VILNIUS -- The first World Information Technology Forum, or WITFOR, agreed that international cooperation was needed so that poor countries were not left out of the flow of knowledge driving much of the modern economy.
A statement adopted by delegates of 68 states and numerous technology companies at the end of the forum held in Vilnius that cooperation between states and public-private linkups to bridge the "digital divide" were crucial to help reduce world poverty.
"Africa is facing severe problems, but in every country there's a gap between 'haves' and 'have-nots,' between urban and rural areas, between generations," Yoshio Utsumi, head of the International Telecommunications Union, told the gathering.
The so-called Vilnius Declaration adopted on Friday will be used as input for a World Summit of Information Societies to take place in Geneva in December.
"Knowledge society is about technical solutions and their financing," International Federation for Information Processing President Klaus Brunnstein told Reuters.
"But it is also about truly being informed, which requires education, since nothing is gained if people only play games, surf randomly or watch pornography," he added.
IFIP, set up by the U.N.'s educational, scientific and cultural body, UNESCO, organizes the Forum.
Lephimotswe Boyce Sebetela, minister of technology in Botswana where the next WITFOR will be held in 2005, said infrastructure was a first important step.
"One goal is by 2015 to double access to a telephone in Africa to two per 100 inhabitants," Sebetela said.
"So the basic telephony level is very low, and if you consider computer ownership and Internet access, it is clear that the lag from the developed world is huge," he said.
Sebetela stressed that big foreign investors, a key to achieving rapid economic growth, were loath to do business where communication services were unreliable.
