Coordinating Committee of Business Interlocutors (CCBI)
World Summit on the Information Society, WSIS
Tunis, 16 – 18 November 2005
CCBI Intervention on Political Chapeau and Operational Part
Delivered by Art Reilly
Group of the Friends of the Chair open consultation meeting
Geneva, 10 January 2005
Thank you Mr Chair,
First, the business community like everyone else has been greatly saddened by the suffering and death endured by the people and countries that were impacted by the 26 December 2004 tsunami in South Asia. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected.
We are heartened by the significant and timely responses of governments, businesses, civil society and international organizations to the plight of the people impacted --providing assistance including through the use of ICTs and by multistakerholder cooperation. We applaud all these efforts and we hope that the continuing and growing efforts and the lessons learned can mitigate suffering and death in the future from disasters of all kinds.
On behalf of the Coordinating Committee of Business Interlocutors, we are pleased to provide some initial comments on the draft documents that were posted on 4 January.
We note that the political chapeau will be approved in the WSIS Plenary in Tunis and thus we believe that it is best described as a commitment by "representatives of governments of the world". Further, we identify the following specific items in the political chapeau:
Paragraph 1 bis; second sentence: We suggest that it be modified for clarity in referring to the Tunis Summit to read: "It increases optimism regarding the future by focusing on concepts that challenge traditional assumptions and which promote an environment that can transform peoples’ activities, interactions and lives for the better, globally."
Paragraph 7: We recommend the addition of a reference to stimulating economic growth as a precondition to enable the other factors, and a reference to the important role of business in stimulating economic growth. Conditions that discourage economic growth and investment inhibit human, social and infrastructure development and growth.
Paragraph 10, 10A, 10B: We urge that whatever formulation is chosen for this paragraph include an appropriate reference to people from countries impacted by natural disasters.
Paragraph 13: It may be too soon to know what the phrase "closely integrating this process in the overall strategy embodied in the Millennium Declaration" might mean and what its implications might be. However, any process should have characteristics that include: openness, inclusiveness and transparency; promotion of cooperation among stakeholders and flexibility to address the needs in achieving the Millennium Declaration Goals.
On the operational part:
Paragraph 10, 11, Alternate 11 and the Annex: If discussion of an additional implementation mechanism for the Geneva Plan of Action continues, we urge that, rather than using the term "coordinator" in connection with each team of stakeholders, a term such as "moderator" be employed. This would seem more appropriate since the role would be more as a moderator, a facilitator, and/or a catalyst in stimulating interactions among the various stakeholder representatives who will be accountable to governments, international organizations, civil society groups, intergovernmental organizations, and business entities.
In the discussion of paragraph 25, we recommend that a prime consideration should be creating and maintaining an enabling environment that stimulates investment and economic growth and that does not impose inhibitors to development.
Paragraph 29: In discussing the follow-up mechanism for the Tunis Phase, we suggest that the phrase "within the United Nations" be replaced by "related to the United Nations" to encompass the range of options that have been identified in paragraph 11. As was mentioned at the November consultative meeting, "CCBI recommends that there should be some forum for dialogue and a mechanism to track progress, but that a formal institutionalization within the UN structure could divert desperately needed resources from action, to continued dialogue".
CCBI appreciates the plan of the Friends of the Chair to have its inputs to PrepCom II available four weeks in advance to provide time for review, consultations and comment.
Thank you.
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.
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