Let me, in the first place, thank\u00a0 the President of OCCAM, Pierpaolo Saporito,\u00a0 and all the organizers and participants for making this conference possible. It is\u00a0 a precious opportunity to discuss the interlinkages between development and ICTs.
Fifteen years after the launch of the MDGs we recognize the contribution the information and communication technologies have brought to the fight against poverty and suffering throughout the world. From telemedicine to disaster risk prevention and response, from education to transparency, from technology transfer to food security, virtually no key driver of development in the new millennium is exempt from the positive impact of the digital revolution.
While we are about to shift from the MDGs to the SDGs, the question to be asked is how the ICTs can continue to help us achieve the new challenge that we are going to set for ourselves at the horizon of 2030.
On the one hand ICTs have become much more widely available both in developing and developed countries. This means we dispose today of what I would define as\u00a0 a \u201cbasic infrastructure\u201d that was simply not in place 15 years ago.\u00a0 That \u201cbasic infrastructure\u201d needs to be further enhanced especially in developing countries, but it is of critical importance that we have there an extraordinary potential vector of ideas, knowledge and initiatives that it is our duty to fully exploit. Just to give you one example, I was struck last week by a presentation given during\u00a0 the ECOSOC integration segment about the new potentialities of e-learning both in developed and developing countries.
I emphasize \u201cdeveloped and developing countries\u201d because ICTs are truly \u201cuniversal\u201d in their impact.\u00a0 From this perspective they are fully consistent with the \u201cuniversal\u201d nature of the post-2015 agenda.\u00a0 ICTs of course have also a huge potential of \u201ctransformative\u201d impact and also from this perspective they respond to one of the features we will have to give to the new development agenda.
It is perhaps needless to remind that besides being a powerful instrument for good, the ICTs also present downsize challenges and risks that can only be addressed through an \u201capproach that needs to see the joint efforts of the whole international community together with civil society and the private sector.\u00a0 ICTs are one of those\u00a0 sectors against which\u00a0 the new global partnership of the post-2015 agenda\u00a0 will have to measure the level of its ambition.\u00a0 This is why I believe it is an excellent choice of the organizers of this conference to have invited panelists from member states but also from civil society and the business sector.
As you know next week the UN headquarters will host the drafting session of the Financing for Development process that will bring us to the Addis Abeba conference in July. The following week will be dedicated to the \u201cMeans of implementation\u201d discussions within the post-2015 process that will culminate in next September\u2019s Summit in New York. I hope that some of the ideas that will emerge from your debates will be able to feed into\u00a0 those processes.
I wish you a very productive conference.
Thank you. <\/P>
\n
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