The President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Mr. Pier Ferdinando Casini, and the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Mr. José Antonio Ocampo, will this Friday inaugurate in Rome the Office of the Global Centre for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Parliament.

The inaugural ceremony is sceduleded to take place at 11.15 a.m. at the headquarters of the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament, located a 251, Corso Vittorio Emanuele, in the presence of the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Mr. Franco Marini and Mr. Fausto Bertinotti. The Speaker of the Egyptian Poeple's Assembly, Mr. Ahmed Fathy Sorour, and the President of the Pan-African Parliament, Mrs. Gertrude Mongella, will address the gathering on that occasion, along with the Italian Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Patrizia Sentinelli.

The new Centre seeks to promote the utilization and mainstreaming of information and communication technologies (ICT) in parliamentary activities in order to make parliaments more open, transparent and efficient, but also to enhance inter-parliamentary cooperation. The Global Centre for ICT in Parliament also aims to strengthen the role of parliaments in promoting organic laws and strategies for the development of the information society.

Established in Tunisia last year during the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the Centre promotes the exchange of information and experiences among parliamentarians, parliamentary staff, national and international institutions, the private sector and civil society organizations. It intends to also promote partnerships and joint initiatives in the sphere of new information and communication technologies.

The Centre, an initiative supported by the Italian and Egyptian parliaments, reached a successful conclusion thanks to the IPU, the world organization of parliaments, and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. It is being funded by the Directorate General for Development Cooperation under the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Italian Chamber of Deputies has furthermore undertaken to convene in spring next year the first ever inter-parliamentary conference at the Global Centre.

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Established in 1889 and with its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the IPU, the oldest multilateral political organisation, currently brings together 148 affiliated parliaments and seven regional assemblies as associate members. The world organisation of parliaments has an Office in New York, which acts as its Permanent Observer at the United Nations.
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Contact for additional information or interviews:

Mrs. Luisa Ballin, IPU Information Officer 5, ch. du Pommier, CH - 1218 Le Grand-Saconnex / Geneva Phone: +41 22 919 41 16 Fax: +41 22 919 41 60 E-mail: lb@mail.ipu.org or cbl@mail.ipu.org Accreditations in Rome: Fax: +39 06 68210256; e-mail: info@ICTParliament.org<