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High-level team for Tunis IT summit |
Business Reporter
A HIGH-LEVEL delegation led by the Prime Minister HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Thani will attend the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis starting today. The delegation includes Finance Minister HE Yousef Hussein Kamal, ictQatar secretary general Dr Hessa al-Jaber, and Qtel chief executive officer Dr Nasser Marafih.
The summit will end on November 19.
The ictQATAR master-plan, which is currently being implemented, encompasses the summit principles declared in the first phase held in Geneva in 2003, which assured Qatar’s position at the forefront of digital revolution, and global ICT development. The ictQatar is the regulator and enabler of the country’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
The WSIS has been established as a forum to assist nations meet one of the major global challenges of building an inclusive and development-oriented information society.
The aim of the summit is to bring governments and interested private sector organisations together to share their experience and knowledge in order to enable individuals, communities and nations achieve their full potential and improve the quality of life through effective application of ICT.
The visit of the Qatar delegation to WSIS is a clear indication of the country’s objective to support the WSIS principles and plan of action agreed in stage I of the summit held in Geneva “to create an advanced information based society that will improve the life of everyone in Qatar and enhance the social and economic development of the country,” an ictQatar release said.
One of the important aspects WSIS is managing cyber security risks and responding to security vulnerabilities in order to protect the interests and integrity of all ICT users.
To deal with these risks, ictQatar is partnering with Carnegie Mellon University’s CERT Co-ordination Center to establish Q-CERT.
Q-CERT will be the national organisation for conducting and co-ordinating the comprehensive set of cyber security activities that will be needed to adequately protect Qatar’s critical infrastructures as ICT facilities increasingly become central to the government, business and education operations.
The goal of Q-CERT is to collaborate with government and industry to develop and lead a multi-pronged approach to managing cyber security risks. The establishment of Q-CERT will make Qatar the third country in the world (after the US and South Korea) to take such a visionary and proactive step to protect its citizens and businesses.
“ICT is quickly becoming such an integral part of contemporary life that a well-structured national agenda is essential to ensure optimal progress against development goals. In creating and managing such an agenda, ictQatar will facilitate and enable economic and social gains by creating an environment in which e-health, e-government, e-finance and e-tourism services can prosper and world-class cyber-security is assured,” Dr Hessa said.
Qatar has already undertaken a number of initiatives in the spirit of the WSIS plan of action and with the aim of improving and enhancing quality of life and developing ICT skills of the less fortunate.
The ‘Doha Plan of Action’ was approved at the G77 second south summit, held in Doha from June 12-16, 2005.
This document supports the principles of the WSIS by stressing the need for developing countries to build scientific capacity and close the technological gap between them and industrialised nations.
In support of the Doha Plan of Action, HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani had donated $20mn to set up the South Fund for Development and Humanitarian Aid, which is being used for development projects in less developed countries.
Qatar will further its leadership position in bridging the digital divide when it hosts the World Telecommunication Development Conference – 2006 (WTDC-06) in Doha next March.
Top-ranking delegates from government, the private sector and international and regional organisations are expected to attend the conference to consider projects and programmes to support ICT development.
WTDC ’06 will give ICT leaders an opportunity to consider practical ways to achieve the WSIS goal of connecting the world by 2015.
The purpose of the conference is to agree on development priorities in view of the high-level recognition of the digital divide between developing and developed nations created by the rapid but uneven expansion of ICT.
Another objective of the conference is to promote international co-operation and partnerships that can sustain and strengthen telecommunication infrastructure and institutions in developing countries. |
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