On December, 15-16th, 2015, in New York, USA, the delegation of the Ministry of Information and Communications led by Deputy Minister Nguyen Minh Hong attended High-level Meeting of United Nations General Assembly on World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
World Summit on the Information Society was held in the spirit of the Millennium Declaration 2001 and aimed at collaborating actions among nations to build an information society for all people in the world, affirming the political will of senior leaders in reducing the digital divide and building a global information society.
UN Secretary General Ban Kin Moon attended and delivered a welcome speech, in which included assessments of the results of implementation of the commitments of World Summit on the Information Society 2003 and 2005, and recommended expected commitments of the coming period. The summit were attended by Chairman of General Assembly Mogens Lykkentoft, 80 countries participating at the ministerial level and international organizations.
At the meeting of the General Assembly, Deputy Minister Nguyen Minh Hong delivered a speech confirming the development of ICT regarded as one of the top national policy strategies for the economic development, one of the key factors to implementing poverty reduction in Vietnam. He also affirmed the overall 10-year outcomes of WSIS, but it seemed that the digital divide even was extended. To continue to implement the objectives of the World Summit on the Information Society, Vietnam requested to discuss priority initiatives to narrow the digital divide between member countries, between the urban and rural areas, to ensure that all people have the opportunity to use the services and access to information. Vietnam would continue its active participation in implementing new cooperation initiatives, especially in the implementation of the UN2030 Agenda on sustainable development to contribute to building a world of peace, development and prosperity.
In the framework of the summit, there were many activities related to the information society and the implementation of sustainable development goals of the United Nations. Deputy Minister Nguyen Minh Hong met ITU’s Deputy Secretary-General. At the meeting, Vietnam highly appreciated the role of ITU in the coordination and support the member countries in implementing the objectives of the action programs and declarations of World Summit on the Information Society, and committed Vietnam would continue to actively participate in and contribute to ITU’s activities as well as UN’s development goals. ITU also appreciated Vietnam’s role in the activities of ITU and hoped Vietnam would cooperate with the member countries in implementing ITU’s activities in the future.
