The Prime Minister of Turkey opens ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in
Antalya
The seventeenth Plenipotentiary Conference was opened today in Antalya by the
Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. A minute of
silence was observed in memory of the former Prime Minister, Bülent Ecevit, who
passed away on Sunday night (5 November 2006). Paying tribute to the late Prime
Minister, Mr Erdoğan said that his death marked "the loss of a great Statesman,
who had rendered excellent services to the country".
Welcoming delegates to a packed Vega Convention Centre at the Sungate Port
Royal Hotel, Mr Erdoğan said that once more, Turkey looked forward to another
success of a global ITU event.
The opening ceremony was also addressed by ITU Secretary-General, Yoshio
Utsumi, and Turkey’s Minister of Transport, Binali Yıldırım.
Turkey: upwardly digital
The Prime Minister painted a picture of the Turkish ICT landscape. Turkey is
making steady progress along the path towards becoming an information society.
Its information and communication technologies (ICT) market has high potential,
given ongoing reform of the sector and the country’s population of more than 73
million. The Prime Minister underlined that the government and the private
sector had great expectations from this conference, whose decisions would have
important implications for the telecommunication industry worldwide.
The government is creating important employment opportunities for the younger
generation in the information and communication sectors. As the Prime Minister
stated it, much attention is now turned to research and development in order to
achieve this goal. The government is encouraging the private sector to develop
new R & D centres, which it would support to offer young researchers a chance to
be leaders in the ICT revolution.
Privatization had been a key component of the government’s policy to create a
competitive ICT market structure said the Prime Minister. The year 2004 saw the
end of monopoly in voice communication and infrastructure. Now the emphasis is
on the e-Transformation Turkey Project that will provide a coordinating
mechanism for improving ICT in the country.
Turkey’s Minister of Transport, Binali Y ıldırım,
highlighted just how rapidly telecommunications are expanding in the country.
With more than 19 million fixed-telephone lines, over 50 million mobile
subscribers and an estimated 16 million internet users, there are growth
opportunities in almost all national spheres of ICT. Turkey’s young and dynamic
population augments this potential. He commended ITU for its role in guiding the
telecommunication sector and expressed the hope that the decisions of the
conference would lead to a further extension and wider use of ICT and help close
the digital divide between and within countries.
Moving with the times
ITU Secretary-General told delegates that this Plenipotentiary is faced with
momentous decisions which will affect the lives of all people around the world.
"The birth pangs of the information revolution are over," he said. "We are at a
critical juncture where we must make the right decisions, right choices, to make
our Union the strong cornerstone—unobtrusive but always there to act—as an
anchor of the multi-stakeholder development of the information society,"Mr
Utsumi also said.
A new environment
What has happened since Mr Utsumi’s election in Minneapolis in 1998 and
re-election in Marrakesh in 2002? The world has experienced the "dot com" boom
and bust. It has seen the power of the internet reaching the shores and cities
of every country. Government monopolies have been bracing for private
competition. Analogue networks have changed to digital networks. And mobile
telephony has boomed. Traumatic events and natural calamities have focused the
world attention on the importance of communications in disaster mitigation and
relief.
Highlighting these changes Mr Utsumi stated that in all his endeavours, his
unwavering focus and unflinching belief had been turned towards achieving the
Union’s goal of "development of telecommunications for one and all". But
"believing is a fine thing", and "putting those beliefs into execution is a test
of strength," he said quoting the poet Khalil Gibran. He said that the past few
years had been a real test of his inner strength and beliefs. But he expressed
satisafaction that he had delivered on the pledges he took and on the promises
he made in 1998 when he was elected.
"Since Minneapolis, more than two billion new users have been added to the
world’s networks, most of them using mobile phones, and more than 800 million
users have been connected to the internet" Mr Utsumi said. ITU had anticipated
and helped create this change, for instance, in setting aside spectrum and by
developing interoperability standards. "Telecommunications now lie at the heart
of a global ICT business that is valued in terms of trillions of dollars, and
which contributes more than 7 per cent of global wealth," he told delegates.
Making ITU more efficient and effective
During the past eight years, ITU had successfully implemented management
reforms including operational planning, results-based budgeting and
time-tracking. "We have improved the efficiency of our work, for instance by
eliminating the backlogs in the processing of satellite notifications, and in
reforming the business model of TELECOM," Mr Utsumi pointed out. ITU had also
succeeded in absorbing requests from the membership for additional activities,
without any significant increase in the contributory unit. He said that in
total, efficiency measures of more than CHF 75 million had been implemented
since 1998, making it possible to undertake more work with fewer resources.
Dealing with the WSIS challenge: time to broaden ITU’s horizons
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was a pivotal event in
which ITU played the leading role. WSIS has given ITU the opportunity to
position itself in the vanguard of the information society. But in assuming that
position, ITU must demonstrate that it is no longer just a "technical agency"
that simply "makes the phones work" or "records satellite filings", Mr Utsumi
underlined. "ITU must now show that it has a mandate and capacity to engage more
broadly in the development of ICT and in their use for the benefit of humanity."
WSIS helped to highlight the challenges raised by the information society. It
also brought together new players and new interests. The WSIS process enhanced
the public image and awareness of ITU, even among Heads of State and Government.
But despite ITU’s leading role, WSIS decided that it was necessary to create a
separate forum to discuss the issue of internet governance, because ITU was not
sufficiently open to the new players that were brought together at the summit,
and not flexible enough in its working methods to accommodate new issues. Its
traditional ways of working through study groups was considered not to be
appropriate, and a more flexible response is needed, Mr Utsumi stressed.
Leadership and innovation
Referring to his tenure as Secretary-General, Mr Utsumi said that ITU had
been able to demonstrate leadership and innovation in several important matters
requiring international policy coordination. Success stories, he said, included
the agreement on the IMT-2000 family of standards for third generation (3G)
mobile communications. Another example is the World Telecommunication Policy
Forum of 2001. This helped Member States and Sector Members to develop a common
understanding of the implications of voice over internet protocol (VoIP).
He called on the conference to act with vision and clarity, at times
forsaking narrow interests for the broader good of human kind. "It is imperative
that we continue forward with greater momentum on the path of change ITU has
embarked on since I took office eight years ago", he stated. The world is
changing and ITU must change with it. "We have to decide: are we to continue our
archaic dogmatic traditions or relinquish them to soar with the pragmatic winds
of change sweeping across the globe." He urged the conference to "make ITU the
universal flag bearer to build a more just and equitable information society".
Down to business
The first plenary session of PP-06 opened with a decision that the elections
would begin on Thursday, 9 November, starting with the post of
Secretary-General. The Conference also elected the Chairman of the Conference,
Mr Tanju Cataltepe of Turkey and 5 of the six vice-chairmen (Knut Smaaland of
Norway, Leonid Reiman of Russian Federation, Philippe Mvouomo of Congo, Hikaru
Chono of Japan and Mohammed Mulla of Saudi Arabia). It also elected a number of
chairmen and vice-chairmen of the committees although several positions remain
to be finalized.
Committee 2:
Credentials Committee |
Chairman: |
Ernest Ndukwe (Nigeria) |
| |
Vice-Chairmen: |
M. GHAZAL (Lebanon)
W.M. RULLENS (Netherlands) |
Committee 3:
Budget Control Committee |
Chairman: |
Reynaldo Gonzales (Mexico) |
| |
Vice-Chairmen: |
F. GOEBBELS (Germany)
M. MAKHMUDOV (Uzbekistan) |
Committee 4
Editorial Committee |
Chairman: |
Marie-Thérèse Alajouanine
(France) |
| |
Vice-Chairman (English): |
Esther Val (United Kingdom)
|
| |
Vice-Chairman (Spanish): |
Manual Zaragoza (Spain) |
| |
Vice-Chairman (Russian): |
Andrey Svechnikov (Russian
Federation) |
| |
Vice-Chairman (Chinese): |
Nie Zheng (China) |
| |
Vice-Chairman (Arabic): |
Hassan Lebbadi (Morroco) |
Committee 5:
Policy and Legal Matters |
Chairman: |
K. ARASTEH (Iran (Islamic Rep. of)) |
| |
Vice-Chairmen: |
J. DORAN (Canada)
John NKOMA (Tanzania) |
| Committee 6:
Administration and Management |
Chairman: |
Frederic Riehl |
| |
Vice-Chairmen: |
M.-O. BEAU (France)
V. BURMISTENKO (Ukraine)
M. FALL (Senegal)
C. CHITRASWANG (Thailand) |
| Working Group of the
Plenary |
Chairman: |
R.N. AGARWAL (India) |
| |
Vice-Chairmen: |
J. ALBERNAZ (Brazil)
A. NALBANDIAN (Armenia)
M. OUHADJ (Algeria) |
The mandate of each committee can be found
here.
Setting the tone
The United States began the formal procession of policy statements by
referring to the WSIS Geneva Declaration of Principles, reiterating the
commitment "to build a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented
Information Society, where everyone can create, access, utilize and share
information and knowledge, enabling individuals, communities and peoples to
achieve their full potential in promoting their sustainable development and
improving their quality of life". The delegate urged ITU to pursue policies
aimed at evolving ICT to facilitate the free flow of information and extend the
educational, cultural, scientific, political, medical and commercial
opportunities to all. "Only through the actions of each government can an
environment be created which would allow the promise of ICT to become a
reality," the delegate said.
Communications for all
With a view to expanding access to ICT in developing countries, the US has
contributed over USD 250 million in the past three years. In 2007, the Digital
Freedom Initiative will focus on increasing broadband connectivity and
connecting rural areas. PP-06 would address new challenges and opportunities,
such as NGN, as well as promote an enabling environment to achieve global
economic development. It would be critical to elect forward-looking candidates
and make ITU more accountable and efficient.
The delegate reaffirmed the US position of establishing a budget ceiling
based on zero nominal growth. Priorities need to be established based on the
Union’s core competencies and the financial plan should be focused on achieving
the strategic goals.
Communications for safety
The Minister for Information Technology thanked the Union for its work in
restoring and establishing communication links during the series of natural
disasters following the Asian tsunami, including the devastating South Asian
earthquake. He said that Pakistan would support ITU in standardizing emergency
response to disasters within the framework of the Tampere Convention.
The Minister said he was proud of Pakistan’s "indomitable association with
ITU" and reaffirmed his country’s commitment to strengthening the Union as "an
effective and efficient body to amicably address the challenges of the future."
He added, "The development of telecommunications on regional and global basis is
critical for the overall improvement of economic, social, political, and
cultural values. It promotes the sharing and exchange of such values across
different cultures, and in doing so, fosters healthier inter-cultural
relationships and stronger links between people across the globe."
Pakistan reaffirmed its support to ITU in meeting the challenges and
objectives in the rapidly evolving ICT sector. ITU should continue to assist
developing countries in establishing new policy and regulatory requirements.
Communications everywhere
The Minister of Transport and Communications of Kyrgyzstan thanked ITU for
its assistance in developing ICT. "Even though Kyrgyzstan
is a mountainous country, telecommunications has been developing apace," he
said. "Since 2002, Kyrgyzstan has seen major evolution of digital mainline radio
lines, which are operated by four competing companies." One in five people
subscribe to mobile networks, and a broadband wireless access network would be
the way to provide universal access, he added. In the next four years, fibre
optic lines would cover the Republic and connect to neighbouring countries as
well.
Communications for peace
The Minister of Communications of Colombia stated that development
initiatives must ensure that all people have access to knowledge networks in
order to make real progress towards realizing the Information Society. She said
that PP-06 marked the crossroads for telecommunication development and bridging
the digital divide. ITU had the responsibility to harness the potential of ICT
to achieve peace, security, stability, good governance and the rule of law.
The Minister voiced her concern that international terrorism, which knows no
borders, had played havoc in Colombia and the rest of the world. "Good
communication can overcome these territorial constraints", she said. She called
for fair access to satellite signals, as proposed by CITEL, and said that NGN
should be promoted as a tool for social and economic development. ICT would be
key to building an inclusive Information Society, achieving the Millennium
Development Goals (MDG) and bridging the digital divide.
The full text of policy statements made available electronically can
be found
here.
Background documents outlining some of the key issues to be discussed at the
Conference are available to media at
www.itu.int/plenipotentiary/2006/newsroom/ |
The seventeenth Plenipotentiary Conference was opened today in Antalya by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Welcoming delegates to a jam-packed Vega Convention Centre at the Sungate Port
Royal Hotel, Mr Erdoğan said that once more, Turkey looked forward to another
success of a global ITU event.