Policy Statement of Saudi Arabia
by H.E. Engineer Mohammad J. Ahmed Mulla, Governor of Saudi Communications Commission, and the Head of Delegation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

H.E. Chairman of the Plenipotentiary Conference of the International Telecommunication Union 2002,
Excellencies, Ministers and Heads of the delegations, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Mr. Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union,
Members of delegations,
Honorable guests,

May Peace and Mercy and Blessings of Allah be with you.
Praise be to Allah and Peace be upon the Messenger of Allah.

It is a pleasure for me to address you on the occasion of the Plenipotentiary Conference of the International Telecommunication Union 2002 in the Kingdom of Morocco.

On behalf of the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to the Government of the Kingdom of Morocco, for hosting this important conference in the fast developing world of telecommunication, the warm and courteous welcome generously extended to all of us by our colleagues in the Moroccan Administration, and the extensive facilities placed at our disposal, which has made our attendance at the 2002 Plenipotentiary most pleasant and comfortable, in this magnificent, ancient, and historical city of Marrakesh.

Also my sincere congratulation to the Chairman and Vice Chairmen of the conference, the Chairmen and Vice Chairmen of the Committees of the Conference on their election to guide and steer the work of the conference to achieve successful results of the subjects before it.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We all know that telecommunication and information technology are among the basic means for the progress and growth of nations to stimulate their economic, social and cultural potential and bring their peoples closer and achieve prosperity for all of them.

Despite the diverse efforts to achieve this objective, the increasingly widening digital divide between developed and developing countries prevents the developing countries from catching up with the stride for progress and development. This necessitates putting together all efforts in order to bridge this divide for achieving a balanced growth of the information and telecommunication sector in all countries of the world so that the information and telecommunication loop is complete, and all people can be easily linked and communicate.

Many countries have realised this fact and have accordingly developed national plans for telecommunication and information technology. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, believing in the importance of the telecommunication and information technology, has started developing a national plan for telecommunication and information technology, and another for e-commerce, establishing the necessary legal, regulatory and technical framework, and creating the necessary mechanism for implementation and follow-up of these plans, in addition to suitable activities to educate and train the necessary manpower and increase the awareness of the importance of these fields.

The Kingdom has also approved a multi-phase plan to restructure the telecommunication sector and to provide different telecommunication services of high quality throughout the Kingdom.

To date, three phases have been implemented:

First Phase:

Converting the governmental sector providing telecommunication services to a state-owned company run on commercial basis. This has been achieved by establishing the Saudi Telecom Company (STC) on 2/5/1998. As a result, in the last four and half years, the Kingom has been able to update and convert the whole of the telecommunication network into a digital network, which is growing quantitatively and qualitatively, and covering more rural and remote areas. In addition several modern services such as internet, audio-text, prepaid cards have also been introduced.

Second Phase:

Starting to sell 30% of the shares of the state-owned company (STC) to the public, which will be completed by the end of this year, Allah willing. This has been possible after STC gained significant profits in the last period.

Third Phase:

Organizing and restructuring the telecommunication sector and framing necessary regulations and procedures. This phase has started since the issuance of the Telecommunication Act on 4/6/2001, and the establishment of the Saudi Communication Commission (SCC) on the same date. SCC is an independent comminssion to regulate the telecommunication sector in the Kingdom in order to encourage investment in this important sector, provide sufficient and developed telecommunication services with reasonable prices, create a suitable environment for the private sector to participate in an effective and fair competition and achieve clarity and transparency in procedures.

The commission is now making the required arrangements to start competition in the telecommunication sector which will be partially open in the last quarter of 2004 for mobile telophones, and by the year 2008, for fixed line telephones. In addition, the SCC is conducting the necessary studies to determine suitable dates for gradually opening competition in other services.

Regarding the subjects before the conference, I will limit my comments to the following very important subjects:

1. The ITU must remain the pre-eminent international and market-relevant focal point for matters relating to a rapidly changing telecommunication environment, and therefore, it must regularly review and update, as appropriate, its structure, activities and processes to ensure that they are effective and efficient in the light of the current needs of its membership especially the developing countries, and promote worldwide access to the global information infrastructure and worldwide participation in the global information society, and to revise international agreements related to telecommunication to cope with the changing environment.
2. ITU Members States, especially developing countries, should be given all possible assistance to draw maximum benefits from technical and regulatory changes in the telecommunication environment to bridge the digital divide to which I referred in the beginning of my speech. Taking into consideration this environment and the wide gap it creates between developing and developed countries, the ITU has the responsibility to provide information on these changes to countries to assist them in adapting to this new global environment and to advise them on the issues they face in this regard.
3. One of the main purposes of the Union, as expressed in its Constitution, is to promote the development of telecommunication wherever possible, using all the means at its disposal, and we believe the greater use of the official languages of the Union is a major means to enable a larger number of Members to participate more actively in the work of the Union; to draw the benefits of the technological, administrative and staffing advantages thereof; and to permit greater understanding among Members. We, therefore, believe that the six official languages of the Union should be used on an equal footing in all activities of the Union. This would have a very positive influence on the development of telecommunication and of knowledge and the Members of the Union, especially the developing countries.
4. The financial burden on Member States continued to increase due to the increase of their contribution in the budgets of the Union during the last ten years, and it was expected that improvements of the status Sector Members adopted by APP-92, PP-94, and PP-98, should have resulted in an increased financial contribution by these Members. To the contrary, a number of the biggest Sector Members significantly reduced their class of contribution. The conference, therefore, is required to take a sound decision on this unbalanced and unreasonable situation.
5. Due to the rapidly changing requirements for the regulation of the telecommunication market at the national level, scarcity of regulatory expertise and human resources have become a pressing concern. The ITU, therefore, should strengthen its regulatory activities and focus more on expanding technical assistance towards helping developing countries in establishing their regulatory framework to enable them to restructure and develop the telecommunication sector by introducing competition and allowing the private sector to build and operate telecommunication networks and provide their services.

For all the above mentioned problems and regulations related to telecommunication in other international organizations, it became necessary for the ITU to make the required arrangements to convene a World Conference on International Telecommunication to revise the International Agreement, Melbourne, 1988.

In concluding my address, I do hope that our deliberations, discussions, and decisions, on the issues before the conference will achieve successful results fulfilling the expectations of the members of the Union and providing the suitable support to the developing countries in particular to develop their telecommunication services and bridge the digital divide. At the same time I assure you of the cooperation and support of the delegation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to achieve these results.

My best regards and thanks for your kind attention.