AMMAN – The international dialogue on nations’ preparedeness for electronic communications opened the day before yesterday at the meetings hall of the German Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin. The meetings were organized in order to develop capabilities to contribute to the connected global economic society, and took place at the invitation of the federal German government, the World Bank, the G8 Digital Working Group and the MIT Program for International Cooperation.
Participating in the dialogue was an elite group of leaders and IT and telecommunications experts in governments, international organizations and the European market. The German government welcomed the gathering with a speech by the general director of the Ministry of Economy and another by the secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The dialogue sessions opened with two major speeches. The first was by Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, on behalf of the United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force (UN ICT TF), and the second was by Mr. Peter Fobke on behalf of the World Bank.
In his speech, Abu-Ghazaleh explained the role of the UN ICT TF in leading and coordinating international efforts to bridge the digital gap, stating that the important efforts of the World Bank and the IT team affiliated with the G8 and others, requires a coordinating body that is characterized with legitimacy, comprehensiveness, neutrality and credibility, which are all represented in the UN.
He added that this taskforce is the first experience of its kind in the history of the UN, as it includes representatives from 18 countries, eight representatives from the global private sector, six international organizations and four civil society establishments that are all represented at the highest levels.
Abu-Ghazaleh announced that the experience has proved its success as a partnership between all sectors of society concerned with IT and telecommunications. He presented the programs of the Working Group on Human Resources and Capacity Building (HRCB) of the UN ICT TF that he chairs as an example of this. This group is primarily concerned with three main axes, relating to IT and telecommunications in the service of education, health and their particular applications.
Leading each of these axes will be UNESCO, the World Health Organization and the IT taskforce of the G8.
As for the UN ICT TF goals, Abu-Ghazaleh emphasized that the taskforce will not repeat or compete with any international efforts, but rather will work as a coordinator and caretaker of all endeavors with the aim of achieving integration and collaboration worldwide.
Abu-Ghazaleh conveyed the greetings of the UN to the participants, in addition to the regards of the Arab group that convened its inaugural meeting in Amman, Jordan on January 13, 2002, and which resulted in the creation of the Arab Regional Network of the UN ICT TF. At this meeting, Karim Kawar was elected as general coordinator for the Arab organization. Kawar participated at the Berlin dialogue in a session on how to build capacities and create knowledge and participate in it. This is a topic that represents the assignment of one of the taskforces of the G8 IT and telecommunications working group.
Abu-Ghazaleh expressed his optimism that the world will be able to bridge the digital gap, after it failed to bridge the gap between the rich and poor. He stated that this optimism emanated from the fact that it is in the interest of the whole world to achieve this because advanced nations need all peoples of the world to be connected and a be part of the global electronic commercial market, and the developing world needs to be a part of that market.
Abu-Ghazaleh stressed the need to create partnerships with the education sector in the field of IT and telecommunications similar to what took place with the Abu-Ghazaleh Cambridge program to grant a certificate in IT skills. He also emphasized the need to utilize the commonly used languages in the field of IT and telecommunications if there is a desire to create a unified knowledge-based world and a connected information society, as this cannot happen without using the important languages including Arabic, per Abu-Ghazaleh.