http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051116/wl_afp/unsummitit_051116123859
TUNIS (AFP) - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and mainly African and Latin American government leaders began a summit here to try to make the Internet and modern telecoms "bridges for a better life" in poor countries.
Annan warned Wednesday that the 170 countries and some 23,000 scheduled participants from government and industry at the World Summit on the Information Society that "for far too many people, the gains remain out of reach".
"There is a tremendous yearning, not for technology per se, but for what technology can make possible," he said at the opening ceremony, urging participants to "respond to that thirst".
"This summit must be a summit of solutions," he added.
Host President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali said: "We hope the summit will mark a truly new beginning for a just, balanced and supportive information society."
The gathering's ambition to boost economic and social development in poor countries revolves around a pledge under the UN's Millennium Development Goals to connect all the villages of the world to the Internet by 2015.
"It is striking that the 400,000 citizens of Luxembourg have more Internet access than the 800 million residents in Africa," UN Under Secretary for Communications Shashi Tharoor told reporters.
"We need to scale up what exists in Africa, in various parts of Asia. There has been remarkable progress in China and that's a reflection of the booming economy there, there's been less of that progress elsewhere," Tharoor added.
Some 800,000 "villages" predominantly in poor countries, still need to be connected in the next decade, according to the UN's International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which is organising the summit with Tunisia.
The cost of the effort, one billion dollars, represents one percent of the annual global investment in mobile telephone connections.
"The hurdle here is more political than financial," Annan told the summit Wednesday.
"These assets -- these bridges to a better life -- can be made universally affordable and accessible. We must summon the will to do it," he added.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Senegalese counterpart Abdoulaye Wade were due to appeal for more backing for an innovative "Digital Solidarity Fund" that has so far garnered 5.5 million euros.
The fund for local IT projects with a clear social and economic benefit in poor countries aims to get part of its funding from a one percent levy on computer and telecoms purchases by public and private sector members.
That has now been recognised in the summit a complementary means of finance.
However, rich nations believe that developing nations must also develop the business and regulatory environment in their own countries to attract private investment and some existing aid.
"The challenge to the developing world is now to make sure they have the infrastructure, rules, legal processes and the market systems to attract the investment of the technologies that we see on display at the summit," said US Assistant Secretary for Commerce Michael Gallagher.
"That's very much a message of optimism, of opportunity," he added.
No major Western leaders were expected to hear the renewed call to support poor countries, as European states and the United States opted for lower level representation, according to the list of participants
African countries were due to dominate the top-flight political attendance with Obasanjo, Wade and Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was also due to fly to Tunis.
Meanwhile, Tunisian authorities said that two suspects were being questioned by an investigating magistrate in connection with the assault Friday of a French journalist who was investigating human rights issues in Tunisia.
The incident revived protests from human right groups and Western diplomats about Tunisia's record on freedom of speech.
TUNIS (AFP) - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and mainly African and Latin American government leaders began a summit here to try to make the Internet and modern telecoms "bridges for a better life" in poor countries.
Annan warned Wednesday that the 170 countries and some 23,000 scheduled participants from government and industry at the World Summit on the Information Society that "for far too many people, the gains remain out of reach".
"There is a tremendous yearning, not for technology per se, but for what technology can make possible," he said at the opening ceremony, urging participants to "respond to that thirst".
"This summit must be a summit of solutions," he added.
Host President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali said: "We hope the summit will mark a truly new beginning for a just, balanced and supportive information society."
The gathering's ambition to boost economic and social development in poor countries revolves around a pledge under the UN's Millennium Development Goals to connect all the villages of the world to the Internet by 2015.
"It is striking that the 400,000 citizens of Luxembourg have more Internet access than the 800 million residents in Africa," UN Under Secretary for Communications Shashi Tharoor told reporters.
"We need to scale up what exists in Africa, in various parts of Asia. There has been remarkable progress in China and that's a reflection of the booming economy there, there's been less of that progress elsewhere," Tharoor added.
Some 800,000 "villages" predominantly in poor countries, still need to be connected in the next decade, according to the UN's International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which is organising the summit with Tunisia.
The cost of the effort, one billion dollars, represents one percent of the annual global investment in mobile telephone connections.
"The hurdle here is more political than financial," Annan told the summit Wednesday.
"These assets -- these bridges to a better life -- can be made universally affordable and accessible. We must summon the will to do it," he added.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Senegalese counterpart Abdoulaye Wade were due to appeal for more backing for an innovative "Digital Solidarity Fund" that has so far garnered 5.5 million euros.
The fund for local IT projects with a clear social and economic benefit in poor countries aims to get part of its funding from a one percent levy on computer and telecoms purchases by public and private sector members.
That has now been recognised in the summit a complementary means of finance.
However, rich nations believe that developing nations must also develop the business and regulatory environment in their own countries to attract private investment and some existing aid.
"The challenge to the developing world is now to make sure they have the infrastructure, rules, legal processes and the market systems to attract the investment of the technologies that we see on display at the summit," said US Assistant Secretary for Commerce Michael Gallagher.
"That's very much a message of optimism, of opportunity," he added.
No major Western leaders were expected to hear the renewed call to support poor countries, as European states and the United States opted for lower level representation, according to the list of participants
African countries were due to dominate the top-flight political attendance with Obasanjo, Wade and Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was also due to fly to Tunis.
Meanwhile, Tunisian authorities said that two suspects were being questioned by an investigating magistrate in connection with the assault Friday of a French journalist who was investigating human rights issues in Tunisia.
The incident revived protests from human right groups and Western diplomats about Tunisia's record on freedom of speech.
