CALD, FNF in WSIS Regional Meeting

(Tokyo, Japan/ January 15, 2003) The Council of Asian Liberals and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation participated in the recent Asian Regional Meeting of the World Summit on Information Society at the Hotel Takanawa, Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan from January 12 to 15, 2003. CALD was represented by Mr. John Joseph S. Coronel, Executive Director, while FNF was represented by Mr. James Gomez.

The WSIS provides a global platform where key players—governments, United Nations agencies, the private sector and civil society—will come together to develop a common vision and understanding of the information society and to adopt a declaration and a plan of action (please refer to the WSIS websitre athttp://www.itu.int/wsis)

Amongst the collaborators of the regional conference are the Asian Development Bank, the Asia Pacific Telecommunity, the World Bank InfoDev Program, International Telecommunication Union, UNESCO and the UN University. 

The civil society sector where CALD and FNF were represented submitted a non-paper, which pushed for an inclusive and democratic information society that would promote sustainable human development, human values and empowerment of the people. Information communication technologies (ICTs) are, therefore,  viewed merely as modern instruments for the pursuit of these ultimate goals.

“The Tokyo Declaration—the Asia Pacific Perspective to the WSIS”  was supported by governments from 37 countries, 26 international organizations, 58 private sector entities and 199 non-government organizations.

Categorised in: News Article

This post was written by CALD