Coordinating Committee of Business Interlocutors (CCBI)

Coordinating Committee of Business Interlocutors (CCBI)

World Summit on the Information Society, WSIS

Tunis, 16 – 18 November 2005

Input on alternate draft text for chapter two of the operational part of the final document of the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society-Tunis (November 2005)

18 February 2005

The members of CCBI appreciate the work done by the Friends of the Chair as well as the informal efforts of the President of the PrepCom to address some of the issues raised during the "open consultations" at the January 10-11, 2005 "Friends of the Chair" meeting. We welcome this opportunity to provide input on the product of those efforts, the President’s proposal for an alternate draft text for chapter two of the operational part of the final document for the Tunis Phase of the WSIS.

Alternate draft text for chapter two [10 February 2005 Version]

The business community believes that human, social and economic development is a priority and does not happen by serendipity. Rather it is fostered by an environment in which

people are inspired and energized through human capacity building, the exercise of their human rights, and the ability to innovate,

policy-makers stimulate investment and establish programs that foster opportunities and optimism for the future,

the entrepreneurial spirit is not encumbered but rather is unleased by realistic prospects of sustainable business endeavors in addressing customer needs

donors, the financial community, and international organizations can see the potential to leverage their contributions and partnerships for the greater good of people, families, communities, nations, and, in some cases, even the world .

The forces unleashed in such an environment further accelerate the creation of local content, the free flow of information, economic growth, and human development that can further fuel a sustainable process.

The rule of law, intellectual property protection, liberalized telecommunications infrastructure, and trade commitments should also all be recognized as essential components of an enabling environment.

The challenge for all of us in Chapter Two is to draw upon the commendable work of the Task Force on Financial Mechanisms to provide operational guidance to governments, the private sector, the civil society, and international organizations on how such a sustainable process can be replicated based on past experience.

Toward that objective, we offer the following specific comments on the 10 February, 2005 text:

We propose to modify the last sentence of Paragraph 18 so that it would read positively: "It is imperative, therefore, that national policies actively encourage the participation of that country in the global market for information-technology-enabled applications and services." If this is done, we propose to remove the brackets.

We recommend the use of Paragraph 19 Alt with the addition of "and predictable process" after "transparent", so that the phrase would read "supportive, transparent and predictable process" and the insertion at the end of the paragraph the phrase "as part of an enabling environment."

In Paragraph 21, we propose that "sustainable" be inserted before "private sector investment infrastructure".

In Paragraph 23d, we recommend that we recognize that broadband not only facilities new services, but also a variety of user applications that would be impractical without higher speed capabilities. Thus, this item would read: "Broadband capacity to facilitate the delivery of a broader range of services and applications, catalyze investment and provide Internet access at affordable prices to both existing and new users."

In Paragraph 25e, we believe that the term "sustainable" should be added before "successful" in the text describing pilot projects since sustainability that is a key attribute in deciding to scale a pilot project.

We propose that in Paragraph 26f, the term "consumer-based" be deleted since encouraging voluntary contributions towards ICT-related projects and programs that show strong prospects for being sustainable based on return on investment and user satisfaction should be encouraged independent of the source.

In Paragraph 27, we recommend that it be clear that it is the "voluntary Digital Solidarity Fund" to which the text refers. Therefore, it is essential that the word "voluntary" be inserted directly before "Digital" in the first sentence. In addition, until we have had a chance to discuss all the characteristics of the Digital Solidarity Fun, we propose that "acknowledge" be an alternative option in the beginning of this paragraph in addition to "welcome" and "support." If this is done, then the unclear term, "of a voluntary nature", could be deleted.

CCBI looks forward to providing further comments on this document when it has future opportunities to speak on the "political chapeau", other sections of the operational part.

WHAT IS THE COORDINATING COMMITTEE OF BUSINESS INTERLOCUTORS (CCBI)?

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was held during the week of 8 December 2003 in Geneva, culminating in the Summit segment on 10-12 December 2003. The second part of this Summit will take place in 2005 in Tunisia.

Principals of the Summit host countries and executive secretariat invited the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to create the Coordinating Committee of Business Interlocutors (CCBI) as a vehicle through which to mobilize and coordinate the involvement of the worldwide business community in the processes leading to and culminating in the Summit. ICC and the CCBI group led the private-sector effort to provide substantive input into the first phase of the Summit, and mobilized the private sector to participate in the preparatory phases and at the Summit itself. The CCBI, is constituted of the following organizations and their members: Among the organizations actively involved in the work of the CCBI, in addition to ICC, are: Associacion Hispanoamericana de Centros de Investigacion y Empresas de Telecomunicaciones, Brazilian Chamber of Electronic Commerce, the Business Council of the United Nations, Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD; Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce; Global Information Infrastructure Commission; Money Matters Institute; United States Council on International Business; World Economic Forum; World Information Technology and Services Alliance; French Publishers Association; International Publishers Association; and Gobierno Digital.

For further information regarding CCBI, please consult the WSIS website at: https://www.itu.int/net/wsis/index.html the CCBI website at www.businessatwsis.net or ICC’s website at: http://www.iccwbo.org/home/e_business/wsis.asp or contact wsis@iccwbo.org

ABOUT ICC

ICC is the world business organization, the only representative body that speaks with authority on behalf of enterprises from all sectors in every part of the world. ICC promotes an open international trade and investment system and the market economy. Business leaders and experts drawn from the ICC membership establish the business stance on broad issues of trade and investment, e-business, IT and telecoms policy as well as on vital technical and sectoral subjects. ICC was founded in 1919 and today it groups thousands of member companies and associations from over 130 countries.