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Bilbao brings together cities and regions from around the world to decide on a plan to fight the digital divide

The II World Summit of Cities & Local Authorities on the Information Society will bring together more than 2,000 representatives of organisations from every continent on 9th to 11th November in the Biscayan capital.

Figures such as Marcel Boisard, Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations Organisation and Executive Director of UNITAR, mayors from cities like Geneva-Switzerland (Christian Ferrazio), Tunis-Tunisia (Abbés Mohsen), Bogota-Columbia (Luis Eduardo Garzón), Katmandú-Nepal (Hem Sharma Pokharel) and GuroGu-South Korea (Dae-Woong Yang) will be present at the summit.

There will also be representatives of regional authorities, such as Sheila Dikshit, President of the Delhi region (India) and political representatives like José Montilla and Jordi Sevilla, Spanish Minister of Industry and Spanish Minister of Public Administrations respectively, as well as George Reid, Presiding Officer, the Scottish Parliament.

This international meeting in Bilbao for electronic solidarity is a step towards achieving access to new information technologies for all the planet’s citizens, thus allowing everyone to benefit from the social and economic advantages provided by these technologies

The event was presented today in Bilbao by Ana Aguirre, Executive Co-President of the Summit and Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism in the Basque Government. Joseph Sarr of Senegal, co-ordinator of electronic projects in Africa, Elisabeth Gateau of the international organisation UCLG, the mayor of Bilbao, Iñaki Azkuna, and Akiko Miyahara, representative of UNITAR, the United Nations development agency, also took part in the presentation.

BILBAO, 24th October 2005. The II World Summit of Cities and Local Authorities for the Information Society will bring together more than 2,000 representatives of regional organisations from every continent and will be held in Bilbao from the 9th to the 11th November. The Biscayan capital will become an international forum on the digital divide, which prevents millions of citizens around the world from using information technologies, thus excluding them from the social and economic benefits that the Internet creates. The event was presented today in Bilbao by Ana Aguirre, Co-President of the Summit and Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism in the Basque Government. Also analysing the importance of this meeting in November were Joseph Sarr from Senegal, who co-ordinates information technology development projects in Africa, Elisabeth Gateau, Secretary General of the international organisation UCLG, Akiko Miyahara, representing UNITAR, the United Nations development agency and Jose Ignacio Zudaire, Vice-Minister for Administrations and Planning in the Basque Government. Local institutions were represented by Iñaki Azkuna, mayor of Bilbao and Karmelo Sainz, President of the Basque Municipalities Association (EUDEL).

During the world summit, the cities and regions represented in Bilbao will approve a Plan of Action for the development of electronic solidarity. By 2015, the United Nations Organisation (UN) wants to reduce world poverty by half and the universal use of information technologies is key to achieving this objective. As an example of what remains to be done, just one piece of data is needed: currently, 80% of Internet users in the world live in developed countries. In the world’s most disadvantaged locations, Internet access is still a dream.

Cities and regions – the protagonists

In this fight against the digital divide, local authorities are called upon to be the leaders in providing an information Society for everyone, given that they are on the front line and understand the needs of their citizens. For this reason, the World Summit in Bilbao has been organised for cities and regions from all around the world. Local institutions from all European Union countries will take part, as well as regional bodies from China, India and Indonesia (representing Asia Pacific). Latin America will be represented by cities and regions from Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Argentina and Peru, among others. In terms of Africa, the most represented country at the Summit will be Senegal.

During the second week in November, figures from around the world will arrive in Bilbao, including the President of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, who will speak at the world summit. Wade is a cultural point of reference in Africa and the main driver behind the use of the Internet to combat poverty on the African continent. Also attending the summit are Columbia’s ex-president, Ernesto Samper, Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary General of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and Marcelo D´Elia Branco, one of the key figures behind free software. Experts such as Carlos Rubén Fernández, president of the Organización de Ciegos Españoles – ONCE - (Spanish association for the blind) and Hiroshi Kawamura, a world figure in the field of Internet applications for people with disabilities, will talk about the social benefits of new technologies.

In terms of international organisations, we can highlight the presence of Marcel Boisard, Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations and Executive Director of UNITAR, as well as mayors from the most representative cities on the planet. Some of these representatives include mayors from Geneva-Switzerland (Christian Ferrazio), Tunis-Tunisia (Abbés Mohsen), Bogota-Columbia (Luis Eduardo Garzón) and GuroGu-South Korea (Dae-Woong Yang). There will also be representatives of regional authorities, such as Sheila Dikshit, president of the Delhi region (India) and political representatives such as José Montilla and Jordi Sevilla, Minister of Industry and Minister of Public Administrations respectively, as well as George Reid, Presiding Officer, The Scottish Parliament.

Also attending this meeting will be representatives from United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), an organisation that represents more than half of the planet’s population. As its contribution to the plan of action arising from the summit, UCLG will propose a programme based on three key points. The first of these being that each city and region in the world develops their own electronic programme (called a local electronic agenda). Another key will be the international promotion of digital solidarity as a means of eliminating social differences, therefore increasing access to new technologies. In order to make the two aforementioned points happen, UCLG believes it is necessary to strengthen the role of local bodies as the true drivers in the fight against the digital divide.

The world summit is being held in Bilbao because the Autonomous Basque Region is one of the most active representatives in digital solidarity work, in collaboration with the United Nations (UN). The event in Bilbao was one of the pledges made by Juan José Ibarretxe, head of the Basque Government, to Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the UN, at the meeting held in Geneva (Switzerland) in December 2003. In accordance with this pledge, the Basque Country has increased its commitment both to the internal development of the Information Society, as well as to the incorporation of Digital Solidarity into its cooperation and development policies. More than half of the Basque Country’s two million inhabitants currently have Internet access at home.

As well as hosting the summit, another of the Basque Country’s commitments to digital solidarity is the creation of an International Training Centre for Local Authorities (CIFAL) in Bilbao. Likewise, Bilbao currently holds the vice-presidency of the UCLG’s Commission for the Information Society, the biggest organisation in the world of cities and regions, and the Basque Country also forms part of the Eris@ Board of Directors, the Association of European Regions for the Information Society.

IT4ALL and the Digital Solidarity Fund

The collaboration between the world’s cities and regions that will be evident at the Bilbao event, already relies upon common action tools, such as IT4ALL, the Internet platform bringing together 20,000 local bodies that represent more than 1,500 million people. This electronic network, which reaches all corners of the world, can be accessed through the following website www.it4all-regions.org. Through its pages, local bodies exchange information on key topics, such as health, education, infrastructures and all types of business linked to e-commerce.

The Digital Solidarity Fund is another example of joint local efforts. Promoted by the UN, it funds projects related to the development of new information technologies in the developing world. The Basque Country has been one of the Fund’s promoters, a world-reaching initiative that aims to ensure that the world’s most disadvantaged people do not lose out on the cultural and economic opportunities that the Information Society creates.

High resolution images (under construccion)