TUNIS – Abdul Wahab Abdullah, the Minister Advisor to the Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, said in a conference in Tunis that the prominent role that information and communication play in nations’ civilization was mainly the fruit of the unprecedented revolution of communication.
Abdullah said that the society of information and knowledge was “a strategic choice that influences both the present and future of nations.”
Tunisia is gearing-up to host the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), crowing its position as one of the top technology/information adapters in the developing world.
Abdullah drew many questions he hoped would help trigger a debate and shed some light on many perspectives during the forum.
He emphasised the ‘digital gap’ between the north and the south, asking whether it was the product of a lack of resources, capabilities and difficulties of developing societies – a gap he partly blamed on developed countries.
Abdullah hailed Tunisia for its great achievements in information society which are recognised worldwide.
“Tunisia put lot of efforts in joining society of information and knowledge, acquiring the latest science and technology to boost its economy and create job opportunities to its youth.”
“What all Tunisians is proud of was the report of the World Economic Forum which ranked Tunisia 31 out of 104 countries in the world in terms of information society,” said Abdullah, adding that Tunisia was ahead of many European, Asian and American countries such as Italy, Russia, Mexico and India.
He said that Tunisia continues its hard work to reach higher levels and achieve important steps in order to be in line with these fast-developing technologies which are catalysts to a nation’s development and help build a society of information and knowledge.
“Information society is a society where opportunities of interest are equal; a society that allows all peoples and sides, without discrimination or boundaries, to browse the sources of information and knowledge that cover all sorts of fields and are regarded as an important pillar to achieve a just human development.”
On the World Summit on Information Society, Abdullah said that Tunisia was very proud to host the second phase of the summit and would provide all the necessary means to make it a huge success.
President Ben Ali is supervising the transformation of Tunisia into an information society on day-to-day basis, sources revealed.
The second phase of the summit, to be held next November in Tunis, is supposed to measure the progress made in fulfilling the specific objectives of the first phase Geneva and to call on all stakeholders to transform the political will expressed at the first phase into long-term commitments.
Blair blasts Britons over Iraq war