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| Photo credit: © Shutterstock |
Top-ranking officials from government and the
private sector, as well as international and
regional organizations, are meeting at the fifth
World Telecommunication Development Conference
(WTDC-10) in Hyderabad (India) from 24 May to
4 June 2010 to help shape the future development
of information and communication technologies
(ICT) worldwide.
A high-level segment is scheduled in the first two
days of the conference to give high-ranking officials,
for the most part ministers responsible for telecommunications/
ICT and chief executives from industry,
the opportunity to share their vision with delegates
and thus contribute to the conference debates and
outcomes.
A number of side events have been organized to
promote some of BDT’s work in key areas of development,
including a seminar and ministerial round
table on Connect a School, Connect a Community
flagship initiative, a briefing session on statistics,
and information sessions on policy and regulatory
issues, e-health, the transition to digital broadcasting,
and the launch of the ITU Academy portal (see
WTDC-10 side events).
A time of great opportunity
WTDC-10 is taking place at a time of great opportunity.
The financial crisis that shook all sectors
and all regions provoked a major assessment on how
we do business and where our priorities lie. The resurgence
of the financial markets and the full recovery
of the ICT industry will provide many opportunities
in terms of project financing, innovation and the
emergence of new technologies. We must be ready
to make the most of those opportunities by adopting
a robust action plan in Hyderabad.
This will enable us to continue the remarkable
progress in connecting people everywhere. We are
witnessing tremendous growth, especially via mobile
technologies. Mobile cellular network coverage
already stands at 86 per cent of the population,
and there is every chance that it will rise to close to
100 per cent by 2015, the deadline for achieving
the connectivity targets of the World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS).
Basic radio and television services are widely
available, and could reach the majority of the world
population by 2015, provided the lack of electricity
and broadcast content are addressed. Global Internet
user penetration doubled between 2003 and 2009.
By the end of 2009, around one-quarter of the world
population was online — up from around 12 per
cent in 2003.
In developing countries, good progress has also
been made with respect to bringing Internet access
to central governments, research and scientific institutions,
and to some extent to schools, hospitals,
museums, libraries and archives, at least in the major
cities.
These are some of the highlights from the ITU
World Telecommunication/ICT Development Report
2010: Monitoring the WSIS targets — A mid-term
review. The report was published to coincide with
WTDC-10 and reflects the first effort to carry out a
global, quantitative assessment to date of the WSIS
targets. The report makes suggestions on the types
of policy measures required to meet these targets.
It is the first time that measurable indicators are being
proposed for each one of the ten targets. The
report’s findings will certainly enrich our debate in
Hyderabad.
Great expectations
Like every WTDC, the event in Hyderabad is expected
to adopt a comprehensive action plan that
can help achieve the ICT development goals of ITU
Member States over the next four years. But first,
the conference will have to review a series of reports
from the ITU Telecommunication Development
Sector (ITU–D) to assess implementation of the Doha
Action Plan, which resulted from WTDC-06.
Essentially, it will consider BDT’s report on programmes,
activities and initiatives; as well as activity
reports from our Telecommunication Development
Advisory Group (TDAG) and from our two study
groups. On general policy and strategy, the conference
will examine BDT’s role in implementing WSIS
outcomes; the Connect series of Summits; the outcome
of the World Telecommunication Policy Forum,
held in Lisbon, Portugal in April 2009; outcomes of
the Regional Preparatory Meetings; and ITU–D contribution
to the overall Strategic Plan of the Union.
Contribution by the private sector and the role of the
ITU Regional presence are also important items on
the agenda.
Regional preparations
To focus WTDC-10 effectively on the issues that
matter most, preparatory meetings were organized
in each region across the world during 2009, with
the last one held in January this year (see box). All
six Regional Preparatory Meetings (RPM) reviewed
implementation of the Doha Action Plan. TDAG has
played a key role in guiding us in these preparations,
setting the scene for a productive and forward-looking
WTDC-10. TDAG’s document entitled “A fresh
look at ITU–D activities“ was generally endorsed by
the regional preparatory meetings. In particular, the
document called for the streamlining of BDT activities
into fewer programmes to enable us to use our
resources with greater impact. On the basis of their
needs, the regional meetings set priorities to boost
ICT development over the next four years. The outcomes
of all six meetings were reported in several
issues of ITU News.
In February 2010, a Coordination Meeting was
held in Geneva and brought together the chairmen
and vice-chairmen of the Regional Preparatory
Meetings to consolidate into a single document the
outcomes of these meetings. The consolidated report
was endorsed by TDAG at its 15th meeting on 24–
26 February 2010 and represents a worldwide consensus
as far as programme clustering, regional initiatives
and Questions for study in the next four-year
period are concerned. It contains four programmes
and a special programme as follows:
Programme 1: Information and communication infrastructure Programme 2: Cybersecurity and ICT applications Programme 3: Enabling environment Programme 4: Capacity building and other initiatives Special Programme for least developed countries,
small island developing countries and countries in special need
Regional initiatives, which were a new element
in the Doha Action Plan, have proved to be useful
in planning the work of the regions. A number of
initiatives being proposed for adoption by WTDC-10
are similar across all regions. One example is digital
broadcasting. Across all regions, the stated objective
for this initiative is to assist ITU Member States to
make a smooth transition from analogue to digital
broadcasting, including taking advantage of the digital
dividend. Human capacity building and broadband
access and uptake in urban and rural areas are
two other initiatives being proposed by all regions
(see box).
Broadband roll-out has been at the heart of
ITU–D activities. One of our flagship initiatives, the
ITU Wireless Broadband Partnership, is designed to
mobilize key stakeholders to finance and build wireless
broadband infrastructure within beneficiary
countries, with particular attention to underserved
populations in rural and remote areas. We are preparing
the deployment of wireless broadband infrastructure
projects in 11 African countries together
with industry and other partners.
With such a wealth of information and solid
preparations, including new proposals from Member
States to WTDC-10, the ground is laid for the adoption
of a robust Hyderbad Declaration, and Hyderbad
Action Plan that will pave the way for more actions
to build the global information society.
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