*EPF507 12/12/2003
Transcript: U.S. Officials Say Information Technology Cornerstone of Growth
(U.S. briefing at Geneva information summit) (3360)

U.S. officials emphasize that dependable telecommunications and information technology infrastructure represents a cornerstone for sustainable development and economic growth in emerging markets and around the world.

Peter Watson, president of the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), said December 10 that this was the impetus behind the announcement of a $400 million OPIC-sponsored finance facility to help in the development of telecommunications and information technology (IT) sectors in emerging and developing economies.

In remarks delivered at a press conference at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) being held December 10-12 in Geneva, Watson said it is important that sectors such as education, health and agriculture be modernized and integrated into the current international economy, and that telecommunications and the IT sector "catalyze the ability of those sectors to be able to be integrated."

Watson said the $400 million financial facility is available for partnerships and joint ventures with the private sector to support existing and new IT projects in areas where there is very little capacity for financial support in the most needy countries.

Watson said the latest financial commitment expands on OPIC's existing $5 billion of total support for over 197 projects in the areas of telecommunications, wireless, Internet, satellite, cable and television.

Ambassador David Gross, head of the U.S. delegation at WSIS, told reporters at the press conference that the United States does more than any other country to fund the development of infrastructure and human capacity building in the developing world. He referred, for example, to the Digital Freedom Initiative launched in Senegal earlier in 2003 to help entrepreneurs make more effective use of information technology and leverage existing infrastructure to expand connectivity.

Watson said the United States had not yet decided whether a new international fund to finance IT projects -- as suggested by a WSIS preparatory committee -- was necessary. "We don't know who is going to run the fund," he said. "Whom will it benefit? How will funds be collected? And whether or not, most fundamentally, there is any need for a new international fund."

Watson expressed the conviction that countries like the United States that are firmly committed to providing appropriate resources in this area will continue to do so.

Following is the transcript of the press conference:

(begin transcript)

Press Conference

Ambassador David A. Gross
Head of the U.S. Delegation to WSIS
U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy

Dr. Peter S. Watson Chairman
President and CEO Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC)

December 10, 2003
Palexpo Conference Center, Geneva

Ambassador Gross: Thank you very much. I am Ambassador David Gross and I have the great honor of leading the U.S. delegation here to the World Summit on the Information Society. I am an Ambassador with the U.S. State Department and my responsibility there is as U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy. The person who will be making the five minute speech for us -- we are greatly honored by having Dr. Jack Marburger, who is the President's science and technology advisor. He is the person in the White House who has responsibility for science and technology issues. So he will be coming and giving this speech. He will be arriving later today and will be around tomorrow. So that is a terrific development from our perspective, that I think is designed to show both our commitment both to the summit and also to the issues being addressed by the summit.

As I am sure you are aware, we just finished yesterday negotiating both the Plan of Action and the Declaration of Principles for the summit that should be adopted on Friday afternoon if the original agenda for the summit is implemented, and we look forward to the approval of those two documents. We think they are both excellent documents that reflect the views of the United States and all of the rest of the nations of the world. It was unanimously adopted by acclamation yesterday on a preliminary basis, and we are very excited about the fact that those documents reflect many of the issues that we think are critically important, freedom of the press, freedom of expression, and that Internet governance should be a reflection of a multi-stakeholder approach that includes among other things being private sector-led in light of the dynamic aspects of it. In addition, we are very pleased to see that intellectual property rights and their importance to the information society are reflected there as well as our interest in making sure that knowledge is spread far and wide around the world in a variety of forms and formats. And with that let me turn it over to Dr. Watson who has a real announcement to make with regards to money.

Watson: Thank you very much Ambassador. Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen. It is a pleasure to visit with you this morning. I have the privilege of serving, as the Ambassador said, as the President and CEO of the United States Overseas Private Investment Corporation. I am not going to launch into a terribly descriptive discussion of the agency, suffice to say that we are an economic development agency of the United States government. Our Mission is to assist sustainable economic development in conjunction with public-private partnerships. We have been established approximately 32 years ago, and we have as one of our continuing priorities, support for economic development, specifically in the telecoms and IT sectors. In that context, we have been very pleased to, in fact, provide in the tenure of our organization approximately 5 billion dollars of total support for the ICT area and in that context we have supported over 197 total projects in the telecommunications, wireless, Internet, satellite, cable and television.

