INFORMATION NOTE

Third Latin American and Caribbean – European Union Ministerial Forum on the Information Society
An Alliance for Social Cohesion through Digital Inclusion


The Third Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) – European Union (EU) Ministerial Forum on the Information Society will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 22-23 November 2004. This event will be organised by the Brazilian Government and by the European Commission, and will pursue the exchanges that took place at the forums held in April 2002 in Seville and in July 2003 in Lima.

This Third Forum fulfils the mandate approved by the Heads of State and Government of the two regions in the political declaration issued at the third LAC-EU Summit of Guadalajara (Mexico) of 28-29 May 2004:


Paragraph 94 of the Guadalajara Declaration:

"In view of the social impact of information and communication technologies, we call on Ministers of both regions to consider the social cohesion aspects in the agenda of the next LAC-EU Information Society Forum."

In this context, this year’s Forum will provide for:

• Exchange among the two regions of experiences on the impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) on social cohesion, notably in the fields of education, health, public administration and digital inclusion, with the objective of promoting, in these areas, technology transfer and scientific and technology cooperation between LAC and the EU.
• Debate on themes which are relevant to the development of the Information Society, such as free/open source software, the interoperability of systems, internet governance, security and appropriate mechanisms for financing and support.
• Exchange of views on knowledge sharing in the Information Society.
• Reinforcement of co-operation among the two regions in the field of research & development, in particular through the official launching of the first research and education pan-Latin-American network, CLARA (Latin American Cooperation on Advanced Networks), and its direct interconnection with the pan-European GÉANT network, in the context of the ALICE project of the @LIS co-operation programme of the European Commission (http://europa.eu.int/alis).
• Strengthening of the LAC-EU policy and regulatory co-operation of the Information Society. In this context, a dialogue among LAC and EU Governments on policy and regulatory issues of common interest in the Information Society field will be launched, which in particular will identify those aspects of the Geneva Plan of Action of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) which are most relevant from the point of view of social cohesion and digital inclusion. This dialogue will have the technical and institutional support of the ECLAC/United Nations, in the context of the @LIS programme, and will be open to contributions from other parties involved in the development of the Information Society.

This Forum aims for a debate that would:

1. approve a Ministerial declaration reflecting the views on digital inclusion shared by the two regions, with emphasis on the most urgent priorities of the WSIS Plan of Action;
2. agree on the principle of a bi-regional work programme for the development of digital inclusion based on the WSIS Plan of Action, including proposals for technology transfer and cooperation in specific areas.

This III LAC-EU Ministerial Forum is a Governmental symposium, which will also be attended by coordinators of national programmes for Information Society and/or Digital Inclusion and representatives of regulatory agencies of the sector of both regions. High-level representatives of civil society, the private sector and of international organisations will also be invited to contribute to the debates in broader sessions.

This event will be supported by the @LIS programme and will have technical and institutional assistance from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations, ECLAC.

The Government of the State of Rio de Janeiro will also provide support to the organisation of this event.

AHCIET, the Hispano-American Association of Research Centres and Telecommunications Companies, member of the @LIS International Stakeholder Network, will be involved in the organisation of the Forum.

For organisational reasons, participation at this Forum will be subject to invitation from the Brazilian Government and the European Commission, which will be sent shortly.