$400m fund to help bridge digital divide
PM attends opening session of WSIS
AFP, Geneva

Dec 10: A US agency said Wednesday on the sidelines of a UN-sponsored summit in Geneva that it would set up a 400 million dollar funding facility to help poor nations benefit from information technologies.

Peter Watson, chairman, president and chief executive of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) said the money would be used to encourage US investments in telecom and IT projects in 152 developing countries.

The announcement came as delegates from some 175 countries, including about 40 heads of state, arrived for the three-day World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which aims to help close the technology gap between rich and poor nations.

Prime Minister Begum Zia, now in Geneva attended the WSIS at the invitation of the President of the Swiss Confederation Pascal Couchpin. This is her first visit to any European country since she took over power this time.

The official delegation at the summit include Science and ICT Minister Dr A Moyeen Khan, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Reaz Rahman, PM's Principal Secretary Dr Kamal Siddiqui, PM's Political Secretary Mosaddek Ali, Bangladesh Ambassador and Permanent Representative to Geneva, Switzerland Dr Taufiq Ali.

A small landlocked country, Switzerland is set amid mountainous terrain in the heart of the European continent, bordered by France to the west, Germany to the north, Austria to the east and Italy to the south.

First of its kind the Geneva phase of the summit is being hosted by the Swiss government and held at the high patronage of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and International Telecommunication Union.

This is the first time that ICT is the subject matter of an UN summit, which brought heads of state and government, including Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia and executive heads of UN agencies, industry leaders, NGOs, civil and private sector entities. The second phase of the summit will take place in Tunis hosted by the Tunisian government in 2005.

Bangladesh has actively participated in the preparatory process of the summit since its beginning in 2002. Science and ICT Minister Dr A Moyeen Khan had participated in several sessions of preparatory committee.

There will be more than 40 side events during the summit by business sector and civil society entities and four roundtables.

The flags of the Summit, United Nations and Switzerland were hoisted in different parts of Geneva city to welcome the guests.

Participants preparing for the conference, however, failed to agree on a set of goals -- due to be endorsed by governments on Friday -- on the establishment of a special fund to help bridge the so-called digital divide, thwarting one of the key demands of African leaders.

Instead they agreed on a compromise "Digital Solidarity Agenda".

The head of the US delegation at the summit, ambassador David Gross, argued the draft action plan and declaration of principles hammered out after months of talks between governments answered many questions thrown up by technological advances.

Pointing out that the United States was already the largest provider of funds to assist the expansion of the so-called information society -- a term used to describe modern life with its mobile phones, Internet access and electronic media -- Gross questioned the need for a new financing channel.

"We don't know who is going to run the fund, how the fund will be collected and whether there is any need for any new international fund," he told a joint news conference with Watson.