January 30, 2001

Kenji Kosaka, Senior Vice- Minister Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications Participated in the Annual Meeting World 2001, Economic Forum (Davos Conference)

(Unofficial Translation)



Overview:
Kenji Kosaka , Senior Vice-Minister for Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications(MPHPT) participated in the Annual Meeting 2001 World Economic Forum (Davos Conference). He gave a speech and participated in the panel discussion "What Is Technology Doing the Ecucation". The overview of the session is described as follows.

(1)
Date : January 27 (Saturday) 9:00AM-10:15 AM
(2)
Attendees :
Moderator: Raj Reddy,
         Professor of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Panelists:
Bill Owens,
Governer of Colorado, USA
Kenji Kosaka,
State Secretary for Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications of Japan
Teo Chee Hean,
Minister for Education and Second Minister for Defense of Singapore
Ayisi Makatiani,
Chief Executive Officer, Africa Online Holdings, Kenya
Mitchel Resnick,
Professor, Media Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
(3)
Subject: "What Is Technology Doing to Education"
(4)
Content: Each panelist made a speech. Mr. Kosaka pointed out the effectiveness of how Internet and IT improve the contents of education from the viewpoint of teachers and students. He also talked about how Japan is introducing technology into education and presented Japan's future tasks.

Reference Davos conference:
From the end of January to the beginning of February every year, Davos conference is held as an annual general meeting of an international nonprofit organization, WEF (World Economic Forum). This is the 31st meeting. Approximately 2000 people from several dozens of countries, including executives of private companies and high officials of each government as well as international organizations, attend the meeting.
Discussions on each field such as politics and the economy will be held in around 300 sessions in the meeting. The overview of the general meeting this year is described as follows.
(1) Date : January 25th (Thursday)-30th (Tuesday), 2001
(2) Place: Davos in Switzerland (outskirts of Zurich)
(3) Agenda in general : "Sustaining Growth and Bridging Divides : A Framework for Our Global Future"
Speech