Message of the President of the Basque Government

Message of the President of the Basque Government,
Mr. Juan Jose Ibarretxe Markuartu

Citizens demand that their political representative provide them with responses and solutions to their problems. Based on this conviction, the Basque Country has made a determined commitment for participation in the Digital Solidarity Fund since it was first created in April 2004. The key is that the cooperation-solidarity binomial should be used to approach the construction of nations.

From this premise, our objective has been to promote a new social model that situates the Basque Country as an example of a world reference. We have committed ourselves to ethical progress that places the person at the centre of economic development, from the principle that the Information Society must be at the service of all persons.

To do this, in cooperation with the United Nations - UNITAR we created the CIFAL BILBAO Centre in order to favour the exchange of experiences between the Local Authorities of the world so as to be able to advance towards the Information Society.

At the same time, CIFAL BILBAO acts as the Technical Secretariat of the IT4ALL - Network of Local Authorities for the Information Society. This Network has become an international reference on the role of the Local Authorities in the World Summit on the Information Society, a summit under he auspices of the United Nations, whose first phase took place last December in Geneva, while its second and final phase will be held in Tunis on 16-18 November 2005.

The existence of this Centre, together with the relevance of the international role played by the Basque Country on this matter, is one of the reasons that have led to Bilbao being chosen as the venue for the II World Summit of Cities and Local Authorities on the Information Society (Bilbao, 9-11 November 2005).

Finally, participation in projects which promote solidarity has been complemented by the fact that the Basque Country has joined the Digital Solidarity Fund, an initiative whose creation was decided during the World Summit on the Information Society held in Geneva and which seeks to channel aid from more developed regions towards those which are still developing, so that they might have access to the New Information and Communication Technologies. In this way, the Information Society becomes one of the strategic commitments of the Basque Government within its policy of International Cooperation.

Therefore, through these two instruments, the IT4ALL Network and the Digital Solidarity Fund, the Basque Country will provide its support in the form both of transfer of knowledge and tools (cooperation), which have proved to be successful in our country, and also of funds (solidarity).

Juan José Ibarretxe Markuartu
President of the Basque Government