Mr. Nenad Stankovic, ICPE Representative in Vienna, participated in the World Summit on the Information Society Forum 2013 (WSIS Forum 2013)

The WSIS Forum 2013 was held from the 13-17 May 2013 at the ITU Headquarters in Geneva. This year the Forum attracted more than 1800 WSIS Stakeholders from more than 140 countries. Several high-level representatives of the wider WSIS Stakeholder community graced the Forum with more than 60 ministers and deputies, several ambassadors, CEOs and Civil Society leaders contributing passionately towards the programme of the Forum.

On behalf of ICPE this Forum attended Mr. Nenad Stankovic, ICPE Representative in Vienna. Mr. Stankovic also realized official visits to ITU (International Telecommunication Union) and UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development).

During his visit to ITU, Mr. Stankovic met Dr. Hamadoun I. Toure, Secretary-General of ITU, Mr. Houlin Zhao, Deputy Secretary-General of ITU, Mr. Malcolm Johnson, Director of ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau and Mr. Brahima Sanou, Director of ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau. In discussion with those ITU high-level officials, he presented new ICPE Programmes/activities, informed about ICPE efforts to refresh some projects and underlined the high level of importance which ICPE is giving to the cooperation with international organizations in different technical-economic fields, including different kind of trainings, knowledge management, transfer of technology and human capacity buildings. After active and very successful discussions Dr. Toure, Mr. Zhao, Mr. Johnson and Mr. Sanou appreciated the meeting with Mr. Stankovic and re-confirmed interest for co-operation with ICPE, especially after ICPE’s joining ITU-D Sector in December 2012. It was agreed that concrete modalities and fields of co-operation between two organizations will be defined/developed with ITU colleagues responsible for some specific topics and with strong support of ITU Management.

from left - Mr. Malcolm Johnson, Director of ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau and Mr. Nenad Stankovic, ICPE Representative in Vienna

During his visit to UNCTAD, Mr. Stankovic met Mr. Guillermo Valles, Director of Division on Internal Trade in Goods and Services, and Commodities and Dr. Sophia Twarog, Senior Economic Affairs Officer in the Trade Negotiations and Commercial Diplomacy Branch of Division on Internal Trade in Goods and Services, and Commodities. In this very efficient and fruitful meeting it was discussed possibility for creating specific mutual programs, projects, trainings, events and developing mutual co-operation according to the needs/requirements of the countries and member states of both organizations. It was agreed to intensify exchanging of information with aim to define the most appropriate proposal for co-operation. Dr. Sophia Twarog will represent UNCTAD in the Conference on Economic Diplomacy and Internationalization (Ljubljana, 17-18 June 2013) organizing by ICPE and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia and in partnership with Slovenian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which will be a great new opportunity for the continuation of dialog between ICPE and UNCTAD.

from left - Mr. Brahima Sanou, Director of ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau, Mr. Houlin Zhao, Deputy Secretary-General of ITU, Mr. Jean Todt, President of F.I.A., Mr. Volkmar Denner, Chairman, Robert Bosch GmbH, Dr. Hamadoun I. Toure, Secretary-General of ITU, Mr. Felipe Massa, Formula-1 driver for Scuderia Ferrari, HE Mr. Alexandre Fasel, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations Office (UNOG) and to the international organizations in Geneva and Mr. Malcolm Johnson, Director of ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau