Kingdom Participates in UN Negotiations on the Overall Review of the Implementation of WSIS Outcomes

The Kingdom participated with a delegation from the Communications and Information Technology Commission and the National Information Society Committee in the negotiations currently taking place in New York, for the overall review of the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society, where the Group of 77, which includes 134 member states, nominated the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, China, Brazil and South Africa to lead the negotiations currently taking place in New York regarding the United Nations review of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The overall review process represents an important historic milestone at the international level, as the outcomes of the negotiations are expected to be adopted at the high-level meeting of the General Assembly scheduled to be held on 15 and 16 December of this month at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

The World Summit on the Information Society was held in two phases, in Geneva in 2003 and in Tunis in 2005, and is considered one of the important milestones for the United Nations and the International Telecommunication Union, which played the leading administrative role in it, with the aim of harnessing the potential of telecommunications and information technology to build a people-centered, inclusive information society oriented towards development.

Regarding the Kingdom's selection to undertake this role, the Director General of International Affairs at the Communications and Information Technology Commission and Acting Secretary of the National Information Society Committee, Eng. Majed bin Mohammed Al-Muzaid, said that this nomination is an extension of the Kingdom's efforts in harnessing the potential of telecommunications and information technology to build the information society, and its active participation in meetings related to following up on the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society, starting from participation in the Summit headed by His Royal Highness Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, may God have mercy on him. Al-Muzaid added that the Kingdom is participating in the United Nations review of the implementation of the Summit's outcomes to contribute to conducting a comprehensive assessment showing the areas of success and shortcomings in implementing the Summit's outcomes, while affirming the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society that have not yet been implemented.

On another note, the President of the current session of the United Nations General Assembly noted that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the third highest country in the world in terms of the rate of household Internet access, a result of the attention given by the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the telecommunications and information technology sector from an early stage, when it adopted the privatization program aimed at raising the efficiency of the national economy and increasing its competitiveness by liberalizing service markets and opening the door to competition, in order to provide advanced telecommunications and information technology services throughout the Kingdom comprehensively, with high quality, and at reasonable prices.

It is worth noting that the Kingdom played a prominent role in following up on the implementation of the Summit's outcomes, and held the position of Vice-Chair for the Asia-Pacific Group on the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development, affiliated with the UN Economic and Social Council, which is concerned with the annual follow-up on the implementation of the Summit's outcomes.