In his opening speech, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung noted that WITFOR 2009 offers a great chance for the participants to assess the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in meeting global challenges to sustainable development such as the use of energy and natural resources, climate change, epidemics, hunger and poverty and the economic crisis.

He expressed his belief that through the forum, representatives from participating countries will share experiences and draw up cooperation programmes to boost sustainable socio-economic development in their countries.

WITFOR takes place every two years on the initiative of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP). It aims to increase cooperation, support developing countries and promote ICT applications to socio-economic areas so as to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals and realise the Action Plan adopted at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

During the 3-day event, more than 130 domestic and foreign speakers will present reports at plenary and parallel sessions. They will focus on topics such as ICT for sustainable development, ICT for development policies, open source software, the role of the state, business and society in ICT development, gender issues, and cooperation between the public and private sectors.

They will also examine the development of the e-government model, ICT infrastructure, human resources and the application of ICT to agriculture, health care, the environment, education, trade and business.

An ICT exhibition was held during the forum which is co-hosted by the Ministry of Information and Communications and the IFIP.