Policy Statement

of

Dr. Tayfun ACARER, Chairman of the Board, President of Information and Communications Technologies Authority of Turkey

at

World Telecommunication Development Conference,

31 March 2014, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Mr. Chairman,

Mr. Secretary-General,

Ministers,

Excellencies,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great privilege for me to address in the sixth World Telecommunication Development Conference.

On behalf of the delegation of Turkey, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to United Arab Emirates for hosting World Telecommunication Development Conference.

World Telecommunication Development Conferences are very important gathering for international community for sharing information, knowledge and best practices.

I am very confident that this Conference will be successful one towards the realization of our ultimate goals of enhancing information and communication technologies (ICTs) worldwide.

I sincerely believe that we will work hard for increasing development-related activities so as to connect the unconnected, especially remote and underserved areas and will move forward in achieving the WSIS Goals and Millennium Development Goals.

As we all know, ICTs are the main instruments for reaching information society.

ICTs provide an enabling platform for delivery of public services such as education, health and transportation.

In bringing the new services to people's life, broadband access networks are crucial part of the ICT ecosystem.

WSIS Action Line C2 draws the attention to the increasing demand for broadband and the necessity of infrastructure for meeting the uprising demand in ICT services.

In this respect, governments play important role in developing forward-looking ICT strategies and promotion of information society.

I am very proud to say that being one of the founding members of ITU and a contributing country since 1865, Turkey enjoys new information and communication technologies and services within her strong and sustainable economic growth.

This growth creates opportunities to make use of new technologies and services.

Turkey gives utmost importance to equal access for all.

In this respect, in order to have broadband access in rural areas; wireless infrastructure is established for the settlement areas which have no internet and telephone access.

Improvement of GSM coverage is initiated for rural settlement areas with population less than 500 inhabitants.

As indicated in WSIS Action Line C4, there is an urgent need for the development of ICT infrastructure and technologies in parallel with e-skilling and human capacity building.

In this respect, to enable equal opportunities in education and improve technology in schools for learning-teaching processes, Turkey initiated a project named "FATİH".

It stands for "Movement of Enhancing Opportunities and Improving Technology".

The project proposes developing the lecture rooms with technical infrastructure as well as products which enable having lectures in electronic format.

Given the utmost importance for capacity building efforts, our administration has launched training seminars since 2011 to support the capacity-building in developing countries as well as to exchange experience and views on various topics in ICT.

These seminars include telecommunication regulations, spectrum regulations and information technologies regulations.

Up to now, our administration organized 6 training seminars with the participation of countries in various regions of the world.

In addition, our administration signed memorandum of understanding with the Regulatory Authority and/or relevant ministries of various developing countries for exchange of information and expertise.

Upon request of administrations of developing countries, we shared our expertise and knowledge in various regulatory and technical issues.

Today, ICTs are in the heart of people's daily life.

We have witnessed tragic disasters in all around the world this year which shows the vital role of communication in rescue operations.

As Turkey has experienced some earthquakes in recent years, for providing communication during emergencies, in vehicle mobile base stations are used for GSM coverage.

We noticed that the rescue teams have been very successful by using this system.

We consider that ITU should continue to give priority to emergency communication and international cooperation and coordination have vital importance for timely rescue operations.

ICTs effect how people communicate, do business, have services and interact with each other.

In order to provide accessibility for all, Turkey considers utmost importance for products and services reachable by persons with disabilities.

We believe that this Conference will consider this issues with high priority.

We also would like to draw the attention the importance of projects and initiatives encouraging public-private partnership, I think that policy goals towards expanding use of ICTs and reaching the knowledge society can be achieved more easily and everyone can have access to broadband facilities and associated services.

Dear Colleagues,

Turkey has the honor to serve international telecommunications world as ITU Council Member for the last 3 periods.

ITU has always been at the core of dynamic and impressive changes in the information and communication technologies and Turkey believes that ITU's leading role should be further strengthened and expanded.

With her rich background and culture, I sincerely believe that Turkey will continue to contribute to the ITU and provides effective supports for achieving goals of ITU.

Based on her commitment and performance as a Council Member, Turkey puts forward her candidature for the Council membership for the period of 2014-2018 from Region B.

Also, Turkey put the candidacy of Dr. Ahmet Erdinç ÇAVUŞOĞLU for the post of Director for ITU Telecommunications Standardization Bureau.

With his valuable knowledge and experience, I am very confident that Dr. ÇAVUŞOĞLU will make significant contribution to the work of ITU with a long term vision of reinforcing the ITU's role in ICT sector.

Having this chance, I wish to express my sincere appreciation for your valuable support for the candidacy of Dr. Ahmet Erdinç ÇAVUŞOĞLU for the post of Director of TSB as well as Turkey's candidacy for re-election to the ITU Council.

We have very ambitious agenda for this Conference.

With your leadership, Mr. Chairman, and with the efforts of the distinguished delegates, I am confident that we will reach our goals and objectives.

On behalf of Government of Turkey, I would like to convey our sincere thanks to Secretary General, Dr. Hamadoun Toure and BDT Director Brahima Sanou and all ITU officials and staff once again for all the work done in realization of this conference.

Also, we would like to express our sincere appreciation to our Host United Arab Emirates for excellent organization of the conference.

Thank you very much for your kind attention.