President Arrives In Geneva For WSIS Summit

President J.A. Kufuor arrived in Geneva, Switzerland yesterday, to attend the first World Summit on Information Society.

Fifty-six Heads of State and Governments and 6,000 delegates from governments, intergovernmental organisations, civil society groups, the media and the private sector are attending the three-day summit.

President Kufuor is accompanied by the Foreign Minister, Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo; Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, the Minister of Communications and Technology; Mrs Mercy Bampoe-Addo, Deputy Minister at the Presidency and Mr Kwabena Aggyepong the Press Secretary to the President.

The summit is also being attended by Ghanaian Parliamentry delegation and businessmen as well as Master Seidu Jamaldeen Tonzua, an 18-year student of Presbytarian Senior Secondary School (PRESEC), Legon, who won an essay competition organised by the African Youth Initiative in October this year on ICT for national development.

At the time of filing this report President Kufuor was having a closed door meeting with the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan who is also in Geneva to attend the meeting. The summit is being organised by the United Nations in response to its own resolution adopted on December 21, 2001 concerning the organisation of a World Summit on Information Society.

The summit is expected to endorse a declaration of principles and plan of action for an Information Society that will shape the future of global information and knowledge based society and bring the benefits of Information and Communication Technologies for social and economic development to peoples in all parts of the world.