President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali called upon Tunisian civil society to enlarge its participation to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) on the occasion of the second phase of the Summit scheduled for next year in Tunisia

The first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society was hosted by Switzerland, from 10 to 12 December 2003. The second phase will be hosted by Tunisia in November 16-18, 2005.

“While appreciating the participation of the Tunisian civil society in the first phase of the Summit, and its role in enriching dialogue on the issues submitted to the Summit”, said President Ben Ali, “I exhort it to enlarge its future participation and to consolidate the fields of cooperation and coordination with all the components of the international civil society, and especially at the regional level, so as to demonstrate the degree of awareness achieved by Tunisians as regards the current rapid changes, and their capacity to keep pace with the new technologies and to actively contribute to disseminating a balanced and solidarity-based development all over the world.”

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During these last weeks, a lot of good actions were made to better involve different Tunisian society parts on the process of the WSIS. Some of these actions are described below:

Free English and Internet courses for Civil Society members
IFEDA Centre (Centre d'information, de formation, d'études, de documentation sur les associations = Information, training, studies and documentation center about associations) is offering free courses in practical English and Internet use for all the Civil Society members for a better and efficient presence during the WSIS. These courses are planned as following depending on the availability of the participants:

English courses:
- May, 17-21, 2004
- June, 14-18, 2004
- July, 12-16, 2004
- September, 6-10, 2004

Internet:
- May, 17-19, 2004
- June, 14-16, 2004
- September, 6-8, 2004
- December, 20-22, 2004

Other advanced can be planned after.

Youth participation on the organisation
The human resources commission of the Organisation committee of the WSIS started the recruitment volunteers from the great database of young people who helped the success of the Mediterranean Games of year 2001. Each volunteer has received a letter with an invitation letter to join them in this important event hosted by Tunisia in November 2005 and an application form to fill in the two cases of ability or not to do it.


Involvement of the Tunisian Private sector on the WSIS
The Syndicate of companies working on IT sector is encouraging all its members to be involved on the WSIS and all the linked manifestation and meetings inside and outside the country to open the ways of international partnerships and help the use of ICT for development based on Geneva declaration.