​Address by Wonki Min, Chairman of ITU Council 2015     

Distinguished Councilors,

Secretary-General Mr Houlin Zhao, Deputy Secretary-General Mr Malcolm Johnson,

Bureau Directors , Mr. François Rancy, Mr. Jaesup Lee and Mr. Brahima Sanou

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning. Welcome to the 2015 session of the ITU Council. It is my great pleasure to greet all of you here in Geneve. I must also note how happy I am to see so many of you since last we met at the 2014 ITU Plenipotentiary Conference held in Busan, Korea.

I am delighted to be joined today by our new Secretary-General, Deputy Secretary-General, and Directors of the Bureauxs. Once again, congratulations to all of you for being elected as a member of the ITU management team at PP-14. (applause)

I would also like to invite the whole Council to join me in welcoming our returning Members, Pakistan, Tanzania, and Uganda; as well as the new Members including Azerbaijan and Lithuania. (applause)

Thank you. I wish the very best to our newly-elected officials and all Council members.

Dear Colleagues,

As it has been almost 6 months since PP-14, for our mutual benefit I would like to take a moment to briefly look back on what we achieved at PP-14.

First, I believe we can be very proud of ourselves for approving the 2016-2019 Strategic plan and setting out a clear vision for the next steps of the Union. In support of the strategic plan, we also successfully approved the 2016-2019 financial plan.

Furthermore, 19 new resolutions were adopted, including resolutions regarding Connect 2020, enhancing flight tracking, empowering Youth and combating Ebola through ICT..

At PP-14, Member Countries stressed the importance of the Union's role in the areas of Internet and cyber security, as well as its continued contribution to the WSIS process. The Conference also renewed the Union's commitment to working more closely with all stakeholders in the global ICT community.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In this council meeting, we will cover a number of significant issues.

In particular, we are going to make decisions such as those related to the adoption of the draft biennium budget of the Union for 2016-2017, and ITU operational plan for the next four years.

We will also discuss Council Working Group reports;

WSIS-implementation of outcomes; financial and human resources; international Internet-related public policy issues; child online protection; six official languages of the Union; ITU's headquarters and preparations for ITU's 150th Anniversary.

Other important issues include Empowerment of Youth through ICT, conformance and interoperability, Internet of Things, supervisory authority for space assets, scheduling of future conferences, assemblies and meetings of the Union, free online access to ITU publications, etc.

To address these issues and achieve results during the session of Council, I count on your experience, involvement and spirit of compromise that enabled us to reach a consensus at PP-14. I am more than confident that, with the same kind of spirit, commitment and hard work, we can accomplish all the tasks at hand. 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This Council session is extremely meaningful for all of us because we are celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the ITU. For a century and a half, the Union has strived to enhance the lives of citizens around the world through the application of ICT - from the good old telegraphy to more modern technologies such as satellites, mobile phones and the Internet. I hope all delegates attending this meeting will come and join the celebration of this significant occasion at the CICG on May 17.  

Distinguished Councilors,

We have a busy 2015 Council session ahead of us. As busy as it will be, I look forward to productive and insightful discussion that will help us meet all of our goals. I'm sure that through our work at the 2015 Council Meeting, our determined goal to strengthen the role of the Union will be achieved.

Thank you very much for your attention.