Note to Correspondents

SECOND COMMITTEE PANEL ON ELECTRONIC GOVERNMENT TO BE HELD IN NEW YORK, 3 NOVEMBER

A panel on E-Government for Participation and Inclusion -- a special event of the General Assembly’s Second Committee -- will be held at United Nations Headquarters on Friday, 3 November, in Conference Room 2, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The goal of the meeting is to further the thinking of the United Nations on “e-participation” and “e-inclusion” by exploring and identifying issues and challenges facing both Governments and citizens in their quest towards how to devise information and communication technology-led participatory and inclusive policies and programmes.

“Social inclusion and participatory governance is possible only if political, economic, technological and social barriers are removed and access to opportunities from information and communication technology is equitably distributed,” said Guido Bertucci, Director of the Division for Public Administration and Development Management of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, one of the speakers at the event.

The panel will bring together international and national experts and practitioners -- including representatives from the Republic of Korea, Mexico and Estonia -- to review approaches worldwide and analyze the structural and process changes associated with participatory and inclusive approaches to information and communication technology development programmes.  Discussions will deal with issues facing countries as they advance in developing their e-government programmes, thus contributing to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.  The focus will be on the transfer and exchange of ideas on e-participation and e-inclusion within the context of e-government among different groups, including United Nations delegates, non-governmental organizations, academia and the privates sector.

The event is organized by the Division for Public Administration and Development Management of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

For further information, please visit www.unpan.org/directory/conference/guest/browseoneconference.asp?conference_id=2008, or contact Haiyan Qian at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, tel: 212 963 3393, e-mail: qian@un.org.

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For information media • not an official record