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| IT World Show Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch and other magnates in the information technology (IT) and media industries are invited to a meeting with ministers from 47 nations to be held in June in Seoul. The Broadcasting and Communications Commission said Friday that it expects some 2,500 participants including 47 ministers, CEOs and leaders of non-governmental organizations in the IT sector at the OECD Ministerial Meeting on the Future of the Internet Economy, June 17-18. According to the plan, the main conference and its side events will be one of the largest gatherings of leaders in the industries from both the public and the private sectors. While in Seoul, the OECD nations' representatives are likely to announce a 10-year road map for IT and its deployments in the private and public sectors, just as the Kyoto Protocol was set up to fight climate change. OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria will host the event while representatives from other international bodies such as APEC, ASEAN, and UNESCO will be present. The commission said it has invited leaders from firms like Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Fujitsu, Toyota and Visa, though their acceptance has not yet been confirmed. ''We are doing our best to show off Korea's cutting-edge information technology to visitors, in close cooperation with OECD staff, '' the committee said in a press release. ''We expect this meeting to positively affect the Korean IT industry.'' OECD is a league of 30 developed or developing nations that adopts the principles of democracy and free markets. Korea joined as its 27th member in December 1996, a year before its economy was crippled by the Asian Financial Crisis. OECD members will discuss the shared vision of the future of the Internet economy, its long-term technological, political, social, and cultural ramifications and finally it will formulate baseline principles that safeguard individuals' rights and privacy in the coming age of global digital networks. The Korean government is also to hold IT World Show, an electronics and Internet expo (during the conference period) on the ground floor of COEX, the conference venue. It hopes to draw some 800 companies from 50 nations and more than 200,000 visitors to the exhibition, which will be the largest of its kind ever to be held in Korea. write your comments about the article :: © 2008 Exhibition News :: home page |