"The promotion of entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and motivation is key to all our social and economic goals and to achieving the Millennium Development Goals."

 

 

 

Hammamet, Tunisia – 1 December 2009 - Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, Chairman of the Global Alliance for ICT and Development- of the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs participated in the in Information and Communication Technologies For All Forum - Tunisia 4, which was held in Hammamet on November 24 to 25, 2009, entitled "ICT Innovation as a Tool for Strengthening Competitiveness and Growth."

 

 

 

His Excellency Mr. Mohamed Ghannouchi, Prime Minister opened of the Forum meetings under the patronage of His Excellency President Zine El Abidien Ben Ali, President of the Republic of Tunisia in the presence of H.E. Mr. El Hadj Gley, Minister of Communication Technologies of Tunisia, and a number of UN, international and African organizations and institutions that are active in the areas of technology.  

 

Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh began his opening speech by congratulating the Tunisian people for the re-election of H.E President Zine El Abidien Ben Ali so that he may continue the change process for the development of Tunisia.

 

 

 

Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh stressed the importance of production of various kinds as an essential factor for the economic and social development.  He said that growth in production required entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and motivation as a key to all our social and economic goals and to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, to create and foster an entrepreneurial culture where innovation is encouraged and supported. 

 

He explained that the digital technologies of information and communication is one effective way to meet the challenges and global crises; and said,  "Investments in digital infrastructure continue to lure investors and provide hope to societies financial and economic hardship. But ICTs will only do as much for us as we do with them. We can harness ICTs to cope with many of our global challenges, from climate change, to hunger, to education."

 

 

 

Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh spoke of the activities of UN_GAID in the area of productive programs that focus on ICT as an enabler towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals and remove barriers to ICT access.  He mentioned, for example, the project to establish refurbished computer centers in Africa and Asia for use by schools in need pursuant to the initiative of the UN Secretary General to refurbish 500,000 computers by 2012. Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh expressed his willingness and the readiness of the UN-GAID to provide any assistance in any way to serve the development goals in Tunisia.  

 

Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh called on the Arab World to join the inevitable future world of the Internet, i.e. the Video Internet, when all multimedia will be combined through broadband (audio, video, script, etc.) in a single communication protocol.   He pointed out that one third of the current use of the Internet is the video.

 

 

 

Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh took part in the subsequent ministerial meeting held for the ministers of IT attending the Forum.   The meeting was chaired by the Director General of the International Telecommunications Union and attended by the UNCTAD director general.

 

The recommendations of this year’s Forum stressed, in particular, the significance of more support for the communication infrastructure, encouraging innovation in technology areas, deployment of techniques in the area of rationalizing energy and confronting climate change.

 

 

 

The ICT for All Forum – Tunisia 4 was the fourth meeting held to follow up on the second phase of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) which was held in Tunis in November 2005.  The UN Economic and Social Council decided to recognize this Forum as a WSIS platform to promote the ICT environment worldwide.