Addis Ababa, November 21, 2007

At the occasion of the Second anniversary of the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) held in Tunis in 2005, the Tunisian Government is organizing the ICT 4 All Forum at the Medina Conference Centre, Hammamet, Tunisia.   The event, which includes a forum and a technological exhibition, puts together high-level policymakers, government officials, representatives from the private sector, potential investors as well as experts from international organizations.

The Forum will address the issue of  Public Private Partnership (PPP) in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) as a tool for development through:

• Exchange of best practices and experiences in PPPs
• Exhibition of products and services of ICT companies
• Presentation of models, approaches and national strategies for establishing successful PPPs
• One to One meetings with private sector and international organizations to discuss and explore business opportunities

The Forum is in line with paragraph 98 of the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society adopted by the WSIS in Tunis in 2005, which states:

"We encourage strengthened and continuing cooperation between and among stakeholders to ensure effective implementation of the Geneva and Tunis outcomes, for instance through the promotion of national, regional and international multi-stakeholder partnerships including Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), and the promotion of national and regional multi-stakeholder thematic platforms, in a joint effort and dialogue with developing and less developed countries, development partners and actors in the ICT sector."

Mr. Mohamed Ghannouchi, Prime Minister of Tunisia opened the Forum. Several organizations including ECA, the African Development Bank, UNCTAD, ITU and the Tunisian Federation of ICT Employers made opening remarks during the meeting.  

Mrs. Lala Ben Barka, Deputy Executive Secretary represented the ECA Executive Secretary, Mr. Abdoulie Janneh at the Forum. In her statement, Mrs Ben Barka put emphasis on ECA's commitment in developing partnerships and gave the examples of the Commission hosting the secretariat of several multilateral ICT for development partnerships, such as the Global Alliance on ICT and Development (GAID), the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) and the Partnership for Information and Communication Technologies in Africa (PICTA). She also urged Forum participants to come up with additional innovative mechanisms to promote PPPs in member States to step up economic growth and reduce poverty.

The Forum, which is an annual event to follow up WSIS outcomes related to PPPs in Africa will run from 20 to 21 November 2007.

For more information, please contact: mfaye@uneca.org