Statement of The Netherlands
by Mr. Guus Broesterhuizen

Mr Chairman, Secretary General, Honourable Ministers, Ladies and gentlemen,

I am very pleased to have this opportunity to speak to you about some issues that will be discussed during this Conference. This Conference has to decide on a large number of proposals for reform of the organisation. The Netherlands believes that changes are needed urgently and should be substantial.

We are committed to the objective of establishing the ITU as the leading telecommunications organisation in the world. In order to realise this objective the ITU has to improve its performance in adapting to the needs of a rapidly changing telecommunications world. It will have to become more effective, more efficient and more market-oriented. ITU will have to deliver its products timely, at reasonable costs and on the basis of a transparent decision making process.

Concretely our delegation will focus on three issues.

Firstly, we focus on streamlining the Union. We will support those proposals for adaptation of the structure of the organisation, which will lead to more transparent and efficient decision making. This means that the sectors within ITU should have more flexibility in their work, more authority to decide on e.g. recommendations and to adapt to changing priorities. ITU should also become a 'lighter' organisation in general.

Secondly, we aim for strategic re-orientation. ITU must remain the organisation, which deals with world wide regulation concerning frequency planning, numbering plans etc. Governments must retain a prominent role here, while this regards the allocation of scarce resources. The Union should play the role of facilitator to resolve a number of new issues, such as further globalisation of telecom and convergence in telecommunication and the internet. These issues are international in nature and transgress the boundaries of national regulation and policy making. In the field of standardisation the ITU should try to recapture its leading position, which it has lost to regional organisations and private industry initiatives. More participation of industry is needed in the development sector and work should focus more on concrete projects and less on studies.

Thirdly, ITU should keep its attraction as a world Forum for discussion and decision making regarding international communications developments and issues. It should be an outward looking organisation, with broad participation of sector members and other organisations. The large number of technical questions, which are connected with the development of IP applications, such as security and reliability of the networks and services, underline the importance to have a world wide 'meeting point' for the exchange of information and know how.

These issues are not completely new. In 1998 at the last Plenipotentiary Conference they were already addressed to some extent. But progress has been peace meal or absent. We are ,to mention just one important example, still confronted with the problem of the so called 'satellite backlog'.

We consider this very disappointing. Substantial changes have not materialized. Therefore we have announced our intention to reduce our contribution to the ITU budget and that we have provisionally chosen for the 4 units class. Dutch industry has reduced its participation and contribution in the standardisation sector to a minimum already and , due to lack of progress on reform in the development sector, some Dutch operators have resigned their membership of this sector.

Mr Secretary General, you have underlined on several occasions in the preparatory process towards this Conference the urgent need for reform. The Netherlands would like to join you in your call upon Member States to adopt not only all the recommendations put forward by the ITU Reform Group, but also other proactive reform proposals tabled by Member States. If the Conference would decide on substantial reform, we will reconsider the class of contribution we have provisionally chosen. Apart from this we would like to announce our intention to increase our 'voluntary contributions' for specific projects that are examples of a modern approach, have a concrete goal, are relevant for the targeted group and are run efficiently within the allocated budget.

We hope this Conference can take decisive steps to reform of the ITU.

Thank you.