By Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA, Sep 12 2003 (IPS)

Preparations for the U.N.-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) – with its ambitious objective of providing all peoples of the world with access to communication technologies – will enter their final phase Monday overshadowed by difficulties, admit the officials involved.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the summit must foment the creative use of technologies in order to improve the quality of life in developing countries.

But there are great disparities between industrialised and developing countries when it comes to access to the new information and communication technologies (ICTs), as well as their application – a phenomenon known as the "digital divide".

Maurice Strong, a Canadian veteran of the international community, says concerns are piling up in the preparatory efforts for the WSIS, to take place in Geneva, Dec. 10-12.

One of the worries is related to the policy document being drawn up for signatures at the WSIS. Critics point to the length of the draft declaration and to the vagueness of the plan of action, issues to be taken up at the third and final preparatory committee meeting to begin here Monday.

Strong, who organised the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, noted that all parties involved in the summit place great importance on the content of these texts, but that many people "are tired" of the terminology employed in the United Nations conferences.

Yoshio Utsumi, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a U.N. agency and host organisation for the WSIS, cited figures that reflect how dramatic these differences are.

The activities surrounding the creation, processing and dissemination of information represent more than 80 percent of jobs in industrialised countries, he said.

Meanwhile, there are 1.5 million towns around the world that are still completely unconnected to what has become known as "the information society", said Utsumi.

The U.N., through the WSIS, is taking up an in-depth assessment of the issue for the first time, so it is understandable that Strong and other participants in this preparatory conference are expressing concerns, Nitin Desai, Annan’s special adviser for the summit.

"At this stage you always have this nervousness" among the participants, who are wondering what lies in store for them, said Desai.

The special adviser led a session in Geneva on Friday of the U.N. Information and Communication Technologies Task Force.

The debate in the lead-up to the summit has brought to light the concerns of representatives of companies civil society groups involved in ICT.

Non-governmental organisations taking part in the process highlight the need to put technology to use "in creating a more equitable world," said Anriette Esterhuysen, of the Association for Progressive Communications, based in South Africa.

"If that is not the starting point of the summit, it will fail" to achieve the stated objectives, she said.

"If we don’t use the summit to strengthen and lobby for greater (respect for) human rights, including gender equality, we are missing a critical opportunity," said Esterhuysen.

Another aspiration of the NGOs for the WSIS is the "strengthening and expansion of the public domain" in the information and communications technology field.

ICT innovations are more effective "if there is a sphere within which different stakeholders can interact, in which ideas and knowledge can be shared freely," explained the activist.

Meanwhile, the International Chamber of Commerce’s position is that the business sector "would invest and be strong vector" in building the information society, provided that governments establish regulations that truly favour competition, and new business and innovation in particular.

"The success of the summit would depend upon commitments by governments to develop and implement strategies in this respect," said a Chamber of Commerce spokeswoman.

"The current draft declaration (for the WSIS) and the action plan do not yet include these business priorities. For instance, there is little emphasis on the importance of fostering entrepreneurship," she pointed out.

Nokia, the world’s leading mobile telephone company, expressed similar concerns.

The Finnish firm announced an initiative two weeks ago that would enable "800 million people in emerging and developing countries to have access to telecommunications – to put Internet in their pocket – by the year 2008."

This would be possible because the company can manage production costs, allowing half the world population access to communication, said a Nokia representative.

But the company cannot determine usage costs, which are influenced by regulatory policies, lack of appropriate finance rules, problems in distribution, high taxes and other issues, according to the phone giant.

Despite the obstacles, Desai says the private sector overall is interested in the summit and its outcomes.

The ICT industry, which enjoyed rapid growth in the early 1990s, has entered into difficulties due to the subsequent contraction of the world’s major economies.

But achieving the goals proposed by the WSIS could contribute to a recovery of the ICT industry, he said.

Among these objectives is the connection, using the latest information technologies, of all of the world’s universities and all hospitals by 2005.

In another phase, all villages and their secondary schools would be connected to the Internet by 2010, and all primary schools by 2015.

Debate on the final documents for the first WSIS will take place at the third preparatory conference to meet in Geneva Sep. 15-26.

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