TUNIS - An international conference on "Better City and Better Life with ICT" was held on Saturday in Tunis by the Arab Information and Communication Technology Organisation (AICTO), the Organisation of Arab Cities (OAC) and the municipality of Tunis.
The event, attended by experts and representatives from the private sector, discussed such topics as "ICT Applications and Municipal Services," "ICT in Service of Sustainable Development" and "Adjusting ICT to Specifics of Arab Cities."
Opening the conference, Communication Technologies Minister Mohamed Naceur Ammar said Tunisia's approach to building up the information society takes into account the country's cultural and civilisational specifics.
This approach, he added, has earned Tunisia to be ranked 39th in Africa and the world, out of a total of 133 countries, by the Davos Economic Forum on ICT for the 2009-2010 period.
The minister said Tunisia has made strides towards modernising its communication infrastructure, improving quality of its administrative services and developing municipal work methods.
He stressed the importance of developing new technological applications and promoting new municipal services such as call centres, interactive web sites and electronic municipal taxation.
For her part, AICTO Secretary-General Khadija Ghariani emphasised the contribution of ICT contribution to the development of tomorrow's Arab cities by means of adopting new work methods in town planning and building up intelligent cities with high technological components.
She underscored the Tunisian expertise in adjusting ICT to the peculiarities of cities, reviewing the gains made so far in this area. Among these advances, she mentioned, 600 Tunisian cities' connection to the broadband Internet network and 50 economic centres of the country to the international fibre optic network.
In his address, officer in charge of international co-operation and communication at the OAC reviewed the results reached by Arab cities in achieving the sustainable development goals, pointing out that Tunis and Tunisian cities in general are seeking at present to confirm this approach.
Mayor of Tunis Mohamed Beji Ben Memi reviewed achievements accomplished by the capital city in anchoring digital culture and building up knowledge society.
© Agence Tunis Afrique Presse 2010
