The 4th World Information Technology Forum 2009 (WITFOR 2009), with the theme “Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Sustainable Development”, will be held from August 26 to 28 in Hanoi.

“Organised in Asia for the first time, WITFOR 2009 is expected to bring enormous benefits to the region, as well as open up new and broader paths for developing countries to apply achievements in ICT into socio-economic life,” said Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Information and Communications Nguyen Minh Hong.

“The Government of Vietnam views ICT as a key industry and a sound basis for socio-economic development, social justice and environmental conservation and has been investing more and more resources into developing the national ICT industry,” added Hong.

The biennial forum will provide an important foundation for local and foreign policymakers, scientists, experts and IT businesses to obtain accurate visions and assessments on current ICT development and, thus, allow them to deploy more efforts towards bridging the gap between developed and developing countries, helping to maintain peace and promote prosperity in the world.

The forum includes eight plenary meetings and 32 discussions, focusing on women’s rule in IT development, various policies and the experiences of some countries in IT development, as well as the development of state-enterprises, roles planning, education and training and community health care, hunger elimination and poverty alleviation, e-government, the environment and natural resources.

Initiated by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) since 2003, WITFOR contributes to taking the World Summit on the Information Society’s (WSIS) Plan of Action one step forward to help developing countries achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)./.