- Clinical Professor Dr. Sarana Boonbaichaiyapruck, Chairman, Office of The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC)
- Your Excellency Mr. Timothy Masiu, Minister, Ministry for Communications and Information Technology, Papua New Guinea.
- Your Excellency, Mr. Puthyvuth Sok, Secretary of State - Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, Kingdom of Cambodia
- Your Excellency, Ms. Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, Undersecretary, ICT Industry Development, DICT, The Philippines
- Your Excellency, Mr. Mohamed. Shareef, Minister State, Ministry for Environment Climate Change and Technology, Maldives joining us virtually,
- Dr. P. D. Vaghela, Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority India also joining us virtually.
- Masanori Kondo, Secretary-General Asia-Pacific Telecommunity.
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen
I am pleased to extend a warm welcome to everyone, both onsite and online, to the ITU Regional Development Forum for Asia and the Pacific.
Let me express my sincere thanks to the Government of Thailand and the Office of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission – NBTC, for hosting the Asia and the Pacific Regional Development Forum and also for hosting our Regional Office.
This RDF is being held in partial implementation of the outcomes of the 2022 World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC).
I would like to thank all the stakeholders at this RDF and for strong sense of partnerships exemplified in this region.
I am pleased to announce that yesterday we released new ICT estimates showing that we now have 5.4 billion people online. However, the number of people worldwide not connected to the Internet decreased to an estimated 2.6 billion people in 2023.
Asia and the Pacific is one of the fastest growing economies with a high percentage of global internet user base, leading in 3G and 4G coverage at an average of 97% of the population.
Diversity: It is also a region that is highly diverse, with 12 Least Developed Countries (LDCs), 15 Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and a number of Land Locked Developing Countries (LLDCs).
Vulnerability:Asia and the Pacific is a region the most disaster-prone to natural disasters. In 2022 alone, there were over 140 disasters that struck this region, leading to loss of lives.
Flooding, rising sea levels, ecosystem and agricultural disruptions affect many island communities.
Early Warnings for All (EW4ALL) systems are critical, and we need these to be in place to be able to save lives before a disaster strikes.
Ladies and Gentlemen
At WTDC-22, Five Thematic Priorities were adopted, namely:
Affordable connectivity; enabling policy and regulatory environment; digital transformation; resource mobilization and international cooperation; and Inclusive and secure ICTs for sustainable development.
In addition, the Asia and the Pacific adopted five regional initiatives.
This RDF provides a unique opportunity towards the implementation of the
Partner2Connect Digital Coalition initiative – P2C pledges launched WTDC-22.
To date, globally P2C has received 770 pledges valued at 31.6 billion USD. Out of these, 192 pledges and contributions worth 3 billion USD made by 106 entities are targeted for implementation in the Asia and Pacific region.
The special feature of this RDF are the partnership roundtables for match-making regional and country priorities with these pledges meaning moving from pledges meaning, moving from pledge to action or commitment.
I am pleased to have implemented a lot of projects in this region, emergency telecoms, cybersecurity, skill development, connectivity, etc.
Partnerships: I thank the Government of Australia for their immense financial support, the Government of Japan, the Government of Thailand/NBTC, People Republic of China and many industry players, UN agencies and development banks.
Innovation: I also thank the Government of India for hosting the Area office of South Asia and, the first and only ITU Innovation Centre. Allow me to recognize the presence of the Chair of the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) at this RDF, who not only joined us during the Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR) in June this year but is also here with us virtually.
I launched the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Alliance for Digital Development in January this year, and you will be happy to also note that this month, we selected 17 Centres from the around the world to join the new flagship Network of Acceleration Centres, with 4 from the Asia and Pacific Region.
I can see a region on the accelerated path of digital transformation.
Allow me to thank our partners, Huawei; Amazon Web Services; Senko Advanced Components; Welchman Keen for specifically supporting the hosting of this event with financial contributions.
We look forwarding to reconvening back here in 2025 for the next World Telecommunication Development Conference. Once again, I thank the Government of Thailand for offering to host the WTDC.
I look forward to the deliberations at this event and working together to overcome the digital gaps we face today.
I wish you good deliberations.
Thank you!
