STATEMENT DELIVERED BY MS. RITA FORSI, GENERAL DIRECTOR OF ISCTI SUPERIOR INSTITUTE OF THE COMMUNICATION AND THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ITALIAN MINISTRY OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AT THE HIGH LEVEL MEETING OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON THE OVERALL REVIEW BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE OUTCOMES OF THE WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY – (December 15, 2015)  

Mr. President,

Excellencies, Distinguished Co-Facilitators, Distinguished Ministers, Speakers and Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, good afternoon.

I would like to begin by thanking the United Nations for the hospitality that we are all enjoying.

First of all, let me express Italy’s appreciation for the commendable, hard work of the Co-Facilitators in the long preparation of this meeting and to all the stakeholders for their valuable contributions to the success of this process.

As we all know, the main goal of the World Summit on the Information Society was to bridge the digital divide between the developed and developing countries and to facilitate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by using ICTs.

Italy, together with the European Union and its Member States, has been, throughout the years, deeply engaged in the WSIS process and supported numerous projects to implement WSIS Action Lines and bridge the digital divide.

The WSIS Forum has achieved important goals in its role of coordination, information exchange, creation, and sharing of knowledge and best practices related to the 11 courses of action on information and communication technologies.

Italy is fully committed to promoting the importance of ICTs in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development.

In this scenario, the Internet plays a key role, which is why Italy supports multi-stakeholder governance structures that are based on a coherent set of global Internet governance principles, consistent with human rights and fundamental online freedom, including freedom of expression, right to privacy, right to data protection, and freedom of peaceful assembly and association. Every citizen must have the right to access ultra broadband internet with a reasonable quality in order to be correctly e-included in the global community.

Italy welcomes the renewal of the mandate of the IGF, which gathered together inputs from the different stakeholders in an inclusive way over the past ten years.

To conclude, Italy welcomes the Outcome Document and looks forward to working with you on this ambitious project.

Thank you for your time and attention.