Europe Regional Preparatory Meeting for WTDC-21
18 January, 2020
Opening Remarks
Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Director, Telecommunication Development Bureau
Excellencies,
His Excellency Petr Ocko, Deputy Minister for Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic
His Excellency Urmas Reinsalu , Minister of Foreign Affairs, Estonia
Her Excellency Valeriya Ionan , Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine
His Excellency Milan Dobrijevic , Assistant Minister, Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications of the Republic of Serbia
Ms Cristiana Flutur, Co-President of CEPT
Ms Gwi-Yup Son, Regional Director of DCO for Europe and Central Asia, United Nations
Distinguished delegates,
Ladies & gentlemen,
Happy New Year. I would like to warmly wish you and your families a healthy and happy 2021.
I want to warmly welcome you to this virtual meeting of the ITU Regional Preparatory Meeting for Europe.
Let me take a moment to thank the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic for generously working with us to organize this important regional consultative event.
And let me also thank you all for your unwavering commitment to ITU's Development Sector, and for your support for the many activities that are advancing digital transformation across the 46 countries of the European region, at a time when connectivity has never been more critical.
Our next World Telecommunication Development Conference comes at a defining moment for the world, and for ITU's place in it.
The pandemic has brought home the stark reality that in today's societies, connectivity is not just important— it is absolutely critical.
At the same time, it has become increasingly clear that digital solutions will be our key to success in this final Decade of Action to achieve the SDGs.
In short, our mandate, the ITU's mandate to 'connect the world', has simply never been more important.
In recognition of the 'digital inflection point' at which the world now finds itself, we have been continuing to work hard to overhaul BDT's internal processes, and revisiting the WTDC preparatory process to ensure that this crucially important conference delivers on its promise.
BDT's own journey of change aims to create an agile, fit-for-purpose organization, better placed to anticipate and respond to the evolving needs of its members.
I believe the next WTDC has the potential to be hailed as a landmark conference in rewriting the global connectivity agenda, and our enhanced preparatory process has been developed to support this ambitious vision.
By bringing together Member States, the private sector, financial institutions like regional development banks, and key civil society organizations, WTDC-21 offers us a unique opportunity to harness a swelling tide of political will around connectivity, and build long-lasting partnerships that advance our digital transformation agenda.
With the signing of the WTDC Host Country Agreement late last year, we lost no time in kicking off our Road to Addis discussion series, which is one new element of this enhanced preparatory process.
The Road to Addis conversations aim to build awareness and excitement among ICT stakeholders, and to reach out to bring in important new constituencies.
The next stop on the Road to Addis will focus on the role of partnership, and I hope many of you will join us on the 2nd of February and be a part of these important discussions.
Another way in which we have augmented the WTDC preparatory process is through the establishment of three inter-regional meetings to complement our six regional RPMs, of which this meeting is the first.
The aim of these new inter-regional meetings is to help members build consensus and clarify positions around key WTDC agenda items, so that we can advance as rapidly as possible through what is certain to be a very tightly packed work schedule.
Working with TDAG and its subgroups via online meetings and web dialogues, we have also advanced a number of refinements to make this next WTDC more inclusive and more impactful.
I would like to take a brief moment to recognize Santiago Reyes Borda, who has so ably led our TDAG sub-groups to advance these improvements, and to highlight in particular two important new features:
- The first is a new development and partnerships track, running within the main body of the conference, and comprising high-level panels and thematic discussions with experts from a broad range of stakeholders including international financial institutions, regional development banks, our UN sister agencies, private sector players, and civil society.
- The second is our inaugural WTDC Youth Summit, to be held just prior to the start of the conference, as part of ITU's 'Generation Connect' initiative.
Young people are natural and enthusiastic adopters of digital technology, and a new generation of young digital natives is already defining and developing the digital platforms and services that are reshaping our world.
Youth is a vital and an increasingly indispensable voice at the table, and it is my hope that this first Youth Summit, and our Generation Connect initiative, represent merely the start of a much more proactive engagement by the ITU with young people right around the world.
The Youth Declaration developed by our Europe Youth Group, which will be presented today by some of our young delegates, is one concrete example of meaningful youth empowerment and participation in our work.
And in recognition of the importance of the WTDC in shaping digital development strategies at the international level, we continue to strive to encourage the equal participation of women in leading roles in the WTDC conference and process.
Building on the success of the Network of Women initiative which was pioneered back in 2015 in ITU's Radiocommunication Sector, I am delighted to announce the establishment of a Network of Women - or NOW - for the Development Sector.
This initiative aims at building a community to support female delegates, help them expand their network, and encourage them to share their experiences, expertise and knowledge with other female delegates. I hope that many Member States will join us at a special side event to launch this new network, which will take place tomorrow at 1:15pm Geneva time.
I know that many of you have been actively involved in our TDAG working groups focused on WTDC preparations; the group on Resolutions, Declarations and Thematic Priorities led by Dr Sharafat that will meet this week, and the group on the Development Sector's contribution to the ITU's Strategic and Operational Plans, led by Blanca Gonzalez.
Your invaluable contributions to this work, will help ensure our conference structure and processes deliver on the great expectations we all have for this milestone event.
Ladies and gentlemen,
In the digital sphere, Europe has much to be proud of.
