Lagos — INTERNATIONAL Telecommunication Union (ITU) has confirmed the raising of over CHF 2.7 million, about N295.448,660 billion for the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

The second phase is scheduled for Tunis in November this year.

Champion Infotel recalls that following the naming of Tunis as the host for the second phase, ITU, had last April, set up a fundraising campaign for CHF 15 million, out which 5 million would be in cash and 10 million in-kind.

In his address to the second Preparatory Committee Meeting (PrepCom-2) at Geneva at the weekend, Secretary General ITU, Mr. Yoshio Utsumi, said the campaign has paid off by raking in some CHF 1.3 million in new financial contributions to fund core preparatory activities of the Tunis phase.

A press statement endorsed by the Chief Media Relations and Public Information at ITU, Mr. Gary Fowlie, Communications Officer at WSIS Secretariat, Sanjay Acharya and WSIS-2005 Fund-raising Campaign Officer, Mr. Christopher Clark, quoted the scribe as saying that he was pleased with the progress made so far.

"With these new contributions to the WSIS Fund, we have raised more than CHF 2.7 million representing over half of our CHF 5 million goal. I am very pleased with this progress, and thankful to all our donors for their commitment to the success of the summit", he said.

ITU also said numerous stakeholders came forward in recent weeks to announce new financial contributions for core preparatory activities, including the governments of Canada (CHF 100'000), Finland (CHF 180'000), France (CHF 150'000), Germany (CHF 75'445), Libya (CHF 60'000), Malta (CHF 3'500), Saudi Arabia (CHF 335'357) and Sweden (CHF 335'000).

Non-governmental stakeholders also announced new contributions, including the private sector company, NTT DoCoMo of Japan (CHF 90'896) and the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (CHF 5'688).

Several other donors equally announced support for specific summit-related activities.

New contributions for developing country fellowships were announced by Austria for the tune of CHF 45'438 for various stakeholders, Switzerland gave CHF 70'000 for civil society and the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) donated CHF 11'372 for ISESCO member states.

An additional contribution was made by Canada to the tune of CHF 100'000 to support civil society activities, with an emphasis on youth, while Finland announced that it would support the hiring of a new staff member for the WSIS Executive Secretariat.

These new contributions built on an already solid base of donations from a range of stakeholders, including the governments of Azerbaijan (CHF 15'190), Burkina Faso (CHF 25'000), Holy See (CHF 4'000), Japan (CHF 776,927), Namibia (CHF 12'500), Netherlands (CHF 75'000), Norway (CHF 180'268), Senegal (CHF 66'550), Spain (CHF 153'000), Syrian Arab Republic (CHF 12'500) and the Sultanate of Oman (CHF 100'000).

Contributions have also been made by several international organizations including the United Nations Federal Credit Union (CHF 1'280), Universal Postal Union (CHF 10'000) and the World Meteorological Organization (CHF 15'000).

A contribution was also received from an NGO, the International Institute for Non-Aligned Studies (CHF 200), among others.

The UN General Assembly, Champion Infotel gathered, did not establish a budget for WSIS and instead called upon the international community to support the summit through voluntary contributions.

To meet this challenge, the Secretary-General of ITU and also the Secretary-General of the summit, Mr. Utsumi, launched the WSIS-2005 Fundraising Campaign in April 2004.

The summit for the Tunis phase is estimated to be approximately CHF 15 million, excluding costs incurred by the host country.