I would like to thank the guidance...

I would like to thank the guidance of Switzerland for the extraordinary support it has provided for this Summit--not just the warm hospitality and the typical Swiss efficiency, still also the steadfast political commitment to making this Summit a succes I would also like to thank Mr [Yoshio] Utsumi and the International Telecommunication Union for the opennes with which they have managed the Summit proces and for working thus effectively with the entire UN system

We are going by the agency of a historic transformation in the way we live, learn, work, communicate and do business. We must do in the way that not passively but as makers of our avow destiny. Technology has produced the information age. Now it is up to all of us to build an information society.

This Summit is unique. Where chiefly global conferences focus on global threats, this undivided will consider how best to use a just discovered global asset.

We are all familiar with the extraordinary power of information and communications technologies. From trade to telemedicine, from education to environmental protection, we have in our hands, in succession our desktops and in the skies above, the ability to improve standards of living for millions of race on this planet.

We have tools that can urge on us toward the Millennium progressive growth Goals, instruments with which to advance the cause of freedom and democracy, vehicles with which to propagate knowledge and mutual understanding. We have all of this potential. The challenge before this Summit is what to do with it.

The so-called digital divide is actually several gaps in one:

There is a technological divide--great gaps in infrastructure. There is a satisfied divide. A lot of web-based information is simply not relevant to the real emergencys of people. And nearly 70 by cent of the world's web sites are in English, at times crowding public local voices and views. There is a inflection for sex divide, with women and girls enjoying les access to information technology than men and male childs This can be true of rich and poor countries alike--some developing countries are among those offering the greatest in number digital opportunities for women, while any developed countries have done considerably les well. There is a commercial divide, E-commerce is linking one countries and companies ever more closely together. further others run the risk of further marginalization. a experts describe the digital divide as common of the biggest non-tariff barriers to world trade. And there are obvious social, economic and other disparities and obstacles that affect a country's ability to take advantage of digital opportunities.

We cannot assume that as it was gaps will disappear on their possess over time, as the diffusion of technology naturally spreads its wealth. An unclose inclusive information society that benefits all family will not emerge without sustained commitment and investment. We apply the mind to you, the leaders assembled here, to breed those acts of political will.

We also await to the business community, which I am glad to say is showed here in impressive numbers. The what may occur hereafter of the IT industry lies not in such a manner much in the developed world, where markets are getting saturated, as in reaching the billions of race in the developing world who remain untouched through the information revolution. E-health, e-school and other applications can put forward the new dynamic of expansion for which the industry has been looking.

We await to civil society groups, in particular for their rich knowledge of trustful longings and concerns at the local even among communities that are eager to join in the global exchange of ideas and information, nevertheless may also feel their identities are threatened by means of a pre-packaged global culture.

And we apply the mind to media organizations, which are the couple creators of content and essential watchdogs. At yesterday's World Electronic Media Forum, broadcasting leaders from all the world's regions adopted a declaration in which they pledg to do their part for unfolding and social cohesion. It is vital that they retain their freedom to do in like manner as spelt out in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Indeed, the right to freedom of opinion and expression is fundamental to progression in a continuously ascending gradation democracy and peace, and must remain a touchstone for our work ahead.

Information and communication technologies are not a panacea or magic formula. moreover they can improve the lives of everyone forward this planet. Yet even as we talk about the power of technology, put to hire us remember who is in charge. While technology shapes the hereafter it is people who shape technology and decide what it can and should be used for. in this way let us embrace these novel technologies; let us recognize that we are embarked onward an endeavour that transcends technology. Building an explain empowering information society is a social, economic and ultimately political challenge.

There is no comparison between the technologies of the atomic age and those of the information age. Nonetheless, something written half a hundred ago by the American nuclear scientist J Robert Oppenheimer appears strangely prescient and applicable today. And I quote: "The lay open society, the unrestricted access to knowledge, the unplanned and uninhibited association of men for its furtherance--these are what may make a vast, involved ever growing, ever changing, evermore more specialized and expert technological world, nevertheless a world of human community."