Welcome Messages from General Co-Chairs As a General Co-Chair, it is my great pleasure to welcome you to the 2006 International Symposium on Information Theory and its Applications, ISITA2006. The series of ISITA symposia was founded by the Society of Information Theory and its Applications (SITA) in 1990. The past symposia were held in Honolulu in 1990, Singapore in 1992, Sydney in 1994, Victoria in 1996, Mexico City in 1998, Honolulu in 2000, Xian in 2002, and Parma in 2004. Now we have the ninth in this beautiful city, Seoul. On behalf of SITA, I would like to express our gratitude to Professor Jong-Seon No and his team for taking a difficult task to organize ISITA2006. Last year the Board of the IEEE Information Theory Society selected Korea as the host country of the 2009 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT2009). I hope that ISITA2006 will lead to great success of ISIT2009. Since Claude E. Shannon established the basis of information theory in 1948, this theory has been bringing a greater impact on the modern society. As IT technologies become more and more pervasive in every aspect of our society, its role has become more important than ever, in achieving reliability, efficiency and security in transmission and storage of information. Accompanying this, ISITA is expected to play increasingly important role to contribute to the progress of the IT society. In this context, it is significant that ISITA is going to take place in Korea, one of the world’s leading IT countries. Finally, I would like to thank you all for your participation. I expect you will be able to obtain a variety of information here and extend your networks in information theory community. I hope all of you will enjoy this symposium and your stay in Seoul. Hideki Imai Chuo University, Japan It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the 2006 International Symposium on Information Theory and its Applications (ISITA 2006), Seoul, Korea. I really thank all of you for visiting Korea and presenting your excellent research results on the information theory and its applications. Korea is one of the fast developing countries in IT industry, with a big focus on mobile communications, semiconductor, display, etc. Based on the success of IT industry, the IT academic society in Korea has been fast growing and we are able to host ISITA2006 and ISIT2009. Moreover, Korea has more than 5,000-year history, full of diverse and colorful cultures distinguishable from other Asian countries. Seoul has been the capital city of Korea for 600 years. Seoul is a center of economy, culture, and education, with a population of ten million. I hope that this symposium will be a great opportunity to exchange new research ideas regarding information theory and its applications and you can experience the unique Korean culture as well as the fast developing information technology while you are staying in Seoul, Korea. I would like to express my deep gratitude to two TPC Co-Chairs, Prof. Habong Chung and Prof. Toru Fujiwara, TPC members, and Organizing Committee members for their efforts to make a successful ISITA2006. I look forward to seeing you in Seoul. Jong-Seon No Seoul National University, Korea