WORLD CONGRESS ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
George Newstrom, Chair of WITSA
Wednesday 27 February 2002
Koh-NEE-cheewah,
Nee HaOW , Buenos Dias,
Yah Su, Selamat-de-TANG, and
Hello.
Good morning andI welcome all of you to the World Congress on Information Technology
2002.
A special welcome to our international
guests.
And a special thanks to Ross for that warm
introduction.
(PAUSE)
I’m here today as Chairman of WITSA, the World Information and Technology
and Services Alliance.
For those of you new to WITSA, we are the
governing body that has oversight of
each World IT Congress, just as the International Olympic Committee has
oversight over every Olympic Games.
Our Board of Directors, which met here
yesterday, has representation from 47 countries from around the world.
The World Congress is our flagship event, and
this year’s gathering in Adelaide is no exception.
The first world congress that I attended was
in Bilbao, Spain in 1996 and I’ve been an ardent supporter ever since.
That congress was chaired by Pedro Guitierez
De Cos, who is in this room today
What makes these events so successful?
The first step is to choose a great location.
I congratulate the Australian Information
Industry Association on making a successful bid to WITSA to hold the event in
Australia in 2002, and in having the foresight to choose Adelaide as the venue.
Then there are the organizers who turned this Congress event from an exciting
concept to the reality we see today.
In Adelaide’s case, I want to give a special thanks to the Chairman of the
2002 Congress Executive Committee, Ross Adler, and the Chief Executive of the
Congress, John Gygar (GUY-GAER), and their teams.
I would also like to pay tribute to all the sponsors who have supported the 2002
congress.
I also want to acknowledge the World Bank for funding to bring IT association
executives from 15 emerging economies to the WITSA General Assembly meeting and
to this World Congress.
Actions like these will help us bridge the
digital divide.
And, of course, I must thank all of you who have joined us here in
Adelaide as Congress delegates.
(PAUSE)
This year marks the first
time the Congress has been held in the Southern Hemisphere. What a great event to follow the Sydney
Olympics in 2000.
And what a great city in which to hold the Congress!
Adelaide is a centre of IT&T excellence in
Australia.
This city is the home to
major IT&T businesses, with significant
investments made by Motorola, British Aerospace and EDS.
Plus there are a growing
number of IT pioneers, developers and
integrators who have based their enterprises in Adelaide.
South Australia as a whole has a rapidly expanding base of more than 700 IT companies, with 14 research centers of IT excellence.
You can see why it made sense to make
Adelaide home for the Congress in 2002.
(PAUSE)
The Chinese welcomed ‘The Year of the Horse’
on the Lunar New Year earlier this month.
To the Chinese, this year symbolises strength, power and determination. The
information technology industry can easily be considered the ‘horse’ of the new
global economy.
This week’s Congress in Adelaide is where you
will find the ‘thoroughbreds’ of our
industry.
(PAUSE)
Let
me make this promise to you - choosing to come to this Congress is one decision
you will never regret.
Over the next three days
you’ll be challenged to think in new
ways; to look at the future through new
eyes.
Thanks again for choosing to
join us.
(ENDS)