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Dear Sir/Madam,
I have pleasure in inviting you to
participate in the Regional Preparatory Meeting for
Africa (RPM-AFR) for the 2010 World Telecommunication
Development Conference (WTDC-10), to be held in Kampala,
Uganda, from 13 to 15 July 2009 at the kind invitation
of the Government of Uganda.
Regional preparatory meetings are
organized in response to Resolution 31 (Rev. Doha, 2006)
in a bid to achieve greater regional coordination and
engage Members in the WTDC-10 process early on. They
also seek to identify issues, at the regional level,
that need to be addressed to foster the development of
telecommunications and of information technologies,
taking into account the expression of the pressing needs
facing the Member States and Sector Members of the
region.
The RPM-AFR is expected to draw up
recommendations on carefully selected top priority areas
identified as essential for the ICT development of the
countries of the region, within which Study Group
Questions, Programmes, Projects and Regional Initiatives
can be identified for consideration by WTDC‑10. To this
end, to facilitate effective preparations by the Members
of the ITU Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU-D),
a very focused RPM-AFR agenda based on the general
framework provided by the preliminary draft WTDC-10
agenda has been prepared and is found in Annex I.
In order to consolidate the
various contributions submitted in a way that lends
itself to the elaboration of a solid, cohesive and
powerful package consisting of inter-related and
mutually reinforcing components, a template has been
developed and can be found at
www.itu.int/ITU-D/conferences/rpm/2009/AFR/documents/template.html.
In addition to providing a common approach to submitting
contributions, the template will also provide a
fast‑track for processing of input documents by reducing
the need to reformat the contributions. Contributions
not submitted using this template may therefore result
in processing and posting delays. Working documents will
be posted on the ITU-D website as they become available
at the same address.
To enable advance preparations by
participants and in light of the constraints derived
from the ITU-D schedule of activities, a deadline for
the submission of contributions on the items of the
draft agenda has been set to 12 June 2009 at
the latest.
Practical information relating to
the meeting will shortly be available on the website.
Registration will be made exclusively online at
www.itu.int/itu-d/conferences/rpm/2009/AFR/Registration.html.
Participants experiencing difficulties with their
online registration are invited to contact the ITU
Regional Office at
ITU-Addis@itu.int for assistance.
Subject to the available financial resources and in
order to encourage participation, one fellowship may be
granted to the administration of each least developed
countries (LDC). Fellowship forms may be requested by
completing the appropriate section of the online
registration form. Pre-registration with requests
for fellowship must be submitted no later than 12
June 2009. Pre-registration without
fellowship requests can be done until 11:00 (UTC) on
9 July 2009. The deadline for applying for a
fellowship is 19 June 2009.
The ITU regional and area offices
will work closely with the membership, including the
regional telecommunication organizations, in order to
facilitate the consolidation of proposals. They stand
ready to assist you in order to achieve the expected
output, based on priorities and requirements while
taking into account restraints and limitations, in order
to arrive at workable results. With this approach,
Members of the region are likely to derive greater
benefits through the achievements of the very objectives
they have set and priorities they have identified.
I very much look forward to your
inputs to this process to ensure that the Action Plan to
be prepared by WTDC-10 is an effective and viable tool
to guide our work in the coming years to meet the needs
of countries of the Africa region based on the top
priorities you will have set.
Yours faithfully,
[Original signed]
Sami Al Basheer Al Morshid
Director |
