NEW YORK, 13 NOVEMBER 2003
STATEMENT BY Mr. SEBASTIÃO COELHO, REPRESENTATIVE OF PORTUGAL, ON BEHALF OF THE UN's AD HOC OPEN-ENDED WORKING GROUP ON INFORMATICS, TO THE SPECIAL POLITICAL AND DECOLONIZATION COMMITTEE (FOURTH COMMITTEE) (Agenda Item 86: Questions relating to information)

Mr. Chairman,

I thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak at this time. Information has been the main issue addressed at this Committee for the last three days.

Believing that there is nothing better for delegates who deal with information issues than to have additional information for themselves and for their Missions, I would like to take this opportunity to provide members of the Committee with information relating to the ECOSOC’s Ad Hoc working group on Informatics.

This Working group was established by ECOSOC under resolution 1995/61 of 28 July 1995 with the mandate of facilitating the successful implementation of the initiatives taken by the Secretary-General with regard to the use of information technology.

Over the last few years, a technical subgroup of this Working group has been addressing the question of connectivity between Member States and the United Nations secretariat at Headquarters. One of the aims is to enhance the inter-action between Member States and the Secretariat on practical issues relating to the use of information technology in the work of the United Nations.

In this spirit the Working Group has played a useful role in the continuous improvement of Information Technology services and training which are provided to UN delegates at UN Headquarters.

These include the provision, and maintenance of personal computers in the conference areas for the use of delegates; the broadening of the availability of official documents via the Internet; web-site hosting services provided by the Secretariat to member States; increasing the access for member states to specialised databases of interest to them; and the development of training programmes provided by the UN Secretariat and others for member states in the use of various IT services.

You might be wondering what brings me here today.

I am here to present a practical tool that you can use in your everyday work. In fact one of the latest projects of the Working Group is a publication providing delegates with information about the various Information Technology services provided by the UN Secretariat.

It is a booklet entitled “Internet Services for Delegates”.   This short booklet, which is intended as a guide to the IT services already available, also provides useful tips that can help delegates take full advantage of the internet-based tools, services and resources the United Nations Secretariat provides.

As I speak, copies of this booklet are being distributed to all Delegations in the room. They also will be sent to Missions in New York , in the coming weeks.

I would also like to take this opportunity to inform delegates about another project which is being prepared by the Working Group.

This consists in the preparation of a software programme which will permit delegates, who so wish, to download on the Personal Digital Assistants (commonly known as PDA’s), practical data, such as the Daily Journal and other topical information relating to their work at the UN.

The software for this project is being prepared at the initiative of the delegation of Andorra .   A presentation and training session on this project will be held on the 19 November in conference room 8.  Further details will be available in the Journal.

All interested delegates are invited to attend.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.