[Prepared text, presented in an expanded form]

In the autumn of last year Iceland hosted a major international conference on the theme Women and Democracy. I think we can be highly satisfied with the outcome. The event was well covered by the media and the First Lady of the United States honoured us with her participation. At the Baltic Council Summit in Denmark this week, the Prime Minister of Lithuania raised this subject with me, since he and his government are to host the next conference in this series and Lithuania clearly plans to use our organization of the event as a model.

This crucial point, however, is to achieve permanent results in the wake of this initiative which we Icelanders have championed so strongly in cooperation with other nations. Intense work is now under way to follow up the conference and the results can be expected in the near future. Many of these issues have already raised considerable expectations, not least in the Baltic countries, where the disadvantaged position of women was one of the special themes of the conference. But I also hope for great results here in Iceland from the promising projects which dynamic women have already launched. Of all these worthy projects, I would like to point out two in particular:

The latter project will be outlined in more detail here later today. This morning, together with the Minister of Social Affairs, Minister of Industry and a representative of the Ministry of Education, I signed an agreement on a collaboration project in this field with the University of Iceland, Eimskip - the Iceland Steamship Company, Gallup-Rádgardur Consulting, Reykjavík Energy and Student Unions at secondary school and university level. One aim will be to encourage young women to enter traditional male disciplines on a greater scale, such as engineering, computing and various branches of the sciences.

The event taking place here today is based on the same kind of idea, and is also one of the products of last autumn’s major conference for women. As then, the objective is for women to play just an active part as men in democratic society, to be able to realize their potential and exert an influence on society. Information technology and the evolution of the new knowledge-based society will be specially highlighted here today. Technology has an enormous impact on all of us, the way we work, the way we do business, the way we learn and the way we find leisure activities for ourselves. Technology has even had a considerable effect on the way that those of us in politics work, by putting us in a completely different position for acquiring and communicating information. Some politicians utilize this technology to the full, and I do not think anyone would consider it unfair of me to single out the Minister of Education for particular mention in this respect.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

The information society is rapidly evolving. What happens in the future will not only depend on legislation and government decisions, since designers, programmers and management in knowledge-based industries also exert great sway. It is crucial for the viewpoints of men and women alike to have an impact on this formative work and development. For this reason it is appropriate that the aim of this conference today is to encourage women to work in the information industry and promote greater participation by them in shaping the information society.

The conference is organized by:

A great deal of work has gone into preparing this convention, including the development of a dedicated website where women working in information technology describe their experiences and views, to highlight the diverse opportunities awaiting women with technological education. Statistics have also been compiled about women’s involvement in various branches of technology. This work is a permanent contribution and will not disappear once the conference is over, but can continue to be useful and develop into tools and guidelines.

Most important of all in my opinion, however, is for the issues being discussed here to find their way into the social dialogue, into the media and into the home and schools. In this way, we can make a contribution towards encouraging more women than ever to embark on this exciting course.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Conference Delegates:

It is a sincere pleasure for me to declare this conference open and I hope that everyone taking part will find today’s programme both rewarding and enjoyable.