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President Dmitry A. Medvedev of the Russian Federation at the forum with ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun I. Touré
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| Photo credit: ITU/V.Strelets |
Responding to the financial crisis that is affecting
countries around the world requires their concerted
effort and the adoption of new approaches and
technologies. That was the message of President
Dmitry A. Medvedev of the Russian Federation at
the St Petersburg International
Economic Forum, held on
4–6 June 2009 in one of the
country’s most historic cities.
The President was addressing
a plenary meeting on The global
economic crisis: first lessons and
leading the way forward. “Noone
has managed to avoid being
caught up in the global crisis.
Modern communications and financial technologies enabled the
crisis to spread incredibly fast and affect all countries.
Only Antarctica is probably still an oasis of stability,”
Mr Medvedev said. “The conclusion is obvious,” he
continued. “The only way we can overcome this crisis
is by working together. To be successful in addressing
the problems before us,
we need to have an intensive
exchange of information and ensure
a high level of coordination
in our work”. He went on to say
that “those whose job it was to
forecast events and facilitate this
coordination were not ready for
the depth of the crisis and turned
out to be too rigid, unwieldy and
slow in their response”.
“ No-one has managed to
avoid being caught up in
the global crisis. Modern
communications and financial
technologies enabled the crisis to
spread incredibly fast and affect
all countries. Only Antarctica
is probably still an oasis of
stability. ”
President Dmitry A. Medvedev of the Russian Federation
The President noted that despite these conditions,
“we have managed to avoid a worst-case scenario
because different countries and governments have
shown a willingness to cooperate more closely than in
the past; indeed, perhaps work together more closely
than at any other time in the whole of economic
history”. The G20 group of economies has already
met twice to address these issues, Mr Medvedev
said, and although they “have not reached the point
of complete agreement and specific common decisions... clear
progress has been made”. For
example, institutions such as the
Financial Stability Board have
been established that make it
possible to engage in open dialogue
and take into consideration
all participants’ interests to
arrive at mutually advantageous
solutions.
Outlining his country’s longterm
development strategy, known as the “Four I’s”
(institutions, infrastructure, innovation, and investment),
the President reminded participants what he
had said at the forum a year before. Another word
beginning with “I” needs to be added: intelligence.
“Our goal now is to form an intelligent, ‘smart’ economy,
and a corresponding intelligent and smart society,”
he said. As well as fostering entrepreneurial
skills, this means supporting companies that adopt
modern technologies and energy-efficiency measures.
“Today, we are thinking about more than
just getting out of the crisis as quickly as possible.
We must get out of the crisis with a renewed and
stronger economy,” he stressed. “The current crisis
will most certainly reshape the world. And the new
models that will emerge over the coming years will have to go through the test of time and prove their
effectiveness,” the President concluded.
“ The financial crisis will
challenge many businesses.
But it will also give birth to
new institutions, revitalize
communications, and enable
new entrants, new business
models, and new technologies
to emerge. ”
Dr Hamadoun I. Touré, ITU Secretary-General
ITU Secretary-General addresses the forum
These sentiments were echoed by ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun I. Touré, who attended the Forum
at the invitation of the Russian Federation’s Ministry
for Economic Development. In a session on The power
of Innovation: when tomorrow begins, Dr Touré
spoke about the important role
of information and communication
technologies (ICT) in helping
to overcome the economic
crisis, and why cybersecurity has
become essential in the information
society.
ICT are a driving force for
economic growth at the global
level, with more than 4 billion
mobile phone subscriptions, and
over 1.6 billion Internet users
worldwide today. “Underpinning the massive growth
of the Internet are next-generation networks (NGN),”
Dr Touré commented. He added that NGN are already
beginning to replace the traditional circuit-switched
networks that have served as the basis of telephony
for more than a century. ITU is leading this transition
with its NGN Global Standards Initiative — one of the
largest, most wide-ranging standardization projects
ever undertaken.
“The financial crisis will challenge many businesses.
But it will also give birth to new institutions,
revitalize communications, and enable new entrants,
new business models, and new technologies to
emerge,” Dr Touré noted. He underlined that investment
in ICT infrastructure brings direct benefits in
increased employment today, as well as increased social and economic prosperity tomorrow. New communication,
transmission and data storage technologies
are also bringing sizeable and important productivity
gains to other economic sectors.
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Dr Touré at the forum with Igor Shegolev, the Russian Federation’s Minister of Telecommunications and Mass Communications.
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| Photo credit: ITU/V.Strelets |
Highlighting these trends, Dr Touré said he was
tremendously encouraged to see a fresh commitment
— fuelled at least in part by the current crisis
— to the rolling out of new, fast, broadband network
infrastructure in many countries around the world.
These networks will be crucial in delivering affordable
access to broadband Internet services, and there
is impressive cooperation between the public and private
sectors in financing their construction. Dr Touré
stressed the importance of creating the right kind of
environment for business to fl ourish. “And we are
very lucky, in the ICT industry, to have, as our greatest
natural resource, a resource that will never run
out: human brainpower.”
The Internet is “an increasingly critical platform”
for business and the delivery of services ranging
from personal communication and entertainment,
to education and health, said the Secretary-General.
However, he added, “the very tool that is bringing
us a host of exciting and empowering new services
is also bringing with it a special set of risks which
are compromising the safety and integrity of the Internet.” That is why ITU took the step of launching
the Global Cybersecurity Agenda, which involves
international cooperation to combat these threats.
Such cooperation is also “absolutely crucial” to developing
ICT and helping to overcome the economic
crisis, Dr Touré said. He drew attention to an ITU
event that will promote such cooperation on ICT in
the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS): the
Connect CIS Summit, scheduled for 26–27 November
2009 in Minsk, Belarus.
On 6 June, Dr Touré enjoyed a tour of the Museum
of Communications in St Petersburg, one of the
world’s oldest museums of science and technology
and which is named after Russian scientist
and radio pioneer Alexander S. Popov. The
Secretary-General then visited the St Petersburg
State University of Telecommunications, where the
rector, Professor Alexander A. Gogol, explained
its work on developing 3-D television. He and Dr
Touré also discussed cooperation between the
university and ITU and the possibility of providing
training for personnel from developing countries.
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