The western Asia Ministerial Conference was hosted by the Lebanese Government at the United Nations House in Beirut on 4-6 February 2003 and organized by ESCWA, in cooperation with the UNESCO regional office in Cairo and ITU (International Telecommunication Union), with support from the World Bank Information for Development Program (InfoDev) and the United Nations Information Communications Technologies Task Force.
Prominent experts in information and communication Technologies (ICT), non-governmental Organizations, civil society institutions, regional and international organizations as well as private establishments involved in the information society participated in the activities of the conference.
The main themes that the conference focused on were : infrastructure development for the Information Society; ICT applications for socioeconomic development; capacity building in ICT; development of the ICT sector; policies and strategies for building the information society; partnership among stakeholders of the information society; the cultural identity and Arabic digital content in a knowledge-based society; and regional collaboration in building the information society.

Activities of the conference:

First day: 4 February 2003
The conference opened at the United Nations House in Beirut under the auspices of the President, Emile Lahoud, and in presence of a riveting crowd of Lebanese and Arab ministers and experts.
Speakers at the opening session were: ESCWA Executive Secretary Mervat Tallawy; Charles Geiger, Senior Policy Advisor of the WSIS Executive Secretariat; and Lebanese Minister of Telecommunications Jean-Louis Kordahi, representing President Lahoud.
In her statement, Tallawy said that ESCWA had prepared a draft, which highlighted the points of strength and weakness in information and communication technology in the Arab world. She hoped that the draft would help delegations come up with a declaration of principles and the "Beirut Initiative" towards the establishment of an information society in the countries of the region. Tallawy also noted that the challenges facing the developing countries in seeking the knowledge economy did not mean a lack of knowledge as much as it meant a lack of competency in using that knowledge.
Charles Geiger identified three objectives for the Information Summit. The first was to raise awareness among political leaders; the second, to explore the digital divide; and the third, to start a public debate on some of the key aspects of the information society.
After that Minister Kordahi, on behalf of the President of Lebanon, said that the state should play a monitoring role, and give the private sector a bigger role for the increase in investments and eventually the development of the sector.
In the first plenary session, Abdel-Wahid Khan spoke on behalf of the UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura, saying that UNESCO has been involved in the preparations for the WSIS, which he described as a major event on the global agenda.
In the second plenary session, Mohsen Khalil, the World Bank Director of Global Information and Communication Technologies Division highlighted the World Bank's position in relation to the objectives of the Summit; the challenges and opportunities for Arab countries in building a prosperous information society in Western Asia.
Abdel-Rahman Solh, the Arab League Assistant Secretary-General, stressed the importance of broadcasting and transmitting information at the highest quality and the cheapest price. He referred to the UN Human Development Report 2002, which reported a digital gap among Arab countries.
Mohammed Mrayati, ESCWA Regional Advisor on Science and Technology, recommended in his paper that ESCWA member countries debate their different perspectives on the issue of information society in order to reach a common understanding.
The Head of the ITU Arab Regional Office, Ibrahim Qadi, stressed the importance of producing Web sites that are in Arabic and which safeguard ethical concerns.

Second day: 5 February 2003
Three morning workshops were held concurrently on information communication technology (ICT) Applications for socioeconomic development, capacity building in ICT, and the role of government, NGOs and the private sector.
During the first workshop, Lubna Al Kasimi, Director of Information Systems Division at the port Authority of Dubai, The United Arab Emirates, elaborated on the benefits of e-commerce. She said that developing countries should invest in children by attracting their interest to the internet.
Ziad Abdul-Hadi, Head of the computer and biometrics services at the Syria-based International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas said in his lecture : "ICT and Agriculture: the challenge" that 50 percent of the population of western Asian countries depended on Agriculture and that ICT had so far a very low impact on this sector, and if technology were successfully transferred to farmers, ICT would play an important role in agriculture.
In the second workshop, a number of experts debated the feasibility of strengthening ICT in educational institutions.
Ahmad Sartawi, a professor at Al Quds University delivered a lecture about ICT human resources, in which he said that : "developing a competitive information-based economy requires policies, regulations, institutions, infrastructure and people".
In the third workshop, Manuel Rincon, Industrial Development Officer at ESCWA, gave a presentation on "Delineating roles for partners in the Development of Information Society".
Ahmed El Oteify, vice-president of the Egyptian National Telecommunications corporation, talked about partnership initiatives for regional integration, and the growing worldwide competition in the aftermath of the terms of the (WTO).
The afternoon sessions consisted of another three workshops on the Arab digital content; development of the ICT sector; and regional cooperation.
Tarek Shawki, Communication and Information Regional Advisor at the UNESCO office in Cairo, talked about the problems of archiving the digital documents on the Internet and preserving rare Arab and Islamic manuscripts especially the Egyptian ones.
Hassan Sharafeddine, professor and IT advisor at the University of Sanaa, said in his paper that Arab states found out that regionalization is their way out of poverty.

Third day: 6 February 2003
The conference concluded by announcing two main documents: the Declaration of Principles and the "Beirut Initiative"
Speakers at the closing session were: Minister Kordahi and Abdulilah Dewachi, Regional Advisor of Communications and Computer Networking at ESCWA.
Kordahi said that all drafts, remarks and deliberations would be taken into consideration and would be available for future reference on the ESCWA Web site.
Dewachi, then, highlighted the priorities as they were adopted by the Conference including the formulation of a practical Information and Communication Technology (ICT) policy through the removal of socio-economic barriers between privileged and unprivileged segments of society; through narrowing the IC divide; and ensuring homogeneous availability of ICT for all.

Priorities also included pursuing of e-government, e-business and intra-regional trade through electronic networks, e-learning, e-education and improving Arabic e-content.
The "Beirut Initiative" stated that new technologies possessed enormous potential for accelerating growth and enhancing social development.
Finally, the floor was opened for debate. Several heads of delegations and experts shared their remarks and concerns with the audience and re-phrased parts of the two documents.

Arabcin participation
The Arab Club for Information participated in the conference through a delegation consisted of Mr. Bachar Abbas, Secretary General of Arabcin, Mr. Mongi Abdennabi, Manager of Information Department and Mr. Ahmed Difallah, Manager of Arab Institution for ICT.
The delegation presented a draft text of the Arab Charter of Honor for the Information Society which included the following principles and bases:
The digital gap is one of the moral problems that the world faces in the 21st century. This digital gap subdivided into moral, economic and scientific concerns that the world cannot ignore. Therefore, to build a world information society, the first necessary step will be to solve the above mentioned problems.
Enhancing world cooperation in the field of information exchange is not a mere theoretical issue only bought up at the international forums and conferences, but rather, it is a joint moral responsibility that must be supported by the well developed countries by allowing the under-developed countries access to scientific information, in addition to backing and sponsoring special programs that aim at achieving a well-developed balanced world.
The global village concept is supposed to give rise to a joint social moral responsibility that helps the people of the village solve the problems they are facing by themselves based on mutual understanding.
The protection of intellectual copyright is one of the most important problems faced by the Arab Information society. A right that can not be violated, for it is the fundamental base for any development in the world of digital information.
Furthermore, Arabcin delegation also participated in the discussions and workshops with the experts and heads of institutions from different Arab countries.