The second meeting of the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom-2) of the Tunis phase of the WSIS was opened at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on Thursday, 17 February 2005, at 10.00 am, under the chairmanship of the President of the Preparatory Committee of the Tunis phase, Ambassador Janis Karklins.

The opening ceremony included statements and opening remarks by ITU Secretary-General Mr. Yoshio Utsumi, Minister of Communication Technologies of Tunisia Mr. Mountassar Ouaili, Chef du Département fédéral de l’environnement, des transports, de l’énergie et de la communication (Switzerland) Mr. Moritz Leuenberger and President of PrepCom of the Tunis phase of WSIS Mr. Janis Karklins.

After the opening ceremony, the draft agenda of PrepCom-2 was approved.

The Secretary-General of ITU prepared a report on main preparatory activities carried out since PrepCom-1 of the Tunis phase (see also Addendum 1), which was presented to the participants.

The PrepCom-2 agenda included presentation of reports on activities directly related to WSIS:

• Preliminary Report on the WSIS Stocktaking prepared by the Executive Secretariat;
• Report of the Group of Friends of the President of the Preparatory Committee (see also Addendum, rev. 1 and Corrigendum 1 to Addendum 1, rev. 1);
• Report of the Task Force on Financial Mechanisms;
• Preliminary report of the Working Group on Internet Governance;
• Reports on regional conferences and thematic meetings, including regional thematic meetings, held between PrepCom-1 and PrepCom-2 (see outcomes here);
• Consideration of the following items of the final document: text of Political Chapeau and Operational Part;
• Draft Amendment of Rule 7 of The Rules of Procedure for the Summit;
• Organization of work of the Tunis phase of the Summit
• Arrangements for the third meeting of the Preparatory Committee of the Tunis phase;
• Adoption of the report of the second meeting of Preparatory Committee of the Tunis phase.

A number of WSIS related events were organized around PrepCom-2:

14-18 February 2005, Meetings of the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) in the Palais des Nations, Geneva (for more information please go to the WGIG website: www.wgig.org)

14 February 2005, Civil Society Orientation Session

17-25 February 2005, Plenary meetings of Civil Society (for other civil society meetings during PrepCom-2, click here)

18 February 2005, Panel Session “Promoting WSIS: MDGs synergies”, organized by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, and the Global Knowledge Partnership. The study "Up-scaling pro-poor ICT-policies and practices" was presented at the event

18 February 2005, (e-)learning about sustainable development: the GEO Data Portal, organized by UNEP/DEWA/GRID-Europe and the University of Geneva with the support of the Geneva International Academic Network

22 February 2005, ICT for Peace, organized by the Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland

22 February 2005, panel session "Advocacy for ICT for Poverty Reduction in South Asia", organized by the Bangladesh Friendship Education Society (see agenda for this event)

23 February 2005, panel session "Infopoverty Seminar", organized by OCCAM

24 February 2005, panel session "Communicating the MDGs", organized by the International Public Relations Association (IPRA).

All official documents of the PrepCom-2 are available at the WSIS web site.