At the Yasmine Hammamet Medina in Tunisia this morning, Mr. Utsumi of the International Telecommunications Union opened the first preparatory meeting (prepcom) of the Tunis phase of the World Summit on the Information Society. He said we should now move beyond making declarations and embrace real action to bridge the digital divide. “I now call on governments, private sector and civil society to find common ground.” The representative of the Swiss government discussed a range of issues, including the role of civil society in the WSIS process. He said that he felt civil society’s contributions have helped stimulate ideas amongst governments, and reiterated the importance of civil society participating throughout the process.
The Tunisian government representative then welcomed the plenary audience on behalf of Tunisian President Ben Ali. “I am convinced that the complimentary of the summit process, with its first phase in Geneva and the second phase in Tunis… will strengthen the bonds of international solidarity,” he said. He then went on to reaffirm the importance of civil society and the private sector participating in the process. He added that civil society should “intensify” their participation in the process, saying they are “an essential element” for the establishment of the information society. As part of the Tunisian government’s support of civil society participation, he called for a permanent UN fund for financing the participation of civil society in the WSIS process. He then said the Tunisian government would contribute 400,000 dinars (USD $320,000) to help facilitate the participation of civil society representatives from the developing world, particularly groups representing youth, women and the disabled. He said these groups would also receive free space to display their activities at the Tunis summit. Similarly, he offered free space for small private sector companies interested in presenting at the summit.