It is in that context that we are very pleased today to reiterate the United States support for economic development and in that context we are announcing a $400 million finance facility for telecommunications and information technology sectors. We, of course, are very mindful that the old economy sectors such as education, health and agriculture are important in terms of being modernized and integrated into the current international economy, and telecoms and the information technology sector catalyze the ability of those sectors to be able to be integrated. Dependable and current telecommunications and IT infrastructure represent, we believe, a cornerstone for sustainable development and economic growth in emerging markets and around the world. And our facility that we are announcing today will significantly enhance the ability of the public sector and the private sector to have partnerships which expand on OPICs existing $5 billion of support for the telecoms-IT sector. It is a major initiative designed to continue and to assist countries as they build out and work with the private sector in their economic development initiatives. I would be happy to add any additional points, but I think, Ambassador, by way of introduction we will just leave it there.

QUESTION: Can you be a little more specific sir about what activities will be underway at the facility, how you will be linking up these partnerships, etc?

WATSON: Certainly. The $ 400 million support that we have set aside is a financial commitment to public-private sector enterprises within the 152 countries that OPIC operates in, which as you might imagine, pretty much accounts for all of the emerging economies, developing economies, and our objective is to make this financial facility available for partnerships, joint ventures, with the private sector to assist in those being built out in the most needy countries.

QUESTION: I'm sorry, I came a bit late, I just want to know, what is your take on the Digital Solidarity Fund. I can see you are using another mechanism. What about your take on that? Thank you.

GROSS: Thank you. There was a lot of discussion during the preparatory process about various funding mechanisms for the development of infrastructure, and human capacity building in the developing world. And we were very interested to hear what others were talking about, because the United States does more of that than any other country in the world. We have done that for many years, throughout the world, and with particular emphasis on Africa in recent years, and President Bush announced earlier this year in fact a specific proposal that has now been implemented called the Digital Freedom Initiative, of which Senegal was the very first country to receive that support. The Digital Freedom Initiative is a Presidential level initiative that is a joint partnership of various U.S. agencies including USAID, the peace corps, the Department of Commerce and the Department of State, that work with other countries together with the US companies to provide support. We focus on those countries that are doing the right thing for their people, those countries that are committed to the rule of law, those countries that show a progressive aspect with regard to the regulatory environment and the like. As a result, in the Declaration of Principles and in the Plan of Action that the preparatory committee approved yesterday, and that we expect will be approved by the summit at the end of the week, there is a reference to the conducting of a feasibility study that would look at whether or not existing funding mechanisms are adequate. If in the view of the study participants, that is not the case, whether or not existing mechanisms can be modified in some appropriate fashion to make them more efficient, or whether or not new funding mechanisms are truly necessary. We are convinced that countries like the United States that are firmly committed to providing appropriate resources in this area will continue to do so, and we think those activities that are on-going are extraordinarily important. There's a follow up?

QUESTION: I just want you to be clear. Why is your country not so much comfortable with the fund. Why do you prefer these alternative mechanisms?

GROSS: There is a tremendous amount that we need to know, and by we, we think that this is true for everyone, that everyone needs to know about the creation of any new fund. For example, because it has not yet been established. We don't know who is going to run the fund. Whom will it benefit? How will funds be collected? And whether or not, most fundamentally, there is any need for a new international fund. As I indicated, we have found that by directly providing support to those people and those countries that are doing the right thing for their people, that that is the most effective means in our view. We recognize of course that other countries are sovereign and can decide to do things that they think are appropriate in this area. And we certainly will not in any way interfere with that. But for the United States, we think we are providing very substantial amounts of support in an appropriate fashion. I want to underscore our view that providing additional capacity, whether it is infrastructure or human capacity development, in the area of communications, and we look forward to working with other countries around the world who are committed to doing the right thing for their people.

WATSON: For the person who posed the question, since you were kind enough to mention that you had missed the introduction, allow me also just to re-stress that this is a continuing support facility that builds up from our preexisting $5 billion dollars of total investment that we have made over the 32 year history of our agency in approximately 197 projects, 78 in Asia, 72 in Latin America, a number in Africa and Eastern Europe, Middle East, so this is a part of an on-going commitment that the agency has to ensuring capacity and financial support in this sector.

QUESTION: Allow me to ask to questions. One question for Dr. Watson. You mentioned Brazil in the press release. I would like you to elaborate a little bit so that we can understand how this is going to work, and for Ambassador Gross, Reporters Sans Frontiers referred yesterday to this summit as a masquerade saying that countries sign papers that they are not going to comply with afterwards.

