Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Next year, on 17 May, ITU will be celebrating 150 years since the signing of the first International Telegraph Convention and the creation of the International Telegraph Union. And for a century and a half, the ITU has been at the centre of advances in communications. The story of ITU is one of international cooperation – among governments, private companies and other stakeholders. Our continuing mission is to achieve the best practical solutions for integrating new technologies as they develop, and to spread their benefits to all. One and a half centuries is a very brief interval in the recorded history of humankind. Yet the past 150 years have been extraordinarily significant in terms of human progress and discovery. And one of the most remarkable advances has been the incredible increase in both the speed and variety of human communications. First we saw the telegraph and the telephone, then radio and television, followed by satellite communications and the internet – heralding a new era of ubiquitous connectivity over the past twenty years. It is difficult to imagine now how we communicated in 1865 – with no phones, no email, no instant messaging or SMS. Even the telegraph was not yet available for personal use. So the most common method of long-distance communication back then was to send letters carried on horseback or by ship. The exponential growth of science and technology over the past 150 years is fascinating – and it is part of ITU's story. We are all very proud that Hollywood awarded the prestigious Primetime Emmy Award for Excellence to our video coding standard, ITU-T H.264. It is the most widely-used video-compression standard in the world and it is used for more than 80 per cent of all Web video. Malcolm went to the ceremony in Hollywood, and he has now brought the award with him to Busan.
Distinguished delegates,
It is a great pleasure for me to be here with you today for the official launch of the 150th anniversary celebrations of ITU. These celebrations will reinforce and validate ITU's mission and strategic goals. They will allow the organization and its Members to honour the past as well as to launch activities for the future. Next year, 2015, will be a commemoration year that we wish to celebrate with all our members – including governments, private companies, and other stakeholders. The Celebration Anniversary year will start in January 2015 and will include a full year of activities, with a different theme being celebrated each month. The anniversary year coincides with the arrival of my successor as Secretary-General – he will be elected the day after tomorrow – and it will be part of his job to oversee the success of the campaign, so let me recognize his work in advance here. The key celebration for ITU's 150th Anniversary will take place on 17 May 2015, in Geneva, with the theme of 'Telecommunication/ICTs: Drivers of innovation' – and let me take this opportunity to invite all ITU membership to this very special event.
Distinguished delegates, The ITU General Secretariat and all three Sectors are developing a really interesting celebration agenda for 2015, and we invite our membership to be involved in all these activities. Your involvement can take many forms: issue a commemorative stamp, publish an article or book; organize an exhibition; host a conference or debate cycle; develop an e-learning tool for school children; strike a medal; plan a radio or television broadcast; organize a webinar; develop a game… In addition, Member States are invited to organize Official National Celebrations. ITU membership is also invited to showcase their major inventions and achievements in the ICT Discovery at ITU headquarters. We have already confirmed a special exhibition on Marconi, which is being organized by the Italian administration in collaboration with the Marconi Foundation, and a special exhibition on space science organized by NASA. We will be looking forward to welcoming many others in addition to these.
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to extend my gratitude to the members of the committee for the preparation of the 150th Anniversary Celebrations for their dedication and engagement. Most of them are present in this room: Mr Nasser Bin Hammad, Ms Natalia Timofeeva, Mr Issah Yahaya, Dr Ahmet Çavuşoğlu, and Ms Victoria Romero. Some of our Members have already taken the lead and contributed to the 150th Anniversary Fund – and let me thank them for their support, here and now.
Our Gold Partners are: - The Ministry of Communications and High Technologies,
Azerbaijan; - The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), Saudi Arabia; and
- The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA),
United Arab Emirates.
Our Silver Partners are: - The Ministry of Communications, Ghana; and
- The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ).
And our Bronze Partners are: - The Telecommunications Regulatory Agency,
Central African Republic; - Close Joint-Stock Company National Radio Technical Bureau;
- Inmarsat Global Limited;
- Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co KG;
- OJSC Rostelecom; and
- NTT Group.
We tremendously appreciate our generous Anniversary Partners – and thanks to their most valuable contributions, we can guarantee a splendid anniversary year in 2015. Let me extend the invitation to other ITU members to become partners for ITUs 150th celebrations as well. Let's make 2015 a year of celebration and opportunity for the future of this great Union! And now dear friends, I would like to announce that our team of photographers will be roaming the halls and corridors of this great venue in an effort to photograph you over the next two and a half weeks. We have 3,000 delegates so we think we can get at least 2,000 of your beautiful portraits – and what will we do with them? The plan is to weave them together into a captivating digital visual wall, and to use it at our future conferences and venues – and maybe even make it a permanent installation at ITU headquarters. You are the faces of ITU, and we want your smiles and characters to come together in one powerful visual mural to commemorate our 150th anniversary for present and future generations. We will also store the portraits on a common online platform where you will be encouraged to access them and share them via your social networks, using the #ITU150 hashtag. Finally, please do visit our wonderful book shop next to the pigeon holes next door, and stock up on all the great ITU15O merchandizing for yourself and your families at home. At the bookshop you can pick up a leaflet requesting you to take a 'selfie' with your new purchases back home and share them with us. These selfies will also be used for our digital mural, and an exciting prize will soon be announced for the most original and intriguing images. So, let us all get into the spirit of celebration and let's share our enthusiasm for this great organization with the whole wide world.
Thank you.
|
