'Think global, act local' plea from Presiding Officer

110/2005 | 10 November 2005

George Reid speaking in Bilbao

Addressing the plenary session of the World Summit on the Information Society in Bilbao this morning, Presiding Officer George Reid said that politicians had to “think global but act local”.

The rapid spread of high-tech IT and communications systems into every part of the world, he continued, was driving “contradictory and complementary” trends of “globalisation and decentralisation”.

“As economic and political power moves up to supranational level, there must be a corresponding devolution of power at local level so that the citizen is not excluded from decision-making.

“Scotland is already well down the road in becoming an e-country. The aim is to compete globally through e-Business, to inform and involve our citizens through e-Government and e-Administration, and to give them a voice in national decisions through e-Democracy.”

The Information Summit, at the Euskaldun Centre in Bilbao, brings together 1400 leaders of governments, parliaments, regions, cities and networks from around the world representing 1.6 billion people.

Following Mr Reid's presentation, speakers praised the Scottish Parliament as a “world centre of excellence” in its use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to create an “open society” in which “the citizen is fully engaged”.

Later today, Mr Reid will chair a three-hour session on behalf of the legislative regions of Europe, on the practical benefits of ICT projects and programmes.

The objective of the Bilbao meeting, the largest of its kind ever held, is to share best practice worldwide, to examine partnership agreements, and to address the “digital divide” - the exclusion of poorer people and countries from the ICT revolution.

Delegates at the conference include:

• Abdoulaye Wade, President of the Republic of Senegal;

• Sheila Dikshit, Chief Minister of the Region of Delhi, India;

• Izaskun Bilbao, President of the Basque Parliament;

• José Montilla, Minister for Industry, Tourism and Commerce of
Spain;

• Luis Eduardo Garzón, Mayor of Bogota, Colombia;

• Murchison Brown, Mayor of Port Spain, Trinidad and Tobago;

• Dianah L. Neff, Mayor’s Office of Information Services, Chief Information Officer of Philadelphia, USA;

• Marcel Boisard, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR);

• Jon Patrick, Professor, University of Sydney, Chair of Language Technology, Australia.

The Presiding Officer, as well as representing the Scottish Parliament, is attending on behalf of the e-democracy group of the Conference of European Regional Legislative Assemblies (CALRE).

Mr Reid spoke at a CALRE plenary session in Barcelona last month, where President Ernest Benach i Pasqual of the Catalan Parliament said “Scotland leads the way in its use of IT to engage with the citizen.”

Background Note

The Scottish Parliament's e-petitions system has been widely praised since its formal launch in 2004.
For more information, visit
www.scottish.parliament.uk/edemocracy

The Public Petitions Committee has been nominated for an award at this month's eEurope Award for eGovernment event in Manchester in recognition of its e-petitioning system.
For more information on this, visit
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/nmCentre/news/news-05/pa05-098.htm

In August, the German Parliament – the Bundestag – announced it was launching an electronic petitions system based on a version used by the committee.
For more information on this, visit http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/nmCentre/news/news-comm-05/cpet05-003.htm

There was also praise for the Parliament's e-petitioning facility at an event in the European Parliament in Brussels in May, held by EPRI (European Parliaments Research Initiative) Knowledge.
For more information on this, visit
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/nmCentre/news/news-05/pa05-046.htm

And earlier this month, a European Parliament official visited the Parliament for guidance on setting up a web television channel following the success of www.holyrood.tv.
For more information on this visit
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/nmCentre/news/news-05/pa05-101.htm

Pictures of the day

Pictures of the Presiding Officer addressing the conference in Bilbao are available on request, free of charge, from the Parliament's Media Relations Office on 0131 348 6269.

The Parliament's media contact is:

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