H.E. Mr. Ion Iliescu, President of Romania, participated from 9 to 11
December 2003 to the first phase of the World Summit for the
Information Society (WSIS) held in Geneva. President Ion Iliescu was accompanied by Mr.
Dan Nica, minister of communications and information technology, as well as
by a large number of academic and business community representatives, active
in the communication and information technology field.
The President of Romania addressed the Plenary of WSIS on 11th December
2003 (see the speech) and participated in a series of side events of WSIS:
The "Visionary Panel" of the conference
"The Role of Science in the Information Society" organised jointly by CERN,
UNESCO, the International Council of Sciences and the Third World Academy of Sciences (8 - 9 December 2003);
"What Makes ICT Effective Growth Engines" - Round table organized
by the International Chamber of Commerce (10 December 2003);
"Science, Information Society and the Millennium Goals" - Round
Table organized by UNESCO (11 December 2003);
"Inter-active session between the world leaders and youth on
the future of the Information Society" (11 December 2003);
World Summit Awards Ceremony (10 December 2003).
The Romanian National Electronic System
was the only European e-Government application that received the World Summit Award (WSA)
at the World Summit for Information Society (WSIS). The Romanian system was developed
on the basis of the partnership between Softwin and Microsoft Romania, which won the bids
for pilot projects in 2002.
The Awards Ceremony was attended by leading representatives of the United Nations,
member states' governments, private sector companies and civil society.
The President of Romania had bilateral meetings with Mr. Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General,
HE Mr. Stjepan Mesic, the President of Croatia, HE Mr. Hosny Mubarak, the President of Egipt,
HE Mr. Mohammad Khatami, the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Dragoljub Micunovic,
President of the Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro.
During his visit in Geneva, the President of Romania visited the
GeneProt Company - world leader in the discovery, identification and
characterization of proteins and their functions for major disabling or
life threatening diseases.
