Mr Yoshio Utsumi and Mr Roberto Blois have been re-elected for a second term as Secretary-General and Deputy Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union. Addressing the Conference after the results of the vote, Mr Utsumi told the more than 1300 delegates from 158 countries that he was thankful for their vote of confidence in his ability to complete the ITU reform process begun four years ago and he reminded them "that the decisions that you will adopt here in Marrakesh will mark the beginning of a new era where ITU can truly be an effective force that can steer the telecoms industry at large towards the common goal of reaching the unreached." The Secretary-General then pledged to bring the benefits of the global ‘unconnected’ villages by the time of the World Summit on the Information Society. For the complete transcript of the Secretary-General’s speech click here. For the speech of the Deputy Secretary-General, click here (also available in Portuguese)

Discussion on the necessity and method to amend the International Telecommunication Regulations continued in Committee 5. The Arab States and others had proposed detailed study and preparatory work, which would culminate in a World Conference on International Telecommunications in 2007. It would then be almost 20 years since the present regulations were established in Melbourne in 1988.

The United Kingdom, representing the European Common proposal, called for a more efficient and cost effective approach to updating the ITR. It began the discussion by suggesting that more than half of the provisions of the ITR are duplicated in the Constitution and Convention and proposed a phased-in approach that would provide some solutions as early as 2004. It then proposed the creation of a working group that would gather the various viewpoints on what could be done.

A consensus soon formed around this proposal and an Ad Hoc group was created by the Chairman under the direction of Ms Valerie D’Costa, Head of the Singapore delegation. The group is to prepare a document for presentation to the Committee on Friday that will examine all of the ITR proposals with an eye on consensus building and how best to deal with a review of the ITR in the short, medium and long term.

Mr Dick Beaird, as Chairman of Council 2002, presented the Council’s recommendations on ITU reform as they relate to the Radio Regulations Board. He confirmed that the role and tasks of the Radio Regulations Board (RRB), as an independent entity should include:

• Taking unbiased decisions regarding Radiocommunication Bureau decisions
• Approving Rules of Procedure developed by the Bureau and ensuring that the Rules of Procedure are developed in a transparent manner
• Possibly reducing the number of Board members with any reduction consistent with the principles of efficiency and geographical distribution
• The continued functioning of the RRB as a part-time board

Morocco stated on behalf of the Arab States that it believes a part time board is not working and should be made full time. The United States supported the recommendation that it should continue to function in a part-time manner as this made it easier for administrations to find qualified technical bodies with administrations to fill this important role. It suggested looking for greater efficiencies by having the board meet twice annually for two weeks. Morocco said that it would be willing to accept the present part-time status of the board but requested to hear the views of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of RRB have on the issue and it is on that point that the meeting will begin when it is next convened.

TELECOM events take centre stage

Committee 6 devoted this morning's session to the TELECOM events.  All delegations that spoke in Committee 6 this morning recognized that world and regional telecommunication exhibitions and associated forums (a tradition of more than thirty years) are of considerable assistance in keeping the membership of the Union and the wider telecommunication community informed of the latest advances in all fields of telecommunications.

Venues for regional TELECOMs:
a rotation system in sight?

In this context, a proposal from the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT) recommending that countries capable and willing to host regional exhibitions and forums should be given a chance to do so, received widespread support. APT’s proposal acknowledges that many developing countries have, in recent years, made much headway in developing their telecommunications sector.

To ensure that developing countries with the capability and willingness to host and stage regional TELECOMs are given due consideration and assistance, APT tabled a resolution proposing that decisions on the venues of regional TELECOMs, in particular, should be conducted in a more transparent manner (specification of terms and conditions and call for tenders). Supporting this proposal, most delegations expressed the sentiment that enabling and assisting developing countries to stage regional TELECOMs could well be serve as a stimulus for bringing the potential benefits of telecommunications closer to the people of all continents by emphasizing the specific problems of each region and indicating possible solutions.

Furthermore, APT proposed that ITU should introduce measures that offer more flexibility in implementing its space requirements and pricing regimes for regional TELECOMs. Establishing a rotation system in deciding the venue of regional TELECOMs is seen as one way of giving priority to countries that have not had the opportunity to host these events, but that are willing and capable of doing so. All these proposals received widespread support from delegations from both developed and developing countries.

An oversight role for the Council

Germany’s call for a basic revision of Resolution 11 (Minneapolis, 1998) was also supported by Committee 6. Resolution 11 is the legal basis for ITU TELECOM world and regional telecommunication exhibitions and associated forums. The German proposal seeks to adjust the wording and the content of Resolution 11 to present-day requirements and, in particular, to give the Council an oversight role in the financial affairs future ITU TELECOMs activities. "At present, control by the Council of ITU TELECOM activities fails to reach the desirable comprehensiveness. The Council merely receives an ex-post report at its annual meetings that contains generalized data and need not necessarily provide information on future plans and the related business opportunities and risks."

Many delegations supported this proposal for the sake of accountability. Some stated that they belong to other organizations where governing bodies have access to highly sensitive and confidential business information. At any rate, they said, in the case of the Council, there would be a proviso to treat commercially sensitive information as confidential. Germany's proposal is intended to help find an adequate solution to the conflicting aims, namely, the necessary flexibility of TELECOM to maintain its competitiveness on the marketplace for international exhibitions on the one hand and, on the other, to restrain the business risk by an advisable increased involvement of the Council in supervising TELECOM. 

In a resolution tabled by Germany and supported by many delegations, the Council would be required to approve the proposals of the Secretary-General on the principles of a transparent decision-making process on the venues of world and regional TELECOM exhibitions and forums. This would include the criteria to serve as a basis of that process; "such criteria shall include cost elements and, in the case of world events, the additional costs which may result from holding the event outside the city of the seat of the Union". The Council would also have to approve the proposals of the Secretary-General on the mandate and on the principles in regard of the composition of the TELECOM Board.

A drafting group was set to merge the objectives proposed in the two resolutions tabled by APT and Germany.

Full-cost recovery for ITU TELECOM activities

A recommendation of the Working Group on ITU Reform proposed the application of full-cost recovery to TELECOM activities. Senegal expressed concern over this recommendation. At present, TELECOM surpluses are used to finance development projects. Senegal is of the view that if full-cost recovery is applied, this will affect the level of surplus income and will therefore affect an important source of financing for development projects. "It is therefore necessary to evaluate the impact of applying the cost recovery principle and identify other sources of financing in order to avoid compromising telecommunication development projects", Senegal stated.

Senegal also proposed an amendment to Resolution 11 to replace "a significant part" by "80%". The change being proposed is to the sentence: "That a significant part of any surplus income over expenditure derived from the activities of TELECOM should be used as extra-budgetary income for the Telecommunication Development Bureau, for specific telecommunication development projects, primarily in the least developed countries.