Dr. Tatiana Ershova, Editor-in-Chief of the Russian-language research and analytical journal "Information Society", conducted an exclusive interview for the journal with Mr. Houlin Zhao, Secretary-General of the  International Telecommunication Union.

The following problems were discussed during the interview:

1. How does the global information society relate to the information society development in individual countries. Can we talk about many information societies emerging worldwide or about specific national ways to the so called global information society?

2. ITU is a UN agency with a concrete mandate, namely telecommunications. However, it stood at the very beginning of and has been involved in the WSIS process dealing with all possible issues of the new type of society, including ethical and cultural issues, mass media, new models of governance, healthcare and education. How does ITU cope with the coordination of efforts of many stakeholders interested in resolving all these complex problems?

3. The overall theme of the today’s Forum is “Innovating Together: Enabling ICTs for Sustainable Development”. What do the elements of this slogan mean? What is “innovation”  in this context? What is “together” – who are the stakeholders? What are the main ways of “enabling the ICTs” to make the world to develop sustainably?

4. What is the mission of the WSIS Forums in Post-2015? What will be the ITU role in these Forums?

5. Mr. Zhao's recent visit to Russia - the goals of the visit and his impressions of our country.