Mr. President,

Distinguished Heads of States and Heads of Governments,
Excellencies,

Distinguished Delegates,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Almost two years ago, the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), that took place in Geneva, gave shape to a shared vision in the Declaration of Principles and put forward a concrete Plan of Action to build upon a development-oriented, equitable and inclusive information society.

Today, we meet again in Tunis, the beautiful city of Tunisia, for the second phase to reaffirm our commitments, to hammer out the specifics that will translate the Action Plan’s objectives into measurable results and devise strategies to help connect all people, as well as to accelerate achievement of the development goals enshrined in the Millennium Declaration.

I would like to reiterate in this meeting that the Royal Thai Government has maintained strong emphasis on the results derived since the first phase. Thailand has incorporated Geneva Declaration and Plan of Action into the country’s ICT development plans and decision-making processes to bringing about sustainable development for all Thai citizens.

Allow me to take this opportunity to share with you some prime projects employed by the Government to achieve those principles and action plans in Thailand.

First, in enabling access to information and knowledge, we set up a National ICT Learning Center, to create a physical learning center accessible to everyone and a prototype for more centers to be established. The centre also features a traditional library of the best IT books alongside a more modern, digital library.

While we are waiting for $100 Lap Top Project to be completed. This year we provided more than 250,000 desk top computer to our students throughout the nation.

One Temple One e-Learning Center (OTEC) is another project to raise a number of computer users and Internet access in Thailand. PCs with Internet access, logistic, software, course outline and training the trainer programme are scheduled to be provided to high potential temples throughout the country.

Second, Thailand is committed to provide information and communication infrastructure for the society. A government service portal located at www.ecitizen.go.th where government agencies offer services through the portal was set up. For those who do not have access to the Internet, the Single Point Service Project provides integrated services with access to the e-Citizen portal.

Furthermore, Thailand has significantly succeeded in lowering both domestic and international telephone charges.

Since broadband Internet capability is a prerequisite for many of the goals in the National ICT Master Plan, Thailand has aimed for affordable nationwide broadband, firstly, by developing equitable infrastructure so that every Thai could reap the benefit of advanced technology, and secondly, by inducing demand via price competition.

This year, Thailand successfully launched the iPSTAR Broadband Satellite. This communications satellite with more than 40 Gigabits per second of bandwidth will drastically cut the end-user price of satellite links into remote areas, allowing entire regions to share an Internet connection.

Third, we engage our roles and all stakeholders’ roles in the promotion of ICT for development. The Open Office R2.0 that enables the software to handle Thai characters in a consistent manner was released, along with the first client-side distribution pack comprising more than 20 open source software systems under the code name "Chantra".

In order to regulate online game activities, the Government has approved several measures, for example, to limit minors, those under age 18, to no more than 3 hours a day of online game-playing; to disallow betting, gambling, in online games; to educate parents and minors about the dangers of spending too much time playing online games; and so on.

Last but not least, Thailand has recently launched the "Cyber Clean" scheme aimed at dealing with improper websites and contents on the Internet. This scheme is a network for cooperation between public and private sectors to work together as a tool to trace on-line wrongdoers in order to promote nice and clean Internet substance.

Mr. President,

Distinguished Heads of States and Heads of Governments,
Excellencies,

Distinguished Delegates,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am fully confident that this meeting will produce fruitful results for us all.

Thank you.