Your Excellency Hamadoun Toure, Secretary General of the ITU,
Your Excellency Houlin Zhao, Deputy Secretary General of the ITU,
Your Excellencies Ministers of ITU Member States,
Your Excellencies Members of Diplomatic Corps,
Distinguished Councillors,
Members of the Press,
Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

First, I thank the ITU Leadership for giving policy makers the opportunity to policy makers including myself to participate at this High Level Segment of the ITU Council Session 2008. It is my conviction that the presence of government ministers at this session provides opportunity for Council members and the ITU Secretariat to exchange ideas and share experiences with the sector ministers thus getting to understand their vision on the future of the sector in their respective countries. This will in turn ensure that global ICT policies and plans developed and approved by the ITU Council address the needs of member states and emerging economies in particular.

Second, on behalf of my government and on my own behalf I commend ITU for the efforts they have been making to support initiatives taken by the United Nations membership to combat climate change.

Mr. Chairman,

We all acknowledge that climate change has had far reaching negative effects on the socio-economic development of our societies, rich and poor alike. We have been witnessing rising sea levels, leading to uncontrollable floods and many more disasters. These happen at the time when most developing countries are not prepared to combat them in any form including having in place disaster management plans.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Information and communication technologies have contributed substantially to the level of development achieved in all sectors covering socio-economic and political development. Tanzania has witnessed an exponential growth in the applications of ICTs, especially after the introduction of the Converged Licensing Framework in February 2005. The Converged Licensing Framework consists of four licences: Network Facility License, Network Services License, Application Service License and Content Service License, characterised by technology neutrality and service neutrality. In my country the e-Government application has enhanced tax collection, motor vehicles registration, voter records management, etc. E-Commerce on the other hand has reduced the time taken to place order and receive goods purchased from overseas. This is the positive side of it. However, critical examination revealed that ICTs have to a certain extent contributed to the production of greenhouse gases through electromagnetic emission. These have contributed to the escalation of climate change which has been affecting global weather leading to either excessive rains in some parts of the world and drought in others. In Africa drought is becoming a common phenomenon causing hunger, starvation and deaths in severely hit parts of the continent.

Mr. Chairman,

Tanzania acknowledges the efforts being made by the ITU in the bid to support the initiative of the United Nations to reduce environmental degradation caused by climate change. Specifically we note with appreciation the strategies adopted by ITU including the use of ICTs to reduce emissions through paperless meetings, virtual conferencing and related activities. We also appreciate the education and public awareness programmes you have initiated as part of your contribution to the efforts of the ITU membership to combat the climate change and associated effects.

Mr. Chairman,

Tanzania like other countries and the developing world in particular has been hard-hit by the effects of climate change as the result of mismanagement of environment and failure to take early action to regulate factors contributing to climate change. For example, in the ICTs sector introduction of mobile telecommunication led to mushrooming of transmission towers as each operator struggled to have their own infrastructure as this was considered as one of the core competencies.

The Government having noted theses developments has initiated a process of integrating sustainable environmental management and development into sectoral policies and plans. For the communications sector the government is finalising a new electronic communications bill which will among other things make it mandatory for telecommunication operators to share infrastructure. This is expected to reduce the number of transmission towers in the country. In addition, it will reduce the cost of investment and operating expenses thus reducing the cost of provision of information and communication services. The effect of this will include serving as incentive for people to increasingly use electronic communications in the government, business, education and other sectors thus reducing the level of production of greenhouse gasses in the country.

Mr. Chairman,

Implementation of the government policies requires concerted efforts by all stakeholders. Having legislation in place is one thing as its enforcement requires joint efforts by enforcement agents and all citizens including the business community in the country. As we prepare to enact the electronic communications act the government and the regulatory authority need to prepare basic tools to facilitate its enforcement. This includes formulation of relevant standards and rules to govern for example the size and capacity of a transmission tower, sharing mechanisms, etc. At this point I appeal to the ITU and our peers to assist Tanzania to expedite the process of formulation of relevant standards and regulations in order to ensure that the number of towers is reduced as soon as possible. In addition, we ask the Union to assist developing countries to prepare appropriate plans and tools to facilitate in monitoring and mitigating the climate change.

Mr. Chairman,

Tanzania remains committed to the course of the Kyoto Protocol as renewed in Bali and we will continue cooperating with the ITU fraternity and the United Nations membership at large to ensure that they are achieved. We shall consider adopting some of the strategies initiated by the ITU such as paperless meetings and when resources permit video/teleconferencing will be introduced.

Your Excellencies,

Allow me once again to thank the ITU leadership and staff for having organised this important session and inviting us to participate at least at this stage. We do hope that ITU will continue engaging policy makers in their activities in order to enrich their policy making and planning processes. I wish to assure them of my readiness to participate in future activities when called upon to do so.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION