News
The ciy of Lyon organized an international meeting for digital solidarity on 5 July to support the Bilbao Summit
The French city of Lyon officially invited Bilbao to an international meeting for digital solidarity which the host city celebrated on 5th July. The authorities of Lyon are aware of the projects of the Basque capital for the distribution of Internet across the whole planet, aiming to overcome the electronic divide which threatens to separate thousands of millions of people from the social and cultural advantages generated by the new information technologies.
Precisely, this meeting in Lyon served as preparation for the II World Summit of Cities and Local Authorities on the Information Society, which shall bring together more than 2,000 representatives of cities and regions from all over the planet in Bilbao on 9th – 11th November this year. This meeting, supported by the UN and the Basque Government, considers the fight against the digital divide must be with the express support of local institutions, which are best aware of the needs of the citizens. The meeting in Lyon shall serve to mobilize cities and regions of the whole world.
Lyon was the headquarters for the I World Summit of Cities and Local Authorities, held in December 2003. At this forum, the Declaration of Lyon was drafted, an international commitment on a new model of society, in which information and knowledge is available to everybody, without exclusion. A few days after the Lyon Summit, another was held with planetary range, with the attendance of state representatives who also took on this bid for digital solidarity. In Bilbao in November, an action plan against the digital divide will also be drafted, whose ratification by the different countries is to take place in Tunis, at another world summit of states, which is planned to take place in the same month.
|
High resolution images |