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| Ambassador of Tunisia, Mr. Hassine Bouzid |
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| On May 10th and May 11th, 2005, Brasília received the Head of States and Chancelers of all the South American and Arab nations at the South America, Arab Countries Summit to discuss the endless possibilities of business these two worlds have the chance to build and to strengthen the political, cultural and commercial bonds between the two blocks. Ambassador Hassine Bouzid, of the Embassy of Tunisia, talked to THE GUIDE about the plans of the Tunisian Delegation and the World Summit on the Information Society, planned in the month of November of 2005, in Tunisia |
| THE GUIDE How are the preparations for the Summit ? |
| Ambassador Hassine Bouzid They are going well, Itamaraty is doing it all in a very professional manner and the Embassy is in permanent contact with Itamaraty over the phone and today, the last day of preparations, we can see that our delegation has no problem at all, it is all set. |
| THE GUIDE Is the Tunisian delegation already in Brasília? |
| Ambassador Hassine Bouzid No, they will be here tomorrow. There are two delegations coming: one is political and the other entrepreneurial. This second one will not only participate of the economical seminar here in Brasília, but also the business meeting in São Paulo , organized by the Arab Chamber of Commerce in Brazil. |
| THE GUIDE And what are the expectations of Tunisia in the Summit? |
| Ambassador Hassine Bouzid Our main goal is to present Tunisia to investors and reliable companies in South America because there is a great lack of information between the Arab and the Latin worlds regarding investments. So, the first thing is to make Tunisia known and to gather as many information as we can about the countries of South America too because there are many opportunities in these countries for good. Then, we must increase the export and import volume in this region, especially in Brazil , our first partner in South America. |
| THE GUIDE And has Tunisia brought anything special for the Summit? |
| Ambassador Hassine Bouzid Yes. First, the movies show with a Tunisian film being displayed four times during the show, the first time will be tonight. It is the only movie to be shown four times, most of the other ones will be shown twice. We are very proud for that. Also, we are organizing an extraordinary meeting to present the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which will take place in Tunisia . 185 countries will be participating of this great event. Our delegation is already prepared to present the events of the WSIS to this Summit with the intention of convincing the Arab and South American business sectors to participate of the WSIS. It will gather Heads of State, Ministers, business men and the public in general. So the South American and Arab Countries Summit is a great chance to present the WSIS, specially to the 34 countries of Latin America that will participating of it, because WSIS was already presented to the Arab countries. |
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| THE GUIDE Could you tell us a little of what will be seen in WSIS? |
| Ambassador Francisco Seixas da Costa WSIS is directed to computer systems applied to communications, especially to the digital inclusion of the lesser developed countries. The idea is to bring the poorer countries nearer to the more developed countries in terms of communications technology. |
| THE GUIDE How is Tunisia in the communications technologies industry? |
| Ambassador Francisco Seixas da Costa Tunisia has achieved great progress in the area. WSIS itself was a Tunisian initiative after we sent the proposal of it to the government of the United States of America , in 1998 and then it was directed to the UN. The summit is actually happening in two distinct phases, the first one that happened in Geneva , in 2003, and the second one in Tunisia , in the end of 2005. And Brazil also was in the first phase and, hopefully, will be in the next one too. The event is mainly focused on the digital inclusion and intend to lessen the difference in technology between countries. |
| To know more about the World Summit on the Information Society, click here! |
