The Angolan government has announced that it will be starting implementation, by next year, of a project concerning the identity and identification of citizens and the security of electronic communications.

TUNIS 17th November (PROTEXT/ots) - This project will formpart of an ambitious "Plan of Action for Electronic Governance". The immediate objective of the Secure Angola Project, which isplanned to start in 2006, is the establishment of a Public KeyInfrastructure (PKI); it will be headed by WISeKey and rely onthe direct participation of Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard (HP).

The large Angolan government delegation, which is attendingthe second phase of the United Nations Summit, the WorldInformation Society Summit, and headed by the Prime Minister ofthe country's government, Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos,today visited the stand of the Swiss company WISeKey SA. WISeKeySA is responsible for the design, implementation and managementof the Secure Angola Project, which is planned as a component ofthe "Action Plan for Electronic Governance", aimed at helpingthe country to take a conclusive step towards the digitalsociety.

The emergence of the knowledge society will demand from allof us as the Prime Minister declared during his visit new waysof seeing and analysing the world around us and new governanceparadigms. This will involve new models and new schemes forinteraction between government and citizens, giving anothervision and greater effectiveness to citizens' contact with andparticipation in the social, cultural, educational, academic,economic and political life of the country.

Reflecting the Angolan government's commitment to build theinformation society, the Angolan delegation included variousmembers of the Government, amongst them the Deputy Minister forScience and Technology and Chairman of the National InformationTechnology Commission, Prof. Pedro Teta.

"The Ministry of Science and Technology " - declared Prof.Pedro Teta, Deputy Minister and Chairman of the NationalInformation Technology Commission - continues to implementpolicies capable of bringing Angola up to the front line ofcountries committed to building the knowledge society. We arefully aware - Prof. Pedro Teta added - that we have a long wayto go because of various historic factors, but we have the will,the vision and, above all, the essential support of the Presidentof the Republic, as well as the institutional solidarity of theGovernment as a whole. Although we do not have human resourceson a scale with our ambitions, we do have the political will andwe are counting on international solidarity to increase ourtechnological and human capabilities. As a result, over the nextfive years, Angola will spare no effort in seeking to attain thelevels of development in the field of knowledge and use of ICTthat can bring us closer to best practice on other continents.

Carlos Moreira, Chairman of WISeKey, expressed his ownpersonal interest and the full commitment of the team he leadsin making appropriate solutions available to the AngolanGovernment to resolve the problems of security ofcommunications, identity and identification of citizens and,generally speaking, every solution likely to foster theemergence of the digital society.

In modern societies Carlos Moreira stressed the existence oftechnologies is not sufficient to turn them into contemporarysocieties, i.e. into knowledge societies. The wide variety ofsituations of insecurity encountered by the outside world andthe mobility of the majority of citizens reaffirm the need fornew forms of sovereignty: the identity and identification ofcitizens, using digital media, are of vital importance inreasserting the sovereignty of States and for the security of theworld.

Frank McCosker, Senior Director Global Strategic Accounts,Microsoft Corporation commented: Information security and theextension of workflow to include citizens and companies are keycomponents of e- government. We are supporting the efforts ofWISeKey to ensure that solutions based on Microsoft technologiesare delivering very high value for the unique needs of theGovernment of Angola.

Dave Lanning, Director, Government and Defense, Public SectorSegment, Europe, Middle East and Africa: HP has been helpinggovernments around the world extend their e-governmentcapabilities and aspects of their national identity systems forover a decade and is ready and happy to provide the Government ofAngola with the best products, services and support from itsarray of public sector solutions, including its comprehensiveend-to-end NIS solution build on the Microsoft.NET platform. Thissolution has been especially designed to help governments respondto changing security and identification requirements and providecitizens with fundamentally improved, secure and intelligentidentity documents in cost efficient and flexible manner ".

ots Originaltext: WISekey SA Internet: www.presseportal.ch

For further information please contact Daniel Ybarra,Director of Corporate Communications, WISeKey: info@wisekey.com

Contact: WISekey SA Daniel Ybarra E-Mail: daniel@wisekey.chTel. +41-22-929-57-57 http://www.wisekey.ch

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