GROSS: Why don't I answer the second part first and then let Peter answer the first part. They are important although they are not legally binding documents, because these types of documents never are, they are important expressions of political will. With regard to follow-up, there is a unique opportunity at this summit to check on the adequacy of follow up by countries and other organizations because this summit is unique in that it is being held in two phases. The first phase is here in Geneva, today, tomorrow and Friday, and there is of course a second phase scheduled for November 2005 in Tunis. As a result in the second phase there will be an opportunity in a way that we have never had before with summits to gauge on the compliance of countries with the representations and agreements that they have made here in these documents. So we call on other countries to live up to the spirit that they have agreed to in these documents and we look forward to discussing that will all stakeholders as we go forward. Peter

WATSON: Thank you for the question. The press release today makes reference to this new financial facility but it also references preexisting support initiatives that the agency has announced. The two specific other initiatives that are referenced in the press release, are in fact one that makes reference to the recent $1.2 billion global sector fund that OPIC has established that will assist investments in communications, retail services and specialized manufacturing. The second facility is in fact one that you have referred to and that is an independent facility that OPIC has created for Brazil which will assist in the amount of $150 million, which is to assist the development of information technology and communications partnerships in Brazil with specific understanding of the fact that Brazil as their information technology market emerges and they assume and build out additional standards, that there be financial support for the industry and private sector to in fact be able to support the governments policies and initiatives as they develop.

QUESTION: I have a couple of questions for the Ambassador. First of all, what do you think about the criticism that people have said that this draft declaration and plan of action actually fails to answer the key questions such as who is going to rule the Internet, and how are you going to fund this Digital Divide, and also what about the criticism that people say that due to a lack of many world leaders from being here this summit is actually just a summit in name only?

GROSS: In answer to you first question, we think that these documents do go a long way in answering some of the important questions that confront the world with regard to information society. For example, it talks very much in quite striking detail about the commitment of countries for freedom of expression, for a free and open media. It speaks, with regard to Internet governance, about the fact that it must be a reflection of a multi-stakeholder approach, private sector, governments, civil society and the like, and refers of course to a study that will go into greater detail with regard to certain of these issues that are addressed and identified in these documents. So I think in fact we are very pleased. We think in fact many of these issues have been addressed quite directly. In addition, I think that it would be incorrect to think that a summit, a political summit, ought to be looked to to decide fundamental technical issues. Rather the idea of having the summit is to draw attention at the highest political levels to the importance of the underlying issues, and particularly the importance that new technologies have for helping people around the world with regard to their economic development, social development and political reform. We think that those issues are well teed up here and we look forward to working with other countries in resolving those issues going forward. With regard to the attendance here, I have been struck by the numbers that I have heard in the press and elsewhere that the number of participants here appears to far exceed those that others have talked about as this thing was being organized. And I think that is a reflection of the strong interests that are spread around the world on these issues and a reflection of the importance of these issues for so many people.

QUESTION: Could I ask please, this $400 million dollar facility, is this a loan, and a number of the countries involved in this country have specifically requested money for a digital solidarity fund. Is this $400 million anything to do with that, and is the United States amenable to any type of fund that is run multilaterally perhaps by a UN body?

WATSON: I'll let the Ambassador speak to the second part of that question. He in fact addressed a similar question just a moment ago. The $400 million facility is a specific financing that OPIC has set aside for use in the 152 countries where we operate, they include almost all of the emerging or developing economies and it in fact is to provide private sector -- public sector financing in areas in which there is no financial capacity. Those areas, generally speaking, mean that there is very inadequate or limited amount of financing in capital support, in long-term debt financing, in political risk insurance. Support for political projects that need expansion. Supports for investment funds that are operating in those countries. And is available to support existing projects or new projects where there is very little capacity for financial support. And the Ambassador I think has spoken to the other issue already.

GROSS: I would add that we participate both in multilateral and on a direct bilateral basis with regard to supporting countries in these areas. One example of the multilateral support, is we are extraordinarily active, both in terms of our financial support, and also in terms of our human capacity support, for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) the UN affiliated organization that focuses on telecommunications issues. That organization does a tremendous amount of capacity building in the developing world, so we do it both multilaterally as well as bilateral direct support for those countries who are doing the right thing for their people, and we do more of it than any other country in the world.

QUESTION: Ambassador, I wanted to get your thoughts on what you think the outcome and impact of a conference like this would be on improving access to technologies. And in terms of the documents, I'm wondering if you think the message would be stronger here if President Bush were here in person?

GROSS: With regard to the strength of the message here, we think that the number of participants here, the size of the US delegation which is very substantial, the fact that the President's chief science and technology advisor, someone who is extraordinarily senior in the White House, are a reflection of our strong commitment to this process. And we think that what has been accomplished in these documents is really quite substantial. Obviously time will tell, the importance of any event including this one. Having said that, I'm very optimistic that the core issues that are addressed in these documents, the freedom of the press, the freedom of expression, the use of technology to bring economic, social and political benefits to the world's people, will be of a nature because of their clarity here that they will be used and referred to by organizations and individuals and will continue to be a moral compass for countries as we go forward.

(end transcript)

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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