developing countries with an emphasis on four policy dimensions: intellectual assistance for policy and system building; human capacity-building through training and education; infrastructure building and networking; and the use of ICT in development assistance.

WANG YINGFAN (China) said every country should conform to history and take strong measures to grasp the opportunities for development brought about by "informatization". Second, the international community should create a favourable external environment for developing countries to upgrade their “informatization” levels.

“We believe that the international community, especially the developed countries, should demonstrate the political will to pay more than just lip service to developing countries in the latter’s efforts to bridge the digital divide”, he said. That community should also take earnest steps to provide financial support and transfer technology to them and help them to improve education and train high- tech personnel.

He said developing countries should also help developed countries to possess information technology and not just become users of equipment. At the same time developing countries should explore new ideas and ways for South-South cooperation in high tech fields such as ICT. In addition, the United Nations should play a crucial role in actively and effectively guiding and coordinating the promotion of ICT for development. The Organization should become an important governmental forum for exchanging experiences and promoting international cooperation in the field of ICT, as well as a major multilateral institution for formulating relevant laws and technical standards.

MICHAEL POWLES (New Zealand) said the ICT revolution was not yet a global revolution, since half the world's population had never made or received a telephone call and nearly 90 per cent of all Internet users lived in industrialized countries. The ICT was not the panacea for the world's problems, as there was a need to address basic human development needs such as eradicating poverty and providing basic education, health services and shelter. The ICT could, however, contribute to meeting those basic needs and provide the opportunity from that basis for speedy and sustainable development.

Those opportunities were never more apparent than for Small Island Developing States. Development there had been constrained by isolation and small internal markets and those countries had lacked opportunities to promote themselves to the world at large. The use of ICT, in the form of Web pages, Internet based marketing and other activities, had led to the growth of new markets and increased revenue from areas such as tourism. ICT had also been crucial in opening up educational opportunities through distance learning programmes and access to information.

The opportunities for South-South partnerships were enormous in ICT for development. It would be important that the many skilled workers from the South who were currently employed by technology companies in the North could have the opportunity to contribute back to their countries of origin. Everything possible must be done to ensure that ICT did not become another area in which a modern innovation exacerbated division and inequity. Rather, it should become one in which technology was used for improving the lives of all people, he said.

ANWARUL KARIM CHOWDHURY (Bangladesh) said there were a number of requirements for developing countries to benefit from ICT. First, national governments needed to establish legal and regulatory frameworks to support ICT development. The developing countries had to identify priority ICT sectors for themselves, whether it was poverty alleviation or providing better education.

Further, he said, the United Nations had to coordinate global efforts to bridge the digital divide. Education, knowledge and expertise should benefit from ICT. Finally, resources should be mobilized for broadening and extending the global networked economy in the developing world. That would benefit both the developed and developing countries by accelerating global growth.

NGUYEN THANH CHAU (Viet Nam) said access for all was a key for ensuring the effectiveness and sustainability of ICT's contribution to development for all. Translating that into reality meant, however, that comprehensive and decisive efforts must be made. Given their limited resources and very low levels of development, developing countries faced a lot of difficulties in promoting ICT development. International cooperation with more concrete measures therefore constituted an essential factor for the success of any venture by a developing country. In that respect, there was need for joint action to reverse the ongoing downward trend of ODA.

He called for the promotion of technology transfer, capacity-building and human resources development, and identified the establishment of a strong linkage between ICT development and the common goals of reducing poverty and narrowing the development gap. Poverty and inequality among and within countries still existed and was growing. “It is our immediate task to turn ICT into a powerful tool to achieve the goal of development for all. With the strong and concerted efforts of the entire world that task could fulfilled”, he said.

HARTWIG DE HAEN, Assistant Director-General, Economic and Social Department, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said “we must not simply call for more access to the Internet and to the information it makes available through conventional search engines”. The ICT was just a means to access information and perhaps too much emphasis was placed on the provision of connectivity and computers. Even where access to the Internet was available, users were often overwhelmed with the volume of information, which they could not easily translate into action to improve their lives. The FAO’s experience suggested that more attention needed to be given to two key aspects: capacity-building for effective information management and the generation of relevant content that was indirectly or even directly useful for the poor, the food insecure and those vulnerable to disasters.

