A highlight of the World Telecommunication Development Conference, in Doha, Qatar, 7-15 March 2006, will be a panel discussion among the movers, shakers and thinkers within governments, civil society, the private sector and international organizations to achieve the goal of connecting the world to the benefits of information and communication technologies (ICT).
In June, 2005, ITU launched the Connect the World initiative, a multi-stakeholder partnership that is united in the objective of connecting the 800000 villages or 30% of all villages worldwide which still lack any kind of connectivity. At the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis in November 2005, partner organizations signed a pledge to make good that commitment by 2015.
WTDC-06 is the first opportunity to operationalize the political commitments enunciated at the Summit. The Panel, co-hosted by Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, daughter of the Emir of Qatar and Mr Yoshio Utsumi, ITU Secretary-General, provides an informal forum for stakeholders to exchange experiences and highlight concrete, implementation-focused solutions to be shared with WTDC participants.
Based on an open and interactive discussion between eight eminent Connect the World partners and an audience of about 100 participants, the discussion will be moderated by well-known television anchor, Stephen Cole, formerly BBC and now with Al Jazeera.
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