From 17 to 25 February 2005 Geneva is hosting the Second Meeting of the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom-2) for the Second Phase of WSIS.

On the eve of the PrepCom-2, Mr. Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union and Secretary-General of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), briefed journalists on the issues that are being considered by all the actors of the Information Society - governments, business entities and civil society - including the media that are stakeholders in the process.

PrepCom-2 must address the central question of establishing financial mechanisms to meet the challenges of harnessing the potential of information and communication technology for development and get to grips with the matter of Internet governance, he stressed. It should also consider the Tunis phase, which is going to take place in November 2005, as a major political event, one that will give impetus for economic development and make important headway towards the realization of the Millennium Development Goals.

Mr Utsumi reminded participants that the Summit was a proposal of Tunisia to the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in 1998 and that the United Nations General Assembly endorsed the holding of the Summit in two phases, one in Geneva and one in Tunis. In addition, Mr Utsumi reiterated that the Summit was a UN Summit and that the meeting would be held in accordance with UN rules and practices, and the same conditions that applied in Geneva would be guaranteed in Tunis during the second phase.

Referring to the WSIS Plan of Action endorsed by 175 countries in Geneva in December 2003, Mr Utsumi stressed the need to translate the vision into reality. Firm political commitment from Member States, coupled with the necessary resources, would yield tangible success, he added.

In his statement Mr. Utsumi highlighted the creation of three innovative mechanisms to achieve those ends. To address the issues of Internet Governance and Financial Mechanisms, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan set up, at the request of WSIS Geneva, two working groups to propose solutions to move forward on those issues. The third mechanism emphasized was the Group of the Friends of the Chair, which had prepared a draft of the possible outcome document of the Tunis phase, which will form the basis for negotiations during the PrepCom. The Group worked on the assumption of a document in two parts: a political commitment and an operational agenda based on a series of informal consultations with representatives of governments and other partners.

Additionally, the discussions had benefited from regional and thematic meetings focused on the WSIS process. Regional meetings had taken place in Damascus, Syria, for Western Asia and in Accra, Ghana, for Africa. They had called for building partnerships and securing appropriate mechanisms, including financial means, to implement regional action plans. Thematic meetings, on the other hand, had dealt with a gamut of issues central to the establishment of the Information Society, namely combating spam, Internet governance, freedom of expression in cyberspace and the application of ICTs in natural disaster reduction, especially in the light of December’s Tsunami tragedy in Asia, and the economic and social implications of ICTs.

Another important aspect was the stocktaking exercise initiated to evaluate progress along WSIS action lines. Governments and stakeholders were cooperating in an effort to account for what they had been doing and what their future actions would be, in order to implement the WSIS Action Plan. Furthermore, the exercise would afford an opportunity to coordinate post-Summit follow-up and information sharing. Mr Utsumi pointed to 2000 projects already reported in this connection.

See summary of the press conference for detailed information.