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Mr. President,
Let me at the outset thank the Secretary General of the International
Telecommunication Union for presenting the outcome documents for the two phases
of the World Summit on Information Society.
2. My delegation would like to associate itself with the statement made by the
distinguished representative of South Africa on behalf of the Group of 77 and
China. As a member of the G-77 and China, we are also very happy to cosponsor
the draft resolution on World Summit on Information Society.
3. We also join others in conveying our gratitude to the people and Government
of Tunisia for hosting the second phase of WSIS.
4. Our leaders at the 2005 World Summit committed themselves to building a
people-centered and inclusive information society to enhance digital
opportunities for all people in order to help bridge the digital divide. They
also committed to putting the potential of ICT at the service of development.
5. We see the WSIS process as a bold and unique attempt to address ICT issues,
through a structured and inclusive approach, involving multi-stakeholder
participation. The two-phased architecture of WSIS offered the necessary space
for an all encompassing and lively debate on wide ranging issues related to the
prospective information society.
6. Clearly, the high level political participation in both the Geneva and Tunis
phases has provided the much-needed political impetus to the evolving global
vision of an information society.
7. Pakistan welcomes the strong development orientation of the WSIS outcomes and
calls for its full operationalization including in regard to the mandated
processes such as Internet Governance Forum and enhanced cooperation. We are
hopeful that all the relevant actors and stakeholders will be contributing
actively to the implementation of WSIS Outcomes by initiating appropriate
actions within their respective competencies.
8. Pakistan has been closely engaged in the WSIS process throughout. More
recently, as Chair of the Sub-Committee dealing with Internet Governance,
Pakistan played a pivotal role in forging consensus in the difficult and complex
area of internet governance. We believe that important issues like internet
governance, cyber security, open source and freedom of expression and the role
of media need to be resolved in a manner that takes due cognizance of interests
of all stakeholders.
9. Pakistan’s vision of an information society is one that is inclusive and
affords opportunities to people regardless of frontiers to benefit from the
possibilities it brings in all spheres of human existence. Back home, we have
attached high priority on putting in place the necessary physical and legal
infrastructure that would facilitate integration into the information society.
10. The Government is acting as an enabler for the growth of ICT. A host of
goals are being pursued under a separate, dynamic IT Ministry. These include
massive investment in education, training, especially IT/virtual universities;
infrastructure development; increasing teledensity and universalizing access to
the Internet. We have also evolved a comprehensive national ICT strategy and an
effective mechanism to monitor its implementation.
11. We believe that if the opportunities were to be fully exploited, it would be
necessary to develop capabilities to adapt, maintain, customize and reconfigure
existing ICT solutions to our specific requirements.
12. We look forward to an active and constructive engagement with the member
states and all relevant stakeholders to secure the full operationalization of
the development orientation of the WSIS Outcomes in order to evenly distribute
the benefits of ICTs in a globalized world economy.
I thank you, Mr. President.