UNITED NATIONS MEETING, 17 MAY, TO SEEK CONNECTIVITY, ACCESS SOLUTIONS

Leaders from Government, the private sector and civil society will meet at the United Nations on Thursday, 17 May, to discuss which technological and financing solutions can best promote connectivity and access in emerging economies.

Some 150 participants are expected to attend the meeting, “Tale of Two Worlds: Keeping Pace with a Moving Target”, to be held in the Economic and Social Council Chamber from 3 to 6 p.m.  Among them will be executives from telecommunication companies committed to serving the nearly 1 billion citizens who have yet to reap the dividends of information and communications technology (ICT).

Executives include Tero Ojanpera, Executive Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer, Nokia; Gary A. Bolles, President, Microcast Communications; Richard T. C. LeFave, Chief Information Officer, Sprint Nextel; Randolph St. Leger, Chief Financial Officer, POphoneBox Communications; and Antonio Castillo Holgado, Deputy Director of Corporate Affairs, Telefonica.

Government representatives include Hjálmar W. Hannesson, Vice-President of the Economic and Social Council and Permanent Representative of Iceland to the United Nations; Jean-Marie Ehouzou, Permanent Representative of Benin; Peter Maurer, Permanent Representative of Switzerland; and Ali Hachani, Permanent Representative of Tunisia.

The keynote speakers are Alexandre de Lesseps, Director of Blue Orchard Finance, a Swiss company that promotes private investments in microfinance, and Ami Dar, Executive Director of Action without Borders and Idealist.org, one of the most popular non-profit resources on the web.  Sarbuland Khan, Executive Director, Global Alliance for ICT and Development, will make closing remarks.

Among other things, participants will discuss innovations and new technologies that can increase connectivity in the developing world; technology and financing solutions that can bring universal access to rural areas; universal service obligations; and the role of remittances in stimulating a “telecom economy”.

The event, which marks World Information Society Day on 17 May, is organized by the Global Alliance for ICT and Development and the United Nations Association Diaspora Network.

For information, please visit http://www.un-gaid.org/en/node/602 or contact Enrica Mumura at the Alliance Secretariat, tel: +1 212 963 5913, email: murmura@un.org; or Robert de Jesus, tel: +1 917 367 2432, email: dejesus3@un.org.

* *** *