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UNCTAD
at WSIS II
Tunis, 16-18 November 2005
Linking knowledge to create economic opportunities
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the Internet offer unprecedented opportunities for developing countries by linking economies, providing networking solutions, encouraging new ways to do business and spreading knowledge.
UNCTAD’s participation in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) supports governments in their quest to harness ICTs for economic development.
To find out more about
UNCTAD's WSIS events, workshops and exhibits, go
to the official UNCTAD at WSIS website.
Preparatory work
for WSIS II
1. Joint contribution to the Group
of Friends of the Chair document for WSIS PrepCom2
"Economic and Social Implications of ICT"
(download,
pdf, English)
2. Joint contribution to the Group
of Friends of the Chair document for WSIS PrepCom2
"Measuring ICT for Development"
(download,
pdf, English)
3. International conference:
Thematic Meeting on Measuring the Information Society
Geneva, 7-9 February 2005
>>
Official conference webpage
The meeting is organized under the umbrella of the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development, launched during UNCTAD XI (Sao Paulo, June 2004).
The objectives of the meeting are to: (i) agree on a common list of ICT core indicators to be collected by all countries and harmonized at the international level; (ii) identify and address the needs of national statistical offices (NSOs) in developing countries as regards technical assistance in the compilation of ICT indicators; (iii) discuss mechanisms to quantify the relevance and contribution of ICT indicators towards improving development and achieving the MDGs; (iv) present ongoing work concerning the creation and maintenance of an international database on ICT indicators.
The intended participants include representatives from government offices responsible for ICT statistics, international and regional organizations, civil society, and the business community.
Representatives of all Member States of the United Nations, interested intergovernmental organizations, as well as participants representing non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, are also welcome to participate.
4. International conference:
Thematic
Meeting on the Economic and Social Implications of ICT
Antigua, Guatemala, 18-19
January 2005
>> Conference Links
>> Information Note and Agenda
Organized jointly by the
International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Trade
Centre (ITC), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD), and the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD), the meeting will allow governments, the private
sector, workers and civil society to examine policies and practices
that permit enterprises to employ ICTs as effective productivity
enhancing tools, and do so in a socially responsible manner.
To achieve its aim the thematic
meeting will:
- Address the impact of ICTs on
economic performance and trade competitiveness of developing
countries;
- Explore policies and best
practices to enable enterprises – and particularly SMEs - to
rise their productivity and competitiveness through the use of
ICTs;
- Review strategies to integrate
SMEs into national and international supply chains using modern
communication technologies;
- Examine the impact of the
enterprises’ structural changes on local, national and
international labour markets and identify strategies to ease the
transition.
The outcome of the meeting will
provide practical suggestions on policies and programmes that can help
countries to utilise ICTs for effective poverty eradication through
the growth of economically sustainable enterprises and the quality
employment they generate. This will permit policy makers to integrate
ICTs into the broader MDG agenda.
The meeting will be hosted by the
Government of Guatemala and sponsored by IDRC and the Government of
France.
For more information about the
Guatemala Conference, please read the
Information Note and consult the agenda
(pdf format):
Links for the
Guatemala Conference:
Official Government website: http://www.sit.gob.gt/tematicamundial.asp;
The ITU/WSIS web page: http://www.itu.int/wsis/preparatory2/thematic.html; The
OECD web page: http://www.oecd.org/.
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