Eschborn, 10.11.05. While school children here are growing up with cell phones and Internet access, a large part of the world’s population is still excluded from access to modern information and communications technology. 800,000 small towns and villages worldwide – or 30 per cent – are without links to telephone or Internet, or any other modern information technologies.

Overcoming the digital divide is one of the goals of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) which is taking place from 16-18 November 2005 in Tunis. Decision makers from politics, the private sector and civil society are expected from all over the world for the second phase of this UN conference. The first phase was in Geneva in 2003, where 175 countries adopted a Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action for the period up to 2015. The conference is being organised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) with the support of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. The central themes in Tunis include financing infrastructural expansion in poor and rural regions and the “government” of the Internet.

Besides some 250 round tables, discussion fora, presentations and media events, the central attraction will be the accompanying exhibition “ICT4all”, which is being held from 15-19 November 2005. On an area of almost 10,000 square metres, exhibitors from the industrialised and developing countries will present new developments, strategies and solutions in IT. The organisers expect around 40,000 visitors. Germany has its own pavilion.
Actors from politics, the private sector and development cooperation will gather here under the motto “German Partnership for ICT Challenges – Worldwide”. “The emphasis will be on joint efforts by the various German actors promoting the dissemination and use of ICT for the purposes of sustainable development,” says Erich Stather, State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Ten other German partners are exhibiting here besides BMZ: the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Siemens, SAP, Deutsche Messe AG (CeBIT), Fraunhofer Institut für Integrierte Schaltungen, KfW Bankengruppe, Deutsche Welle, InWEnt and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH. They are showing how ICT can act as a lever for economic and social development.

GTZ is an international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations. For 30 years, it has been providing viable, forward-looking solutions for political, economic, ecological and social development in a globalised world. GTZ supports complex reforms and change processes. Its corporate objective is to improve people's living conditions on a sustainable basis. GTZ’s main client is the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
In the past five years, ICT has played a role in over 150 GTZ projects and programmes, including education, health, public administration, promoting the private sector and rural and regional development.

German Pavilion:
“ICT4all”
Accompanying exhibition at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)
15-19 November 2005
Kram Pal Expo, Hall 2, No. 2413
There will be presentations by exhibitors in the German Pavilion daily at 10.00, 11.00, 14.00 and 16.00.

Press conference:
16 November 2005
10:00 – 10:45
Press Interview Room, Hall 2, ICT4all.

GTZ contacts in Tunis:
Katja Suhr
Tel.: +49-(0)160-90145329
Priyani Thomas-Dirla
Tel.: (+216-) 20-97 33 89