Speech by Malcolm Johnson, ITU Deputy Secretary-General

Internet Governance Forum : Opening Remarks

10 November 2015, Joao Pessoa, Brazil

It is a pleasure to be here with you for the opening session of the 10^th Internet Governance Forum.

Many thanks to Brazil for hosting this meeting in this beautiful part of the country, and congratulations to my colleagues in UNDESA for their excellent work in organizing this meeting.

This is a significant year with the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the review of the WSIS process.

It is clear that ICTs, and particularly the Internet, will be essential for the implementation of the SDGs.

I was very pleased therefore that ICANN and the Internet Society joined ITU in a series of events recently to draw attention to this.

ITU plays its part in bringing the benefits of secure and trustworthy ICTs to all – through the global coordination of spectrum and satellite orbital slots; international technical standards; developmental support; and by convening policy dialogue.

Approximately 95 per cent of international traffic runs over fibre-optic cables complying with ITU standards, and the access modems to the Internet are ITU standards. ITU's recent G.fast standard provides for an incredible 1 Gb/s aggregate bit rate over traditional copper phone lines.

Currently in Geneva the ITU World Radiocommunication Conference is reviewing and revising the international treaty governing the use of the spectrum and satellite orbits. The main objective of this treaty is to harmonize global spectrum allocations to increase interoperability and reduce costs through economies of scale.

These are highly complex and technical conferences, with the involvement of almost 3000 delegates from 160 countries representing a multitude of stakeholders. With the tradition of striving for consensus through compromise, they have proved to be very successful and I am sure this WRC will be equally successful.

One of the major items on a wide-ranging agenda is the provision of more spectrum for future generations of mobile communication. There are now more mobile phone subscriptions than people in the world, and with mobile broadband penetration now reaching 32% compared to 10% by fixed, radio spectrum is vital to extend Internet access to the approximately 4 billion people still off-line. This is particularly important in the developing world where mobile broadband penetration rates are just 21% compared to 84% in developed countries.

Connecting the unconnected is at the core of ITU's mission and at the ITU Plenipotentiary conference last year the Connect 2020 Agenda for Global Telecommunication/ICT Development was adopted setting out ambitious goals as well as measurable targets, including bringing the next 1.5 billion people online by 2020.  

Achieving these goals will only be possible through the concerted efforts of everyone. I would therefore like to invite you to join us at a workshop on the Connect 2020 Agenda on Day 4 – to discuss how we can all work together to bring the power of ICTs, especially the Internet, to everyone – wherever they live, regardless of their income, gender, or disability.

One of ITU's goals is to encourage innovation and entrepreneurs. Many national governments have taken initiatives such as innovation hubs, but a huge gap remains in skills, funding, tools and knowledge.

To help bridge this gap ITU, together with eight other organizations, has launched an initiative to support and promote SMEs, in particular those from emerging markets and with social impact. An ITU Open Forum was held this morning on this initiative and I would like to encourage you to join us in this efforts.

In this 150^th anniversary year of the ITU, our history shows that progress can only be achieved through collaboration – in the case of ITU's membership: 193 Member States; more than 700 private sector entities; 100 universities; and many civil society organizations all working on an increasingly diverse range of issues.

With ICTs becoming pervasive in all walks of life and business, ITU membership is attracting many new players and we are constantly increasing our collaboration with a wide range of organisations and making ITU more accessible, open and transparent. A new low membership fee for universities has proved successful and we hope a similar low fee will soon be created for SMEs and non-profit making bodies. Good collaboration with the Internet community is essential to ITU achieving its goals and we hope these developments will facilitate this.

There is no single entity that can alone address all the challenges faced by the ICT Sector. These are complex global issues, requiring global dialogue, cooperation and collaboration. It is imperative that we all work together and ITU is ready and willing to do so.