Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure to be here with you in Hyderabad for the opening of the World
Telecommunication Development Conference. First and foremost I would like to offer my warmest
thanks to the Government of India for hosting this event and for the hard work that our host has put
into preparing it, in coordination with the staff of the ITU. I'd also like to offer my sincerest
sympathy to the people of India for the loss of life in the tragic airplane crash a few days ago.
Many of us were travelling at this time and are sad to think that not everyone arrived safely as we
did.
India is a remarkable place for ITU to hold the World Telecommunication Development Conference,
not least because it is one of the world’s great ICT success stories, but also because India has
shown, in very concrete and dramatic terms, the power of ICTs to stimulate social and economic
development.
Four years ago in Doha, at the last WTDC, I was attending as a delegate. Although many of the
issues are the same no matter where you sit, the change in perspective, working as Director of the
BDT, has been an eye-opening experience.
I have travelled the world, meeting with administrations, regulators, financial institutions and
industry to explore ways of better serving our Membership. In doing so, I have had the opportunity
to strengthen relationships that allow me to undertake the role of Director even more effectively.
A lot has changed since we gathered in Doha, and certainly much progress has been made in
implementing the WSIS outcomes and bridging the digital divide. The most striking development
has been the growth in mobile. Mobile subscriptions stood at nearly 2.2 billion 4 years ago and will
reach 5 billion this year. Mobile broadband has risen from 71 million to over 670 million. Fixed
broadband has more than doubled, from 212 to 527 million.
We can all be proud of this significant ICT growth and development.
The role of industry in taking risks especially in emerging markets, must be recognized, as well as
your constant efforts to put in place an enabling environment in your respective countries.
We have come a long way together, but we need to constantly innovate and keep up with
dynamics in the market place. Looking forward, we need to invent better targeted and more
positive regulation, focusing on incentives rather than obligations.
The role of policy-makers and regulators also requires increased international cooperation and
continuous dialogue and exchange, and the industry must be part of it. To foster this dialogue, I
have placed special emphasis on the Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR) and I established
the Global Industry Leaders Forum in conjunction with it. This has become one of the most valued
global platforms for dialogue between policy-makers, regulators and industry.
There will be plenty of time during the next two weeks for me and my fellow colleagues to report
about our achievements. Nevertheless, let me briefly highlight some additional actions made
possible thanks to our dedicated staff, both in the Headquarters and in the Regional Offices.
• We have consolidated our training activities on a single global platform, the ITU Academy,
which includes more than 60 Internet Training Centres and 50 Centres of Excellence.
• We launched, with the support of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, the Connect a
School, Connect a Community Flagship Initiative, which is receiving special attention during
this conference.
• In collaboration with the Radiocommunication Bureau, we have made the transition from
analogue to digital broadcasting a priority and we have also been assisting members on
spectrum management and monitoring.
• We have worked hard to ensure that the benefits of ICTs can be enjoyed without being
undermined by cyberthreats. With key partners, we are supporting members in the area of
cybersecurity, through the deployment of early warning systems, information exchange
platforms and Computer Incident Response Teams (CIRTs).
• And, we have played an increasingly important role in Emergency Communications. ITU
was part of international efforts to respond to a number of major disasters over the past
four years. As well as providing direct assistance to countries, we have helped countries
build capacity to enhance their disaster preparedness, which has become all the more
essential given the destabilizing impact of Climate Change. We have also teamed up with
industry to leverage their expertise and new technologies in helping members predict and
respond to disasters.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
I believe that we have achieved a lot in the last four years.
Is this enough?
Certainly not.
First of all, we need to reach the remaining unconnected. In doing so, we should give special
attention to Least Developed Countries, Small Island States, and other countries in need.
This is why I am proposing a new, reinforced approach for our actions to assist Least Developed
Countries. Given the enormous needs, we need to complement the regular budget with the
flexibility to raise extra-budgetary resources. With your guidance and support, I plan to launch this
new initiative in the coming months. I want to assign dedicated resources to strengthen our support
for countries most in need.
And we can go further still.
We succeeded in making the mobile miracle a reality. We must now achieve the same results
with broadband. To do so, the global community needs to embrace and invest in a broadbandenabled
future to support the next great wave of innovation, opportunity and development. With
this solid ICT broadband foundation in place, we will have an unprecedented opportunity to finally
achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals.
ITU’s Build on Broadband campaign launched by our Secretary-General, will give new impetus to
the work we are doing on broadband, especially wireless broadband. And, with the support of
industry partners and financial institutions, we can, and we will do even more. I look forward to
working with all of you to Connect the World to Broadband for better health, education and
employment…for everyone.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
We need to be ambitious, but also frank about what we can achieve with the resources available.
We obviously cannot do everything, but we can achieve a lot, if we focus our collective efforts.
With this in mind, I wish us all great patience and mutual understanding towards a successful
Conference, recognizing that if we make the right decisions today, the benefits will be felt by
people around the world for many years to come.
Thank you

Hyderabad, India 5/24/2010