Doha: A highlight of the World Telecommunication Development Conference, in Doha, will be a panel discussion among the movers, shakers and thinkers within governments, civil society, the private sector and international organisations to achieve the goal of connecting the world to the benefits of information and communication technologies (ICT).
In June, 2005, ITU launched the Connect the World initiative, a multi-stakeholder partnership that is united in the objective of connecting the 800'000 villages or 30 per cent of all villages worldwide which still lack any kind of connectivity. At the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis in November 2005, partner organisations signed a pledge to make good that commitment by 2015.
WTDC-06 is the first opportunity to operationalise the political commitments enunciated at the Summit.
The Panel, co-hosted by H E Sheikha Al Mayassah bint Hamad Al Thani, daughter of the Emir and Yoshio Utsumi, ITU Secretary-General, provides an informal forum for stakeholders to exchange experiences and highlight concrete, implementation-focu-sed solutions to be shared with WTDC participants.
Based on an open and interactive discussion between eight eminent Connect the World partners and an audience of about 100 participants, the discussion will be moderated by well-known television anchor, Stephen Cole, formerly BBC and now with Al Jazeera.
What: WTDC Connect the World Partners' Panel When: Wednesday, 8 March 2006, 15h00 - 17h00 Where: Al Rayyan room, Sheraton Convention Centre, Doha, Qatar. Why: To support a global community of partners and a broad popular movement to empower the world's people through access to ICTs and the creation of an inclusive knowledge-based Information Society.
The event expected to attract over a thousand policy makers and practitioners from government, the private sector, international and regional organisations.
The Conference will fast-track development priorities in telecommunications. It will also consider new global initiatives aimed at benefiting persons with disabilities and telecommunications for disaster prevention. Only accredited journalists will have access to WTDC-06 proceedings as well as the Connect the World panel.
© The Peninsula 2006
