Mr. Chairman,

Excellencies,

Distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen,

It is indeed a great honour to deliver the opening remarks at such a timely event.  Firstly, I would like to thank the Chairman of the Global Alliance for ICT and Development, Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, for extending the invitation to me and also congratulate him and his team for delivering innovation and solutions to our collective endeavour of reaching the Millennium Development Goals.

Also, allow me to bid each of you a warm welcome today.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As many of you will recall, the World Summits on the Information Society set out a clear vision for harnessing the vast potential of ICTs to meet development aspirations, including the MDGs. That is also one of the commitments taken by 147 Heads of State and Government through the Millennium Declaration.  

Distinguished Participants,

Today ICTs have become pervasive and underpin almost every activity of our livelihood.  ICT networks and applications help manage and control everything from water supplies, power networks and food distribution chains, to healthcare, education, government services, financial markets, and local and international transportation.

In the span of just a few short years, ICTs have brought the vast wealth of global knowledge within the reach of hundreds of millions of people who otherwise would have never had a chance to access this knowledge. Undoubtedly, today you will hear of several more illuminating case studies.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We have only five years left to meet the MDG target date of 2015.  I am of the firm opinion that ICTs can foster development, but I also believe that for information technology to be a key enabler for achieving the MDGs, a more ambitious and creative approach is required. 

It is therefore an honour for me to be part of these pivotal discussions which will lead to the establishment of the Millennium Development Goals Electronic Centre. This endeavour is an indication of the complimentary relationship between innovation and commitment.   

In my capacity as Special Adviser on Africa and High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, the eMDGs Portal is particularly encouraging given that poorer countries are by and large lagging behind their counterparts in the pursuit of the MDGs. One of the chief concerns raised time and time again by African Countries, the LDCs, LLDCs and the SIDS is the lack of easily accessible information that can be used to enhance and impact their lives in a meaningful manner.

I believe the eMDGs Portal intends to do just that. The four principal components of the portal - the matrix, the meta-portal, the computer-aided strategic planner and the compendium of excellence in ICT for Development strike me as a comprehensive approach, not to mention the added value it brings to existing resources which can be used by State and non-state actors as well as development practitioners for achieving the MDGs.

In the interest of consultation and collaboration, I would like to suggest that the Portal consider including a feature which perhaps tracks the performance of African Countries, the LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS as a specific categories in their endeavor to reach their goals. This disaggregating exercise would allow us to retrieve pertinent information so that we can closely monitor and advocate more effectively on behalf of these vulnerable groups of countries as we progress towards 2015.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Allow me to conclude my brief remarks by mentioning that from 30 May - 3 June next year, the international community will gather in Istanbul, Turkey for the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries. This milestone event will make an honest appraisal of the achievements and shortcomings of the implementation of the Brussels Programme of Action. Most importantly, however, we can expect a new generation of commitments to emerge from the Conference which will guide us for the coming decade.

With this in mind, the eMDGs portal may serve as a useful blueprint for the development of a LDC specific portal geared towards supporting the assessment, monitoring and evaluation of the next Programme of Action.

My Office, and indeed the entire UN family, are confident that this eMDGs Portal will provide fresh ideas and guidance, and we wish you the very best and look forward to working closely with you.

Thank you for your kind attention.