©UN Photo/Haughton
Opening remarks by Mr. Mogens Lykketoft, President of the 70th session of the General Assembly at Member States preparatory meeting: Review of the implementation of the outcomes of the 2005 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)
20 October 2015
Your Excellency Mr.Jānis Mažeiks, Ambassador of Latvia; Your Excellency Mrs. Lana Zaki Nusseibeh, Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates; Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, good morning to you all.
It is my great pleasure, as President of this 70th session, to address the second preparatory meeting for the overall Review of the implementation of the outcomes of the 2005 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
Let me begin by thanking the co-facilitators, Ambassador Mažeiks and Ambassador Nusseibeh for their hard work to date and to the Secretariat for their continued support.
This Review is one of the most important processes taking place at the United Nations this year. Thanks to the rapid development of Information and Communications Technology and growth in global interconnectivity this past decade, ICT plays an increasingly important role in promoting economic and social progress in many parts of the world. Nonetheless, the full potential of ICT in catalysing broad-based and inclusive growth is far from being realized.
The present review therefore is an excellent opportunity for the international community to both look back at what has been achieved in the past 10 years and to discuss how to better address longstanding as well as emerging challenges, including digital divides within and among countries, internet stability and security, data ownership, and exercise of human rights online.
You meet today to begin the next phase in this process, and discuss the Zero Draft. You do so a little over three weeks after world leaders adopted the ambitious and transformative 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which seeks to eradicate poverty and advance shared prosperity, peace, sustainability. That Agenda together with the Addis Agenda highlighted the critical role of science, technology and innovation, and in particular by ICTs, as means of implementation for the sustainable development goals.
It is imperative that this review build synergies between the implementation of the WSIS vision, the SDGs and the Addis Agenda.
Indeed, this was one of the many messages I took from yesterday’s stakeholder consultation on the zero draft. My closing remarks capturing many of the key points raised there on each of the three major areas under discussion, as well as on follow-up, are available on the WSIS website and a President’s summary will be circulated in due course. In the spirit of openness, I encourage each of you to continue engaging with stakeholders as this process moves forward.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the issues included in the zero draft affect billions of the people around the world. I encourage you all to engage in this process with a constructive spirit and with flexibility. I am confident that with the able leadership of the co-facilitators and your support as member states, a successful outcome can be agreed in advance of the High-level meeting.
Thank you.