Executive Roundtables: Taking Responsibility in the Information Age PALEXPO, GENEVA 9 DECEMBER 2003 Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, set the stage for the discussion by highlighting the growing importance of information technology in the developing world. Such technology is needed in order for societies to use their resources effectively and to attract investments, said Annan. He also presented a challenge to the other meeting participants, by asking them to focus their discussions on the question of who is responsible for putting many of the great ideas related to ICT into practice. After Annan's introduction, participants split into four working groups, each discussing a separate topic related to the Information Society. The working groups covered the following topics: 1. Staying Relevant: Finding the Appropriate Technology Mix 2. Internet Governance: Beyond the Impasse 3. Extracting Value from Globalization: How ICT-Enabled Services Create Opportunities and Strengthen Competitiveness 4. Connectivity for the Next Five Billion: Public Access Points and Human Capacity Building Benefiting from the active participation of Joachim Chissano, President of Mozambique, the working group discussing how to develop the appropriate technology mix used the Mozambican experience as the starting point for their discussion. The group agreed that the global discussions taking place at the WSIS meeting ought to be replicated at the national level, in order to build national networks and transform words into action on the ground. Participants also suggested that ICT could fundamentally transform local markets in developing countries by connecting markets and providing actors with more updated and reliable information. The working group discussing Internet governance supported the idea of creating a special United Nations task force on Internet governance. The task force should be relatively small (12-15 participants) and composed of experts on the topic, the group argued. Most importantly, in order to avoid any conflicts of interests, perceived or real, task force participants should be persons that currently do not represent any special interests. In order to make the process as transparent and inclusive as possible, the working group suggested that the UN task force should host a wide range of consultations with various stakeholders. As for the timeline, the working group suggested creating the task force in the first half of 2004, so that the task force would have enough time report back on its work at the planned WSIS meeting in Tunisia in 2005. The working group discussing how to extract value from globalization predicted that the discussions would soon shift from how to provide connectivity around the world to how to develop relevant content. The group also agreed that growth in ICT-enabled services would probably accelerate the globalization of services, which again could have a positive impact on developing countries in a number of ways. According to the participants in this group, growth in the services sector has a positive impact on society as a whole, by rewarding education, promoting openness and improving competitiveness. It could also improve living standards and lower the cost of services in the developing countries. However, in order to foster such a positive scenario, challenges that need to be tackled include improving education, creating access points, providing financing, and generating an enabling policy environment. Even though it did not set a firm deadline, the group working on "connectivity for the next five billion" agreed that expanding connectivity to all corners of the world is an important goal. However, several participants noted that connectivity in itself is not enough. Without education and adequate skills, people around the world will not be able to take full advantage of increased connectivity, they warned. The group therefore identified education as a key priority along with increasing access to the Internet. It also emphasized the need for more content and services tailored to local demand as connectivity increases. During the room-wide discussion that followed, one of the participants argued that the key driver of connectivity is demand and that the issue of access to the Internet will sort itself out once the required demand exists. The challenge is therefore to generate local demand for ICT products and services, he argued. In the press conference that followed the roundtable discussions, Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum, emphasized the need for broad, multi-stakeholder discussions moving the issues related to the Information Society forward. He also argued that new information technology creates great opportunities as well as challenges for all countries and pointed to the World Economic Forum's new Global Information Technology Report as a key tool to evaluate how countries are responding. Additional documents: Programme (pdf 28k) List of Participants (pdf 12k)