Many of you in this meeting play an active role in advancing Europe's digital agenda,
But, are you aware how successful your efforts have been?
The latest ITU figures from our Digital Trends report show that almost the whole European population is now within reach of a mobile broadband signal, with more than 82% of Europeans now online.
Europe's young people are the most connected in the world, with 96% of 15 to 24-year-olds now using the internet.
The region has the highest fixed-broadband subscription rates in the world, and 85% of households have a home internet connection.
And in terms of regulation, Europe leads by far, with 28 fourth-generation and 10 fifth-generation regulators, who are redefining best practice by implementing some of the world's most advanced and far-sighted regulatory frameworks.
But as we all know, the European region is a region of great diversity.
Yes, it comprises some of the most connected countries on the planet.
And others that are less connected and working hard to become ubiquitously connected 'gigabit societies'.
So what are the key challenges Europe still needs to address? The challenges identified in the last WTDC process and those today.
One would certainly be the persistent rural-urban divide. Another would be a stubborn gender gap in access to ICTs. And if we look at ICT skills – such a vitally important engine of future growth, and youth empowerment – we still see important differences both between, and within, countries. Deployment of technological advances like 5G and AI is also too unevenly spread across the region as a whole.
While a few economic giants like France, Germany and the UK have significant digital innovation capabilities, there is still too much fragmentation to achieve sufficient scale.
How can we support smaller economies to develop home-grown centres of expertise and entrepreneurship that harness the considerable talent and enthusiasm of their youth? This is also a challenge for some of the countries in this region.
The COVID pandemic is and will continue to accelerate the region's digital transformation process.
It is also highlighting gaps and areas where greater regional and international cooperation will be essential, and where national support and technical assistance can play a critical role.
It is clearer than ever, that in today's complex and challenging environment, this work cannot be done alone.
Real progress will depend on broad, multistakeholder digital cooperation. Every actor will have an important role to play. That is what we hope to achieve at the 2021 WTDC.
I am firmly convinced that the recently established UN Digital Transformation Group for Europe and Central Asia will prove of great benefit in fostering the delivery of concrete projects that advance our shared development agenda.
ITU leadership in a special Task Force on Digitalization for Sustainable Development at the UN Brussels Office level is another positive step, not only in terms of actions for Europe, but for outreach beyond this region.
Let me commend the progress achieved so far, including fruitful new collaboration and partnerships with UN DCO, UNECE, WHO, FAO, UN WOMEN, UNICEF, and others.
I am also greatly encouraged by Europe's commitment to ramping up support for digital development efforts in other regions around the world.
Great examples include: the PRIDA policy and regulatory initiative with ITU and the African Union, funded by European Union; the Government of Norway's support for our Digital Transformation Centres partnership with Cisco; and the Government of Denmark's support for the African Girls Can Code Initiative being jointly led by ITU, UN Women and the African Union Commission.
I am also very excited about Europe's new D4D Hub, and with WTDC-21 fast approaching, the EU's commitment to greater digital cooperation with all regions, starting with Africa, where the very first D4D hub will focus on stimulating partnerships and investment to build a strong African digital economy.
The D4D hub initiative complements a number of ITU products and initiatives, such as our ICT digital regulation toolkit, our ITU UNICEF Giga school connectivity initiative, and our ongoing work to support the UNSG's Roadmap for Digital Cooperation.
We look forward to finding many new ways for us to join forces, and rapidly amplify results.
Ladies & gentlemen,
As you all know, the five Regional Initiatives adopted by the World Telecommunication Development Conference in 2017 remain our roadmap for delivering on the priorities of the region in the fields of:
- ICT infrastructure
- digitization
- digital inclusion
- cybersecurity; and innovation.
And we have advanced a number of concrete projects to respond to these priorities. From the:
The ITU-WHO-EC Project to establish the European mHealth Innovation and Knowledge Hub, a repository of national experiences on m-health designed to support countries and regions in setting up large-scale m-health programmes. Over 20 institutions from across Europe have already joined this initiative.
The ITU- Estonia-Germany-Dial project on Digitalization of government services for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, aimed at developing a model reference digital government platform, as a digital public good based on reusable, standards-driven, secure and interoperable building blocks.
The ITU-Broadband Foundation project on broadband investment mapping for South Eastern Europe, which will assist Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Ukraine in mapping broadband infrastructure and services; and,
The ITU-European Commission Accessible Europe platform, which is advancing the implementation of ICT accessibility, fostering innovation, and supporting countries in establishing enabling and inclusive environments.
None of these important initiatives could have been undertaken alone.
Let me take a moment to thank our regional telecommunication organization, the CEPT, and other partners including the European Commission, BEREC, the Eastern Partnership Network of Regulators for Electronic Communication, ENISA, the Regional Cooperation Council, and many others, for their collaboration and contribution to ITU's Regional Initiatives, and Europe's digital development agenda.
Ladies and gentlemen,
In our BDT end-of-year review, we spoke of the need to pool our resources and work to build forward better together.
Our Regional Preparatory Meetings are a vital element of that collaborative effort, and will be critical to the success of this year's WTDC.
In November, we have an outstanding and unmissable opportunity to leverage the power of digital to truly change the world.
I think you all share that vision and enthusiasm for what we might achieve, and I look forward to a very fruitful, creative and insightful discussions.
Thank you.
