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Statement New York, 6 July 2000
Mr. President,
Let me begin by congratulating Ambassador Makarim Wibisono, the President of ECOSOC, the members of the Bureau and all of the members of the Council for preparing this meeting including all the supporting events that complement the main activities of our deliberations on the important issue for our discussions. I wish also to take this opportunity to express my deepest appreciation to the Secretary-General and the Secretariat for making their excellent preparation as well as providing us with a substantive report on the international cooperation and development: the role of information technology in the context of a knowledge-based global economy. I should also associate my delegation with the statement of Nigeria in his capacity as Chairman of the G-77 and China. This new digital era is marked by a revolution that is rapidly transforming the world economy as we know it and fundamentally changing the patterns of production, distribution and consumption. This pervasive revolution, driven largely by a convergence between communication and computing technologies, has propelled connectivity to new and staggering heights. Yet, it is also crystal clear that, no country can afford to isolate itself from this information driven global economy without incurring tremendous costs to its people. Thus, we are profoundly concerned with the current trend of growing disparities within and between countries in their efforts to utilize ICT in the service of development. What is desperately needed to bridge such a digital divide is that we work together, cooperatively to foster digital opportunities and to address the issues that prevent many developing countries from participating fully in the information and communications revolution. In this context, I fully agree with the Secretary-General’s sense of caution concerning the tendency to present the ICT as an immediate panacea for all development problems and challenges. However, that should in no way delay our efforts of collaboration to bridge the gap and to pursue our common objectives. Mr. President, Action is also imperative at the national level. In this context, I would like to inform you that only one day before I left Jakarta, a major Indonesia International Telecommunications Media and Information Technology Conference and Exhibition was concluded. We consider the event to have been a great success. All major players in the telecommunication and information technology at ministerial level participated. This event has shown Indonesia has never really fallen off the radar screen of the global players in this field. In addition, we continue to be committed to the implementation of our clear vision of the need to promote infrastructure and human and institutional capacity development for the purpose of helping to establish a viable Indonesian information society. For this purpose and also to harness ICT in the service of development, Indonesia has adopted a forward-looking vision, which we call, Nusantara 21, and which is designed so as to better pursue our goal of becoming a competitive nation in this era of globalization. We believe that our vision and national strategy will greatly help to transform Indonesia into a competitive information society in the 21st century. We have therefore dedicated ourselves to achieving a number of priorities including those to eliminate inequalities caused by digital divide, to accelerate economic growth particularly in a knowledge-based economy, to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and transparency of governance, to improve education and human resources and to provide affordable and increased access to ICT for all. On the broader stage, Indonesia has also
consistently demonstrated its strong commitment by providing its full
support to various collaborative regional and global initiatives.
Despite our severe economic crisis, we have managed to continue our
multi-year development programme including our efforts to improve
infrastructure facilities to facilitate connectivity to all parts
of the country. The rural communities which spans our numerous and
widely dispersed archipelago are a source of particular concern. To
ensure that they will have the opportunity to participate in the information
society, the government has designed and developed locally a voice-rich
community concept to enable the rural communities located in remote
areas to participate in the new information society. This concept
which has been developed as the first voice-based internet system
that will allowing rural communities, with limited access to computers
or other expensive information technology devices, to be able to gain
access to current and fruitful information. So much for the national level. But, I am also aware that any such strategic steps must, in this age of interdependence, also be coupled by collaborative efforts at both the regional and global levels. In this regard, I wish to underline the importance of enhancing partnerships with all key stake-holders if we are to successfully foster the digital opportunities to all countries and to effectively put ICT to work for development. Such universal access and connectivity to ICT, particularly for the developing countries, will not only require political commitment at the highest level, but will also need to facilitate the diffusion of ICT, to create an enabling environment at the global level to increase investment in this field as well as to provide financial resources, facilitate the transfer of technology, promoting training and research and facilitating the use of ICT for the benefit of the medium and small size enterprises to enable them to participate more effectively in the emerging global economy. Mr. President, In conclusion, I look forward to the achievement of a substantive outcome, fortified by high-level commitments containing recommendations to promote access to ICT for all and to facilitate the developing countries in utilizing the ICT for development thereby greatly facilitating their productive integration into the emerging global economy. Thank you.
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