He said that in trying to identify priority actions, there was a need to put “ourselves in the situation of a resource-poor family in a developing country”. Would a workstation with Internet connection in their home help them? The answer was “probably not as a high priority”. The priority was first to understand the needs of the poor and food insecure and to adapt information content so that it was directly or indirectly relevant to them; and second, to ensure that the information was accessible to those who could make the best use of it. “If we want to circumvent the digital divide, or, more generally, if we want to widen access to relevant knowledge, our common aim must be to empower the poor with the knowledge they need to improve their livelihood”, he said.

He said governments had an important role to play in reaching agreement on common ICT standards that could facilitate the participation of developing countries in the global information age. Governments of developing countries might also need capacity-building assistance to ensure the necessary legal and infrastructure framework was in place so that key private and public agents, such as agricultural research and extension agencies and commercial marketing firms, could make use of the opportunities offered by modern information technologies. Wherever ICT systems were developed and agreements reached, the poor would only benefit if their governments were able to participate in the process of change as equal and well-informed partners along with the more technologically advanced countries.

YOSHIO UTSUMI, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), said there was a great divide between the North and South in access to basic telecommunication services. That was demonstrated by the discrepancy that one third of the world’s people shared less than 4 per cent of the world’s telephone lines. For a large portion of the world, telephone lines were not even within walking distance. One objective of the ITU was to provide technical assistance in bringing telephone communications to people. In the future, the emphasis would be on providing practical assistance and consultation based on a broader dissemination of best practices experience.

The ITU could help countries, but they had to help themselves first, he said. They had to integrate themselves into markets and ensure they provided the best possible systems for telecommunications development. For that, they were reliant on the private sector. With cooperation, however, telecommunications systems could grow rapidly in countries if certain conditions were met. Policies guaranteeing universal access had to be instituted and markets had to be opened.

He said the cost of Internet services was higher in the South than the North, in part because connectivity costs were higher in the South. Once lease lines were laid, the traffic went both ways between developing and developed countries, but the former paid more. Addressing that issue was one key for bridging the digital gap. National regulators needed to work together for transparency in the rates of lease lines and more equitable costs for lease lines should be established. A plan of action could be worked out.

GUY-OLIVIER SEGOND, President of the State Council of the Canton of Geneva, said 91 per cent of Internet users were in the North. How then could the people of the South be made aware of the new technology and given access to it. In trying to answer those questions, two meetings which focused on Africa had been held. The first, held in 1996 in Geneva, had focused on launching activities designed to ensure the full participation of civil society in debates on ICT. Some 1,500 actors had attended the second meeting, held earlier this year in Bamako.

At Bamako 200O, it had been agreed that the information society could not be established from the top down. The need to genuinely involve the South in that society was also stressed. The real information society must also give a true place to women who were the pillars of society, the economy and the main elements in education, health, nutrition and in the transmission of educational and cultural values.

He said that perhaps Bamako 2000 and the current substantive Council session of 2000 would be followed by a world summit. That Summit should ideally respond to how an information society works in the area of technology and what its use vis-à-vis content was. The summit should also debate the issue of providing universal access to information with universal respect for law and order.

RYOKICHI HIRONO, Seikei and Teikyo University, said the results of a two-day International Symposium on Information Technology and Development Cooperation, organized by his country, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank had shown that the digital divide could be turned into digital opportunity if the digital breach were crossed.

Developing countries needed to establish and integrate a national ICT development strategy into a national economic and social development plan, he said. That should be undertaken on an urgent basis and should be translated into action without delay. The strategy should formulate concrete policy measures to improve the country’s competitiveness in the world market. It should include a commitment on the part of all stakeholders to an internationally agreed intellectual property rights regime, as well as a balance between incentives and rewards to the private sector and insurance of access.

The international community, he continued, should form partnerships with the private sector, with non-governmental organizations, foundations and other stakeholders in redoubling efforts to reach international consensus and agreement on international rules governing ICT, ICT-related services and electronic-commerce -- not only in technical and trade dimensions but in social and ethical ones. On the basis of developing country ownership, priorities and approaches, bilateral and multilateral donors should enhance their assistance to those development areas that were targeted toward using ICT for development.

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