The World Summit on the Information Society
The Pan-European Regional Ministerial Conference
Bucharest, 7-9 November 2002
Revised Draft
5 July 2002
Provisional Annotated Agenda
It is expected that H.E. Mr. Adrian NASTASE, Prime Minister of Romania, Mr. Yoshio UTSUMI, Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union, and Mrs. Brigita SCHMOGNEROVA, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe will address the Conference. Other distinguished special guests will be invited to participate at the opening session.
A Bureau consisting of eight officers will be elected: one Chairman (the Minister of Communications and Information Technology of Romania, elected ex officio), three vice-chairpersons, one general rapporteur, one secretary of the Conference (who will coordinate the work of the Conference’s staff). One representative of the business community and one representative of the civil society will also be members. The Bureau will appoint eight moderators and eight rapporteurs (for each of the specific debates).
The agenda will reflect the overall objectives of the WSIS, its proposed themes and the potential and specific needs of the European region.
It will also take into account indications contained in the ITU Guidelines for the preparation of the regional conferences on the main tasks to be undertaken:
The ministers will address the plenary on issues of policies aiming at developing and expanding the benefits of the Information Society, around the three lines indicated in the name of the debate: "Regional strategies, national action, good practices". They may contain principles to be echoed in the final documents of the Summit, and proposals for action.
Another dimension recommended to be taken into consideration is the strategic link among different levels of intervention for governments and political action at local, national, regional and global levels.
The debate will be also an opportunity to:
i/share national strategies, achievements and challenges and in particular making known success stories that might be generalized as good practices for other countries, and
ii/ present regional experience and activities in which individual participants are involved, while trying to take stock of major initiatives taken in Europe, in particular by the European Union, as to suggest harmonization and mutual reinforcement and complementarity.
The time allocated for each speaker will depend on the total number of dignitaries inscribed on the list. The full versions of the statements will be distributed, if made available in due time.
This item is proposed as a triangular interactive debate between the three categories of participants, on main issues and actions that might be of common interest and basis for partnership and joint action. The expected results of this dialogue are multi-stakeholders commitments, based on shared responsibilities, to be included in the final documents of the Conference.
The organization of the thematic debates started from the initial approach proposed by the Executive Secretariat of the World Summit of the Information Society, namely the three cross-sectoral vectors: vision, access and applications. Following further reflection and consultations with various partners, we further streamlined the possible thematic content into three main themes: e-government, e-learning and e-inclusion. The main criterion taken into consideration was the extent to which the themes may lead to concrete recommendations for policies, partnership and action. Subsequently, the access and applications vectors were placed in an more encompassing concept, the enabling environment, we suggests a better delineation of four directions that may lead to a plan of action, namely strategies (at national, regional and global level), regulatory framework and related domestic legislation, access and connectivity, applications and content.
There is also a need to define the needs and consequences of building the Information Society in terms of the quality of life.
The sub-themes proposed are neither exclusive, nor exhaustive, but indicative, and they might be a tool used by participants in order to organize their positions and proposals for action.
Creating partnerships, seen as a growing level of interaction and participation by the IT&C specialized private sector and civil society organizations, and as an effort to harmonize governmental policies with companies’ interests as and the catalytic role of the civil society is an expected outcome of the Conference. It is also important to promote and use mechanisms for public consultations, for instance in the process of elaboration of new regulatory framework for electronic communications, implementation of R&D programs and, in general, in the attempt to support the social, educational and inclusive designs of national and international policies related to the Information Society.
The participation of the business community refers to both national small and medium sized enterprises that must be given incentives to become significant actors in the Information society, and transnational companies, which may become partners in sharing social responsibilities.
The debates should lead to concrete proposals of action from the business community. The private sector can play a major role by bringing knowledge about the requirements and operations of the networks, technology and new enterprise; a flow of resources and relevant expertise; a commitment to building economic value in the information sectors, which supports the achievement of goals in employment, education, and other public services, a focus on public sector requirements for business enabling environments, and leadership resources to support common commitments. The round table should focus on ways and means to create an attractive environment for investments in the new economy.
This forum is envisaged to suggest ways and means to fuel and sustain a flow of intellectual, human and financial resources, instrumental expertise, knowledge, techniques and ability, as well as efficacy based on hands-on approach and experience. Given the potential of the civil actors in many areas with broad ramifications across society, specialized professional and other non-governmental organizations and associations should identify their own views on their involvement on the elaboration and implementation of programmes.
An attempt to define such a vast and complex notion as the Information Society was proposed during the informal discussions on the Bucharest Conference, which took place on the occasion of the first meeting of the Preparatory Committee of the World Summit on the Information Society (Geneva, 5 July 2002). The need for a common understanding of the concept in the context of the Summit was also identified by participants from other regions and may be a useful contribution for future work, including for the second meeting of the Preparatory Committee.
The report of the Conference will include a few basic political principles to sustain the common ground of interest and, in particular, recommendations of actions, identified during the ministerial and in the reports of the thematic debates and partnership events. A successful result is to be defined in terms of pragmatism, action orientation and focus on creativity.
As many as possible proposals should address cooperation projects, networking ideas, interdisciplinary undertakings, diversity models, plurisectoral impacts, based on arguments and inputs from multiple sectors: information, infrastructure for telecommunications, education, media, academia, software production and others.
That implies that proposals from governments, business community and civil society will be included in a participatory manner, as a comprehensive and coherent contribution of the regional conference.
The recommendations should be the expression of a consensus among governments, the private sector, civil society and other major stakeholders. They should also suggest measurable indicators and contain milestones for monitoring and evaluation.
The specificity of the region should be consistently sought and reflected in the recommendations. By an inclusion of extensive input from the business community, including transnational companies, the dynamism of the private sector in the region will be emphasized. Actions meant to stimulate patterns of cooperation and partnership might lead to policies that ensure better use of the rich human resources in countries in transition.
The final output may be used both as a conceptual and operational contribution to the results of the Summit, and as ideas and proposals for policy initiatives for the participating countries. All debates should serve the purpose of initiating action, in terms of policy recommendations, national framework and legislation, and regional initiatives. It is worth noting that the results of the Regional Conference, apart from contributing to the success and the quality of the World Summit, but producing globally relevant experience and proposing ideas for global strategies. One of the best results of the Conference might be concrete projects to be undertaken at regional level and other follow-up action, which may serve the own purposes of the European region.