AzerTaj personal correspondent reports that the World Summit of the Information Society started its work at Palexpo place in Geneva.

Before the opening ceremony, an official reception was arranged on behalf of the Secretary General Koffi Annan in honour of the heads of state and government participating in the World Summit of the Information Society. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev took part in the reception.

Afterwards, the opening ceremony for the World Summit of the Information Society was held. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev participated in the ceremony.

Hosting the event President of Swiss Confederation Mr. Pascal Couchepin welcomed the summit participants, expressed his gratitude for holding such an important forum in Switzerland and wished the work of the forum every success. He noted that more than half of the world’s population could not use even telephones let alone the Internet and other modern technologies. That is why, according to him, the developed society must achieve reduction of difference in people’s possibilities to receive information.

Then, Secretary General of the United Nations Koffi Annan took the floor. He stressed the important role of Information Communication Technology in development of civil society, economy, in poverty reduction as well as in solving other social problems facing humanity. The Secretary General noted that one of the main ideas of the statement adopted on December 9 by the forum of electronic mass media representatives in the framework of the summit is a necessity of purposeful work aimed at elimination of inequality of rights existing in the world.

President of the Republic of Tunisia Mr. Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to host the second phase of the World Summit of the Information Society in 2005, emphasized the importance of taking effective measures to eliminate differences in people’s opportunities to get information not only on a global scale but also on those between the regions within a country. He expressed his confidence in continuation of debate during the second phase of the summit.

Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Mr. Yoshio Utsumi spoke of the achievements in the field of Information Communication Technologies saying: “In 1999, there were around 1.5 billion telephone lines, today there are nearly 2.5 billion lines. In the last four years we have added 1 billion lines to the 1.5 billion we had connected in all the years before.” He called the heads of state and governments for closer cooperation with the United Nations and International Telecommunication Union.

After the opening ceremony, general debate began at the plenary session opened by President of the Republic of Finland Ms. Tarja Halonen.

The next speaker was President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

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On the same day, President of Azerbaijan has held a number of meetings with heads of state.

During the meeting between President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of the Republic of Estonia Mr. Arnold Rььtel, the parties have exchanged views on the international problems, development of relations between Estonia and Azerbaijan and touched upon other issues of mutual interest.

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Then, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev met with President of the Republic of Romania Ion Iliesku. During the conversation, the presidents discussed issues related to the expansion of bilateral relations between the countries, especially in economic sphere, as well as exchanged opinions on the international and regional problems

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His next meeting President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev had with President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mahammad Hatami. During the conversation held in sincere atmosphere, the heads of state expressed their satisfaction with rapidly developing mutually beneficial relations between the two friendly, neighboring countries, and stressed the importance of their further strengthening. The president also exchanged views on other issues of mutual interests.

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World Summit of the Information Society continues its work.