In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
Your Excellencies,
Mr Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Tunisia celebrates today, along with all the international community, and for the first time, the "World Information Society Day", established in accordance with the resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, and with the recommendations emanating from the World Summit on the Information Society.

This resolution was adopted following an initiative made by Tunisia and supported by all the member States, on the occasion of the holding of this Summit that our country has had the honour of hosting with brilliant success. This resolution came to consecrate the choices and orientations advocated by the international community in the "Tunis Agenda on the Information Society".

I avail myself of this opportunity to express my thanks to the International Telecommunications Union and to all the delegations of the countries that we have had the honour of welcoming during the holding of the Summit in our country. I wish to commend their rich contribution to the success of this Summit, and their commitment to establish a coherent and solidarity-based international information society.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The evolution of ICTs has not always been balanced and equitable. In fact, the digital divide has, all along the years, been widened among countries, at a time when we aspire to see these technologies constitute an additional factor of integration, and contribute to achieving the Millennium Goals in terms of comprehensive and balanced development.

We have established our approach in the ICTs field on the objective of enhancing progress and well-being at all levels, promoting Man in all fields, and enlarging the scope of entente and partnership among all the peoples of the world.
The international community is, therefore, called on to step up efforts in order to help all peoples, particularly the least developed ones, to benefit from the digital revolution, as part of an international partnership based on cooperation, solidarity and complementarity.

Thanks to the sense of consensus shown by all the parties involved, the Tunis Summit has managed to come up with a set of recommendations and decisions that we all, Governments, international organizations, civil society and private sector, aspire to see implemented.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are already making progress in the process of establishing the mechanisms of follow-up and implementation during the post-Tunis Summit stage. All the parties involved are, therefore, exhorted to step up action in order to materialize the Summit results and decisions, and contribute to establishing a more equitable and solidarity-based international information society.

In this context, we are keen to see the efforts of all the international community joined to help African countries in particular benefit from access to ICTs. This has prompted us to establish the periodicity of the "ICT for All" forum, held for the first time during the Tunis Summit, as a space intended for African countries to make known the best solutions and technologies that can serve their development process in all its dimensions.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to express to you my sincere thanks and deep consideration for the efforts you exert to achieve the noble objectives underlying the celebration of the World Information Society Day, commending, on this occasion, your endeavour to bridge the digital divide among nations, in accordance with a time schedule extending till 2015 for the achievement of the Millennium Goals.

Thank you for your attention.