Going into the summit, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori had made clear his wishes to make information technology, and specifically the digital divide, one of the key themes of the summit. Earlier last week, he held a series of meetings on the subject in Tokyo with business leaders from the world's largest companies and the world's poorest nations, all of which stressed the importance of a clear plan to tackle the problem and the need for the G8 nations to take the lead.
"As the G8 chair, I took up information technology, one of the most powerful forces that will shake up the 21st century, as one of the main items on the agenda," Mori said during a televised press conference at the conclusion of the summit.
"What do we need to do so that everyone will be able to enjoy the maximum benefit of information technology? How can we best overcome the digital divide between the developing and developed worlds? These were the main points of the discussions on IT, and as a result we came up with the Okinawa Charter that calls on the entire world to participate, and I believe this Okinawa Charter will play an important role in the future development of the world economy," said Mori.
The Charter outlines the G8's aims and ambitions for conquering the digital divide and establishing other policies that will help the growth of electronic commerce and the Internet. However, it has little in terms of concrete plans and resolutions.
On the digital divide, the leaders resolved to establish a study group, the digital opportunity task force, called dot-force, to look into the issue. The task force will bring in other international organizations, United Nations agencies and other groups, shifting some of the work away from the G8 nations, and plans to have a report ready in time for the next G8 summit -- in Genoa, Italy, in one year.
The outcome is a far cry from the Japanese government's specific plan, that it will carry out outside of the G8 framework, to commit US$15 billion [B] over the next five years to bridging the international digital divide. Moreover, it will come as a disappointment to some who met with Mori last week and pushed for real action.
Speaking to journalists last week just before presenting a report to Mori, Klaus Schwab, founder and chairman of the World Economic Forum, stressed the need to pledge funds and make a real commitment, "We hope that G8 leaders will make commitments, in the interests of humankind, which are not only commitments in words, but commitments in action," he said. "And commitments in action mean commitments in resources."
Elsewhere in the charter, the leaders recognized the need for their governments to take the lead in establishing a regulatory, investment and policy framework that allows the information society to grow without any impediments.
They agreed on the need to continue to promote competition, protect intellectual property rights, facilitate cross-border e-commerce through trade agreements, adopt a consistent approach to taxation of e-commerce, continue the practice of not imposing customs duties on electronic transmissions and develop an effective and meaningful privacy protection for consumers.
The full text of the Okinawa Charter on Global Information Society can be found online as an HTML file at http://www.g8kyushu-okinawa.go.jp/e/documents/it1.html and in Adobe Systems Inc. Acrobat PDF form at http://www.g8kyushu-okinawa.go.jp/e/documents/pdfs/it1.pdf .
The main Web site of the G8 Kyushu-Okinawa Summit is at http://www.g8kyushu-okinawa.go.jp/.
(Note to editors: High-resolution images from the summit meetings, world leader arrivals and departures and press conferences will be available through the IDG News Service Image Bank later Monday on Lotus Notes or the http://www.idgns.com/ Web site.)
