United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has asked world leaders assembled in Geneva for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) to devise ways of closing the digital divide, which he referred to as one of the biggest non-tariff barriers to world trade.
Addressing heads of government and civil society representatives at the opening of WSIS, Annan said that information and communication technologies (ICTs) should be used to improve the lives of all people.
‘We are familiar with the extraordinary power of information and communication technologies. From trade to telemedicine, from education to environmental protection. We have in our hands, on our desktops and in the skies above, the ability to improve standards of living for millions upon millions of people,” he said.
But the digital divide was making it impossible to effectively use ICTs to improve the lives of some people. ‘There is a technological divide – great gaps in infrastructure. There is a content divide,” Annan said. ‘A lot of Web-based information is simply not relevant to the real needs of people.”
He said nearly 70% of the world’s websites are in English, ‘at times crowding out local voices and views”.
The UN head said an open, inclusive information society that benefits all people would not emerge without sustained commitment and investment. The business community, civil society and media organisations are also required to play a big role in ensuring more people in the world benefit from the information revolution.
After Annan had delivered his speech, a number of world leaders addressed the Summit, expounding on their visions for an information society, what their countries have done to promote the use and affordability of ICTs, and what they proposed should be done by the world community.
Pascal Couchepin, the President of the Swiss Confederation, and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the President of Tunisia, also addressed the conference. In 2005 Tunisia will host the second phase of WSIS, which will review the progress made in implementing the Plan of Action to be adopted in Geneva.
Yoshio Utsumi, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Secretary-General, appealed to world leaders to share the benefits of ICTs with the most impoverished economies, and to shape their use for a better world.
‘Too many people in the world are deprived of access to information and to the tools for accessing it. Until we address the injustices of the digital divide, we cannot embrace the promise of cyberspace with a clear conscience,” he said. — Hana