27/05/2004

The 14th World Congress of Information Technology (WCIT 2004), held on 19-21 May 2004, in Athens, has been a success, with more than 2 000 participants from all over the world.

The third day of the Congress was dedicated to e-government and the effects of the technology implementation by the state. Politicians, high-level officials of international institutions and academics were invited to contribute their views on new procedures and technology innovations that contribute to the improvement of democracy.

A significant initiative of the Congress was the "Declaration of Political Leaders on the Human-Centred Technological Development in the service of the citizens" that was signed by ministers and governmental officials from 15 countries, after the invitation of the Greek Minister of Interior, Public Administration and Decentralization Prof. Prokopis Pavlopoulos.

During the same day, the official launch of the non-profit NGO access2democracy took place. The initiative aims to promote democratic values, by making the best possible use of new technologies.

The Greek Deputy Minister of Interior, Mr A. Andreoulakos, underlined that the implementation of e-democracy improves the transactions between citizens and government in terms of time, cost and transparency. Dr Carlos Alberto Primo Braga, Senior Advisor at the International Trade Department of The World Bank, called for a closer global collaboration in order to create common standards and procedures, and to achieve higher growth rates in industry and commerce. "In this international consensus, the participation of the private sector with ideas and initiatives is crucial. This will lead the whole market to work better", stressed Dr Braga.

Dr Rosalie Zobel, Director at the DG "Information Society" of the European Commission, presented the EU initiative "e-Europe" as well as the Information Society Technologies (IST) programme. "At the present time, Europe faces a tremendous development of the Internet?s penetration, broadband services and e-democracy. We have to solve the problem of significant inequalities in technological development. Our goal is to increase funding for R&D up to 3% of GDP by 2010", underlined Dr Zobel.

Prof. Ted Selker (MIT) presented case studies from USA where new methods of e-voting were implemented, while Prof.Chrysantos Dellarocas (MIT) underlined that technology can be a useful communication tool between citizens and governments. Prof. Andreas Papandreou (University of Athens) stressed the new opportunities deriving from the use of ICT as a globalising force that engages citizens in decision-making. Prof. Stephen Coleman (Oxford Internet Institute) focused on the problems of contemporary democracy and how these problems can be eliminated with the use of technology.

The last day of the congress concluded with the Michael Dertouzos Awards, granted to three young researchers.

The participants renewed their appointment for Austin, where the next World Congress will take place in 2006.