Ghana to host preparatory conference of World Summit on Information Society

Accra, Nov. 26, GNA - Mr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Chief Executive of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO), last Wednesday met in Accra with the Secretariat of the African Regional Preparatory Conference for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) to examine the preparations so far made towards the hosting of the summit scheduled for Accra in February next year.

The pre-summit conference dubbed Accra 2005 would monitor and evaluate regional achievements, opportunities, challenges and constraints being faced by the region in implementing its vision for an information-based society, provide a platform for knowledge and information sharing and contribution by all stakeholders.

An official statement in Accra said the summit would also identify existing and planned programmes, initiatives, projects and network that could push the information society for Africa in order to harness collective efforts and prepare contributions by African regional organisations into the WSIS.

In this direction, the summit to be attended by governments, the private sector, NGOs, development partners and civil society would attempt to build consensus on Africa's position on the issues to be presented to the Tunis Phase of the summit.

Mr Spio-Garbrah underscored the importance of the conference to the realisation of the Government's policy on Information Communication Technology (ICT) for accelerated development and pledged the goodwill and general commitment of the CTO towards the success of the Accra Conference.

He asked the Secretariat to work assiduously to ensure that the conference targets set for the various task forces were met.