The WSIS process and the 2020 Agenda for Sustainable Development- ICTs as an essential component to achieve development goals.

The Vice-Minister of Communications, Ernesto Rodriguez Hernandez, participated on behalf of Cuba and said that:

Information and Communication Technologies are an essential tool for social, political and economic growth, and their benefits reach more people and nations throughout the world on a daily basis.

UN Secretary-Generals Roadmap for Digital Cooperation restates that COVID-19 has proven to be a global challenge, it has had a negative impact on health systems, on the worlds economy and on the safety levels of all countries. It has also enlarged the existent digital gap between nations, which proves that we need to have a communication infrastructure that allows people to have equal access to reliable sources of information and which may support an important number of public services, including those that ensure health services and the continuity of education.
In the face of this health crisis, Cuba repeats its call for global unity, solidarity and international cooperation, and to set aside political differences and eliminate unilateral coercive measures that have been imposed by some countries, which violate International Law and the Charter of the United Nations, and also limit the capacity of the States to effectively counter the pandemic.
Our country follows a national plan of economic and social development that includes the main priorities until 2030, the policy for the computerization of Cuban society encompasses the development of an integrative society of information and knowledge, focused on human beings, and oriented toward sustainable development.
ICTs must be used to accomplish economic and social growth, to foster peace and knowledge, to eradicate poverty and social exclusion, strictly respecting the guidelines of the Charter of the United Nations and International Law. They should not be used as tools to promote wars, interventionism, destabilization, subversion, unilateralism or terrorism.
However, nowadays, cyber-attacks, cyber-terrorism, the violation of peoples privacy, fake news, hate speech, and other improper uses of ICTs are on the increase. Those practices do not contribute toward the sustainable development of our peoples, that is not the world we aspire to have by 2030. Let us then work for peace in cyberspace, for the respect toward identity, integrity and the honor of all humans, for collective safety, general welfare and public ethics.
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More information about the World Summit on the Information Society at: