Opening Address
by
Pekka Tarjanne,
Secretary-General of the
International Telecommunication Union

Mr. Prime Minister
Honourable Ministers
Excellencies
Distinguished Delegates
Ladies and Gentlemen
Dear Friends

On behalf of the members of the ITU, it is my great pleasure to thank the government and people of Malta for having invited us to be your guests for the next ten days, and to celebrate the second World Telecommunication Development Conference with you.

Mr. Prime Minister, you – and we – have a lot to celebrate.

As much as any country, Malta has shown the world the power of telecommunications to help people transcend the apparent limitations imposed by the physical realities of space and time. With will, imagination, enterprise, and intelligence small nations can become world telecommunication leaders, as you have done.

Over the next few days, let us rejoice in your success, and learn all that we can from your experience.

But even as we enjoy your hospitality, let us not forget that we, the members and staff of the ITU, have much to celebrate too.

The four years since the first World Telecommunication Development Conference in Buenos Aires have seen remarkable developments in our field, and significant progress in our Union.

Although normally a cautious man, I am tempted to say that a telecommunications revolution is in progress, and that the people assembled in this hall are among its leaders.

This may surprise at least some of you. After all, telecommunication revolutions rarely start in beautiful buildings, like this Mediterranean Conference Centre. Instead, they usually begin in other places – in a dust-free lab, with the production of a more powerful microprocessor – in the mind of a software genius, with a "killer application" – in a corporate boardroom, with a mega-merger – in a parliament or court, with a new policy and regulation – in late night negotiations, leading to a free trade agreement.

As far as I know, none of these items is on the agenda of this conference. So how can we begin a revolution here, in Valletta?

In the four years since Buenos Aires, we have seen plenty of revolutions of the kinds I have mentioned. We will continue to see their effects for many years to come. But in my mind, they are no longer revolutions.

The telecommunications world has changed – and it has changed forever. It is not possible to go back, even if we wanted to. So what is the best way forward? This is the question we should focus on over the next ten days.

In trying to answer this question, we must begin by taking account of all of the changes that have taken place in telecommunications since Buenos Aires.

Some of these changes have been in technology – most notably, in the introduction of new that satellite systems will make basic telecommunication services universally available.

Other changes have been in services and applications. Here, the Internet has been the outstanding development. It has redefined our notion of what telecommunications is all about.

Still other changes have taken place in policy and regulation. Whether at the national, regional or global level, telecommunications is beginning to be seen as a business, not just as a public service.

We must review the work we have done in light of these developments. When we look at the balance sheet of the last four years, I am confident we will find that our successes far outweigh our failures, and that the youngest Sector of the Union is maturing quickly into a healthy adult.

However, the purpose of this conference is not to congratulate ourselves on a job well done. The real challenge we face is to project a future which is not simply the sum of the trends that have transformed telecommunications – but a future which moves the world of telecommunications to an even higher level of development – a future which adds human value to these trends – a future which once again transforms how the world views the telecommunications industry -- and how the telecommunications industry views the world.

This is the revolution we must plan, together.

Every revolution needs a slogan, a credo, a manifesto – and the Valletta revolution is no exception.

In the next ten days, I know you will find the right words to express your vision of the future, and to lead you in your quest for more human telecommunications development.

To help you begin this search, let me repeat the belief that has guided me over the past 8 years, the belief that has served as my revolutionary credo and my moral compass during my tenure as ITU Secretary-General.

I believe that the right to communicate should be recognized as a fundamental human right in the global information society of the twenty-first century.

I cannot claim to have invented the idea that there should be a "right to communicate".

The origins of this idea go back more than two millennia, to the civilizations that developed on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Since Malta is the crossroads of the Mediterranean world, and since ancient splendors are still present here, we should listen carefully for echoes of the past, even as we go about our business of designing the future.

The idea that the right to communicate is a fundamental human right was given modern expression by Woodrow Wilson who, as you may know, was the founder of the multilateral system and a man whose memory is still very much alive in Geneva, the seat of the ITU.

A decade and a half ago, at the beginning of the telecommunications revolution, the right to communicate was given practical definition by another outstanding public servant – Sir Donald Maitland – who has honoured us with his presence today.

As we seek to define our vision, we should draw inspiration from all these voices, as well as from the general example – although certainly not the specific vision – of the knights who originally built this magnificent site, as part of their quest.

But our work should not only be serious – it should also be fun. As is my practice at every major conference of the Union, I have tried to make an appropriate and inspirational acronym from the name of the venue. Let me close these remarks by offering this modest contribution to the conference proceedings.