STATEMENT BY H.E. MR. JUN-HYONG RHO,
Vice Minister of Information and Communication
Republic of Korea
Honorable UN Secretary General Kofi Annan,
Honorable ITU Secretary-General Yoshio Utsumi,
Your Excellency President
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of the Republic of Tunisia,
Distinguished Delegates!
It is my great honor to represent the government of the
Republic of Korea in the second phase of the World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS). It is my firm conviction that the Tunis Commitment and
Agenda for Action set out feasible tools for the implementation of the
vision and direction offered in the Geneva Declaration of Principles and
Plan of Action.
The Korean government sincerely hopes that this Summit
will prove to be a turning point for the formulation of schemes for
national, regional and international cooperation with the aim of maximizing
the advantages of ICT.
Distinguished Delegates!
The Korean government is eager to underline that the
Information Society should be people-centered and development-oriented. To
this end, it is necessary to ensure equitable and affordable access to
information for people everywhere.
Creating a healthy information culture and striving to
secure the safety of the information and communication network are also
vital elements.
Moreover, bridging the international digital divide
through the smooth implementation of the Agenda for Action as planned is a
crucial task. This cannot be accomplished through the efforts of any single
country alone. The Korean government will do its utmost, making vigorous
efforts to ensure that these objectives can be achieved for the desired
information society.
In particular, Korea has promoted accessibility to
information through IT learning programs, the provision of IT technology,
the dispatch of policy advisors and Internet Youth Volunteers, and the
establishment of information access centers in developing countries.
For the effective and efficient implementation of the
information society, the Korean Government has promoted the ‘Digital Bridges
Initiative’ Project in cooperation with the ITU. This project aims at the
development of the Digital Opportunity Index.
The Digital Opportunity Index will be a useful means to
step up our efforts to bridge the digital divide, marking one important step
further along our journey towards the information society we want.
Distinguished Delegates!
In relation to Internet Governance, the Korean government
believes that it should be multilateral, transparent and democratic through
the full involvement of governments, the private sector, civil society and
inter-governmental organizations. Internet Governance should ensure an
equitable resource distribution, facilitating access with the stability and
security of the Internet.
Regarding public policy issues relating to Internet
Governance, the Korean Government agrees that international cooperation
among all stakeholders should be enhanced, specifically for public policy
issues such as spam, consumer protection and cybercrime.
Distinguished Delegates!
I would like to take this opportunity, as the
representative of the host of this year’s APEC Economic Leaders’
Meeting, to offer a brief overview of the contribution by APEC to the WSIS.
APEC has been taking part in the UN efforts toward the realization of the
Global Information Society (GIS) through the hard work carried out to
achieve the Asia Pacific Information Society (APIS). In particular, APEC has
been promoting activities for informatization and bridging the digital
divide.
It is my earnest hope that APEC’s contributions to the
WSIS, including APEC’s input to the WSIS Stocktaking activities, will indeed
prove useful in implementing the committed objectives of the WSIS.
I would also like to add that APEC hopes to play its part
in realizing the global information society through its participation in the
efforts of the WSIS.
Distinguished Delegates!
My special thanks go to those who worked so hard to make
this meaningful event possible.
In closing, may I say that I have every confidence that
this Summit will mark a new starting point for the realization of the
information society we envision.
Thank you for your attention! |