First I would like to congratulate the new members of the Bureau on their election. They have the unenviable task of improving on the performance of their predecessors, but I think the new Bureau is well capable of doing that. This session of the Committee on Information will be very important for the future course of the public information by the United Nations and DPI in particular. I emphasise that our Group remains fully supportive of the important role that DPI has to fulfil in order as we continue to realize that the United Nations cannot achieve its purposes if the peoples of the world are not fully informed of the aims and activities of the United Nations. At the same time we must not forget the traditional tasks of DPI, as media such as radio continue to reach millions of listeners all of the world.
Technological changes seem to be happening at increasing speed.
It must immediately be said that not all people are benefiting to the same extent of these developments. Regretfully significant groups of people are still deeply mired in poverty and lack basic needs such as water, education and health care and for them these technologies and the internet are still a distant dream. Although the internet cannot substitute a sound poverty eradication programme it is clear that developing and developed nations will need to work together to try to bridge this divide as otherwise poor nations could be left behind. On the approach to be pursued elsewhere in the United Nations very important discussions are taking place. In this changing environment of new technologies and opportunities the United Nations will have to try to bring across its important message to as many people as it possibly can.