The UNU (United Nations University) will act as a venue for associated side events of the Asian Regional Conference for WSIS on 11-12 January 2003. The UNU and UNU/IAS will act as the venue (http://www.unu.edu/wsis) for side events for the Asian Regional Conference for the World Summit on the Information Society on 11-12 January 2003. The main conference will take place on 13-15 January 2003 at the New Takanawa Prince Hotel in Tokyo and will be organised by the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (http://www.wsis-japan.jp/index.html).

The World Summit on the Information Society (http://www.itu.org/wsis) will bring together heads of state, executive heads of United Nations agencies, industry leaders, non-governmental organisations, media representatives and civil society in order to explore and develop measures designed to smooth the spread of the benefits associated with the information technology revolution to all parts of the international community.This Summit will take place in two parts in 2003 (Geneva) and 2005 (Tunis).

Preparations for the Summit are ongoing at both the regional and global levels. The second preparatory committee meeting for WSIS will take place in Geneva from 17-28 February 2003. The UNU views the Summit as a landmark event in the global evolution of the Information Society and will make substantive contributions as one focal point for online education, in relation to capacity building on computer science for developing countries, on the role of ICTs in natural resource managment in Africa and by introducing the University's policy-relevant research to the WSIS process.

In November 2002, the United Nations University became an official member of the High-Level Summit Organizing Committee (HLSOC) for the Summit. The High-Level Summit Organizing Committee (HLSOC) has been established under the patronage of Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General. The committee is composed of the Executive Heads of the following UN specialized agencies: FAO, IAEA, ICAO, ILO, IMO, ITU, UNCTAD, UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WHO, WIPO and the WMO. It comprises also the Rector of the UNU, the Director General of WTO, the Executive Director of UNITAR, the Executive Secretaries of the UN Regional Economic Commissions and the President of the World Bank. The Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union serves as Chairman of the HLSOC.

As part of the UNU's commitment to the WSIS process, the Rector has agreed to collaborate with the Government of Japan to help organize the Regional Conference of the WSIS in Tokyo from 13-15 January 2003.