USE OF INTERNET AS TOOL FOR DEVELOPMENT REVIEWED AT NEW YORK SEMINAR

Representatives from 19 Permanent Missions

Of Spanish-speaking Member States Participate in Seminar Organized by DPI

The United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI) is holding a seminar on the theme “The Internet as a Tool for Development”, at United Nations Headquarters, from 12 to 16 March.

The seminar brings together more than 30 participants who will be responsible for creating and maintaining the presence of their Permanent Missions on the Internet.  They represent the Permanent Missions of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Uruguay and Venezuela.

The objective of the seminar is to promote the use of the Internet as a tool to make information from these Member States more widely available, and to help bridge the digital divide.  The participants will be trained to set up Web sites and use the sites to present activities of their Permanent Missions.  They will also be introduced to information resources on the United Nations system and other helpful resources on the Web.

In his Millennium Report, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan addressed the urgent need to overcome the digital divide between developed countries and developing countries.  The seminar reflects the importance attached by the United Nations to this issue. 

The seminar is being conducted by the Information Technology Section of DPI.  It is expected that 11 new Web sites will be created and eight existing ones will be further developed as a result of the seminar.  The United Nations Home Page (www.un.org) will bring all of these together by providing a link to each new site.

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