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ITU Council meets to review strategies for ICT development
Increased data traffic demands high speed digital highways
Geneva, 12 October 2011 – ITU’s
governing body, the Council began its annual session in Geneva on 11 October.
Speaking at the opening of the 2011 Council session, ITU Secretary-General
Hamadoun Touré said that
information and communication technologies (ICTs) are implicitly involved and
relevant in every sector of the global economy today. Noting an extraordinary
growth in mobile and Internet users over the past decade, Dr Touré said, “The
hottest issue we have to address in terms of ICT development in the coming years
is how to create the new digital highways needed to accommodate the massive
increase in data traffic.”
Mr Fernando Borjón of Mexico was appointed Chairman of the 2011 ITU Council.
“The world is evolving rapidly, and telecommunications is a fundamental agent of
this change,” Mr Borjón said. “We are here to focus on strategies to facilitate
the work of ITU in shaping the global
agenda for ICTs.”
Delegates from 48 countries representing the ITU Membership of 193 States will
attend the Council session.
Over the next two weeks, ITU Council 2011 will address the strategic plan and
budget of the Union and review the implementation of the objectives of the World
Summit on the Information Society as well as World Telecommunication and
Information Society Day, which marks the establishment of ITU on 17 May 1865.
The Council decided the themes that will be highlighted by the forthcoming World
Telecommunication and Information Society Days, for 2012:
“Women and Girls in ICT”; and for 2013:
“ICTs and Improving Road Safety”.
The Council will also examine major ITU work areas that will draw global
attention in the coming year: the World Radiocommunication Conference to be held
in Geneva from 23 January 2012, and the World Telecommunication Standardization
Assembly and the World Conference on International Telecommunications in Doha,
Qatar in November - December 2012.
ITU’s immediate focus rests on the upcoming ITU Telecom World 2011, celebrating
its 40th anniversary in Geneva, 24-27
October.
ITU Council 2011 opened in the newly refurbished conference hall named after
Alexander Popov, funds for which were provided by the Russian Federation through
the National Radio Technical Bureau. Alexander Stepanovich Popov (1859-1906),
the Russian physicist, first demonstrated the practical application of
electromagnetic waves.
For the full text of the Secretary-General’s State of the Union address, please
see:
http://www.itu.int/en/osg/speeches/Pages/2011-10-11.aspx
For more information, please contact:
Sanjay Acharya,
Chief, Media Relations and Public Information, ITU
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