[governance] President Lula of Brazil receives ITU Award + Lula's speech at the ITU (in Portuguese)

Tue Jun 16 11:09:07 EDT 2009

FYI

Abraços,

Sérgio

Press Release  International Telecommunication Union
For immediate release  Telephone:+41 22 730 6039    Telefax:+41 22 730 5933
E-mail:pressinfo<http://www.itu.int/home/feedback/index.phtml?mail=pressinfo>

President Lula of Brazil receives ITU
Award<http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2009/16.html> World
Telecommunication and Information Society Award for protecting children
online * *

*Geneva, 15 June 2009 — *President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva of Brazil
visited ITU today where he received the World Telecommunication and
Information Society Award.

Accepting the award, President Lula said he was pleased to see international
recognition for the efforts of the Brazilian government to promote digital
inclusion and a safe and democratic virtual space, especially for children
and adolescents. "We are determined to fight digital exclusion, which is
today one of the major constraints in the quest for development," President
Lula said. "To reduce inequalities we need to increase access to modern
communication technologies to a larger number of people. Access to
technologies should go beyond the communications infrastructure dimension.
People should be able to use these technologies in a critical and
interactive way. This is important to promote the involvement of all people
in the knowledge society."

President Lula described measures by his government to promote digital
inclusion, such as connecting urban public schools to broadband Internet,
distributing portable computers to students and teachers in elementary
public schools and establishing telecentres where students can learn, study
and entertain themselves. He said Brazil has reduced taxes on IT solutions
and promoted open software to reduce cost and to build an inclusive
people-centred information society linked to development.

President Lula congratulated ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré for
launching the Global Cybersecurity Agenda. He noted that the World Summit on
the Information Society (WSIS <http://www.itu.int/wsis/index.html>) had
given ITU a mandate to strengthen cybersecurity and said ITU is the right
place to coordinate this endeavour. He said, "The challenge of cybercrimes
demonstrates the importance of discussing and debating Internet governance.
WSIS concluded that Internet governance should be transparent and democratic
with the participation of governments and civil society. ITU should be part
of this effort."

President Lula added, "In fighting paedophiles, ITU could define standards
that could be adopted by all countries. We need a multilateral instrument
that would stimulate effective international cooperation."

World Telecommunication and Information Society Day
(WTISD<http://www.itu.int/wtisd/index.html>)
brings attention to the potential of information and communication
technologies (ICT) in meeting the development and economic aspirations of
societies and on the importance of the Internet as a global resource. The
theme for 2009 is Protecting Children in Cyberspace.

WTISD marks the establishment of ITU in 1865.

Welcoming President Lula to ITU, Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré noted that
Brazil became a Member State of ITU in 1877. "Brazil and ITU have enjoyed a
long and fruitful partnership, based on shared values of multilateralism and
respect," Dr Touré said. "In 1906, following the invention of radio, Brazil
was one of 27 countries which signed the first Radiotelegraph Convention.
We share a long and distinguished history of excellent cooperation, and we
look forward to continuing this tradition of mutual support and respect."

Along with the World Telecommunication and Information Society Award, Dr
Touré gifted President Lula with a copy of the instrument of ratification to
the International Telecommunication Convention signed in Atlantic City
on 15 August 1949.

Citing Brazil’s remarkable progress in ICT development, Dr Touré said that
it is at the forefront of the wireless revolution: "Brazil has 155 million
cellular phones of which 5 million are 3G terminals already in operation,
giving it a mobile teledensity of almost 80 per cent. At the beginning of
2009, over a third of the Brazilian population was online, and Brazil had
over ten million fixed broadband subscribers and close to three million
mobile broadband subscriptions."

Dr Touré added that Brazil is one of the world’s great satellite powers and
has operated both geostationary and non-geostationary satellite networks
since the early 1970’s. "Given the large dimension of your country, space
systems play a vital role in helping connect remote populations as well as
in remote sensing, monitoring climate change and resource exploration," Dr
Touré said.

*

For more information, please contact:
*  *

Sanjay Acharya
*

Chief, Media Relations and Public Information

ITU

Tel: +41 22 730 5046

Mobile: +41 79 249 4861

E-mail: sanjay.acharyaitu.int

*About ITU <http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/aboutitu.html>*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20090616/685bdf11/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Discurso PR UIT final.doc
Type: application/msword
Size: 22528 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20090616/685bdf11/attachment.doc>
-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, send any message to:
     governance-unsubscribe at lists.cpsr.org

For all list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance