Frigate Bay, St. Kitts and Nevis, 23 September 2014
Opening Address on behalf of the ITU Secretary General
Rt. Hon Dr Denzil Llewellyn Douglas, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Sustainable Development, St Kitts and Nevis
Hon. Glenn Fitzroy Phillip, Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sports, Information Technology, Telecommunications and Post
Bernadette Lewis, Secretary-General Caribbean Telecommunication Union
Excellencies, Ministers of ICTs
Distinguished guest
Ladies and gentlemen
I would like to begin by thanking CTU Secretary-General Bernadette Lewis for inviting the ITU to participate in this event. Unfortunately, Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré was not able to be here today, but I am pleased to deliver these remarks on his behalf, and I bring you his greetings and those of my fellow elected officials. It is a great pleasure for me to be here again in the beautiful islands of St. Kitts and Nevis after some years.
Caribbean countries face unique challenges and I would like to take this opportunity to identify some particular activities in ITU that might be of interest.
The size of countries in the Caribbean makes cooperation within the region essential to achieve economies of scale and pool resources, and we congratulate CTU for the crucial role it plays in promoting cooperation in the region, and thank it for its collaboration with ITU, for example in initiatives such as the HIPCAR project, the joint ITU-CTU-CARICOM effort to harmonize ICT policies, legislation and regulations.
The mission of ITU, as the lead UN agency for ICTs, is to provide an enabling environment for the development of telecommunications worldwide. ITU manages the global allocation of radiofrequency spectrum and satellite orbits, develops international technical standards that ensure networks and technologies interconnect and interoperate, and assists countries in their efforts to implement the latest technologies and create an enabling regulatory environment.
One subject of particular concern to the Caribbean is climate change, particularly in rising sea levels and an increasing prevalence of extreme weather events. ITU began its series of symposiums on ICTs, the Environment and Climate Change in 2008 and since then has done a lot of work to bring attention to the power of ICTs to mitigate and adapt to climate change, as well as its use in emergencies and disaster relief. We have also adopted a range of green standards and a methodology to estimate how much greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced through the application of ICTs. Yesterday I opened the fourth ITU Green Standards Week in Beijing and in December we will hold this year’s ITU symposium on ICTs, the Environment and Climate Change in India. These events cover a wide-range of activities including e-waste, intelligent transport systems, smart grids, the use of undersea cables to measure climate change and seismic events, health hazards associated with electromagnetic fields, smart cities, smart water management and more. It is possible to participate remotely in these events and I very much encourage your participation in this activity. Hopefully one of these events can be held in this region in the future.
The Caribbean relies heavily on tourism, international trade – and of course, international communications – to conduct much of its economic activity, but there are still many people who are excluded from the formal financial system.
Digital financial services can expand the delivery of basic, formal financial services to the underprivileged through new technologies like mobile phones, electronic money and new distribution channels to perform financial transactions relatively cheaply, securely, and reliably.
ITU has formed a new Focus Group on Digital Financial Services and Financial Inclusion to develop the regulatory and policy issues as well as the standards to ensure interoperability. The first meeting of the Focus Group will take place on 5 December 2014 and a workshop on Digital Financial Services and Financial Inclusion will be held on 4 December 2014, both in Geneva. I hope this too will be of interest to the region.
Another important initiative that ITU has taken in recent years has been to provide assistance to countries in their efforts to avoid poor quality and non-conforming equipment entering their market.
ITU has partnered with leading testing laboratories and conformance assessment and accreditation bodies to establish a market-driven Conformity and Interoperability (C&I) Programme with a strong development dimension. A Caribbean regional study is in progress at the moment and I encourage the full participation of all members.
We have an event on this topic from 2 to 4 December in Trinidad and Tobago and we welcome your participation and feedback to ensure that the programme meets the needs of the Caribbean.
Turning to a more immediate and important event, in less than a month’s time, the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2014 (PP-14) will take place in Busan, Republic of Korea.
PP-14 will review ITU’s Constitution and Convention; determine general policies for fulfilling the purposes of the Union; elect its new management team, Council Members and members of the Radio Regulations Board; and establish ITU’s Strategic and Financial Plans.
We wish Barbados, the Caribbean’s nominee for Council, every success and encourage the full attendance and participation of the Caribbean Member States at the conference to help ensure this.
One of the key issues to be discussed at PP-14 is the confirmation of the trial membership of academia in ITU. There are now 79 academia members, and as Director of the Standards Bureau, I am pleased that 59 of these have joined ITU-T, where their contribution to new standards development is very important.
Proposals to strengthen ITU’s regional presence and project-implementation function will be of considerable benefit to the Caribbean as it will help ensure ITU’s work is tailored to the region’s specific needs, and hopefully permit more direct assistance.
The conference will also update Resolutions on ITU’s role in building confidence and security in the use of ICTs, emergency communications, climate change and the protection of the environment, gender equality and accessibility. There is a potential new Resolution on ITU’s future work to empower youth, and we have launched an online crowdsourcing platform to gather input to this process, at www.itu.int/youth. With an estimated 42.5% of the world's population under the age of 25, it is essential that young people have a voice in the work of ITU and the development of the ICT sector.
Another first for this Plenipotentiary Conference is the Gender Equality and Mainstreaming in Technology (GEM-TECH) award, which ITU launched this year in partnership with UN Women. This annual award will promote women's role as decision-makers in the ICT sector, and its first awards will be made at the conference.
Recognizing that ITU is an organization that must constantly evolve to reflect the dynamism of the ICT sector, an important outcome of PP-14 will be the establishment of a new vision for the ICT sector. This vision, in the draft Strategic Plan, is referred to as the Connect 2020 framework. It emphasizes the importance of ICTs for social, economic and environmentally sustainable growth and development.
In this respect, we invite Ministerial policy statements at the conference to announce your plans and contributions towards the achievement of this vision. Such statements may include national commitments, announcement of partnerships or the launch of new initiatives.
Hot topics at the conference are likely to be the Resolutions related to the Internet, ITU’s policy related to access to its documents, and a future date for another World Conference on International Telecommunications.
So I look forward to seeing you all there.
Moving forward to next year, from 2 to 27 November the ITU will hold a World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-15) in Geneva.
My colleagues in the Radio Bureau appreciate very much working with CTU to prepare coordinated regional proposals for this conference.
In July this year, CTU and the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago were hosts to the 2014 ITU Regional Radiocommunication Seminar for the Americas. This weeklong Seminar provided a thorough grounding in the work of ITU’s Radiocommunication Sector, the Radio Regulations and the agenda of WRC-15.
We are invite the participation of CTU members in the upcoming 2nd ITU Inter-regional Workshop on WRC-15 Preparation to be held in Geneva on 12 and 13 November. This is an opportunity for regions to gain an understanding of draft common views, positions and proposals. The event will be webcast for those unable to be physically in Geneva.
A key item on the agenda of WRC-15 will be the consideration of additional primary allocations to the mobile service and identification of additional frequency bands for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) and related regulatory provisions. I will be pleased to give you a related presentation on this issue tomorrow morning.
So thank you again for this opportunity to address you this evening and I wish you a successful ICT week.
