Geneva, Switzerland, 16 September 2014
Closing Remarks
Distinguished colleagues
Ladies and gentlemen,
My congratulations to all of our speakers, moderators and participants for their contribution to what was a very vibrant and informative discussion.
This workshop focused on security standardization challenges for developing countries, but it is clear that these challenges are shared in equal measure by developed and developing countries alike.
The characteristically international nature of ICT security threats means that security challenges in one country can quickly come to affect many others.
The two main messages I see are the importance of collaboration and cooperation between the many different players and organizations, itself quite a challenge, and the importance of the participation of developing countries in the standardization work. It is only through that participation that the specific requirements can be included in the standards, that they gain an understanding of the standards, and know how to implement them. Bridging the standards gap is one of ITU-T’s main objectives and I am pleased to say we have had over 40 new countries participating in our work since 2006. We are also making more effort to produce implementation guidelines and holding workshops in the regions together with ITU-D. Collaboration ITU-T and ITU-D is continually increasing as well as the involvement of the ITU Regional Offices.
The conclusions of this workshop will feed into the coming meeting of SG17 and will be brought to the attention of the other ITU-T study groups and next week’s meeting of ITU-D Study Group 2.
I also look forward to receiving your feedback on what you would like to see addressed by future workshops in the security domain.
It has been a pleasure for me to be with you for the conclusion of this workshop on ICT Security Standardization Challenges for Developing Countries.
My thanks again to the Chairman of ITU-T Study Group 17, Mr Arkadiy Kremer, for his initiative in arranging this workshop, and Mr Mohamed Elhaj, for his leadership of the workshop’s steering team, and to all speakers and moderators.
