WSIS thematic Meeting on Economic and Social Implications of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
Organized by ILO/ITC/OECD/UNCTAD, the outcome of the thematic meeting will feed into the preparatory process for the Tunis phase of the World Summit on the Information Society, which is being organized by the International Telecommunication Union.
The Antigua meeting addresses the Geneva Plan of Action, which requests all stakeholders to encourage the use of ICTs by Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) to foster innovation, realize gains in productivity, reduce transaction costs and fight poverty.
The meeting will allow governments, the private sector, workers and civil society to examine policies and practices that permit enterprises to employ ICTs as effective productivity enhancing tools, and to do so in a socially responsible manner.
The outcome of the meeting will provide practical suggestions that can help countries to utilize ICTs for effective poverty eradication through the growth of economically sustainable enterprises and the quality of employment they generate. This will permit policy makers to integrate ICTs into the broader development agenda. The conclusions will be submitted as an input for the text to be considered at PrepCom-2 of the Tunis phase of WSIS, which will be held in Geneva 17-25 February 2005.
The thematic meeting will be hosted by the Government of Guatemala and sponsored by IDRC and the Government of France.
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