The ‘Digital Divide’ between the developed and developing world exists in access to information and communication technologies and in the telecommunication standards that support them. According to a joint Asia-Pacific resolution a shortage of human ‘standardization’ resources in developing countries has resulted in a low level of participation from those countries in ITU-T meetings, and in the standards-making process. The result is difficulty in interpreting ITU-T recommendations in some developing countries. The approved resolution calls on the Telecommunication Standardization and the Development Bureau to work closely on initiatives that will assist in bridging the ‘standardization’ digital divide in areas by:

• Conducting case studies on the application of ITU-T recommendations, focusing on those that have regulatory implications for interconnection, numbering, conformity assessment regulation as well as ‘best practices’ in implementing technical recommendations.
• Fostering human resources in developing countries through regional standardization training courses, workshops and on-line, Web-based programmes.

Committee 5 adopted a resolution by the United States, Morocco, France and the Islamic Republic of Iran to improve the ‘rational, efficient and economical’ use of radio frequencies and satellite orbits and asks that these efficiencies reflect the latest technologies and achieve additional simplification and cost savings for the Radio Communication Bureau and administrations.

The resolution also calls for the World Radio Conference 2003 and all future conferences, to update the advance satellite publication coordination and notification procedures so that countries may have ‘equitable access to the orbits and frequencies’. It resolves to take into account the special needs of the developing countries and the geographical situation of particular countries to this limited natural resource. It will be up to the World Radio Conference 2003 to determine the scope and the criteria to be used for implementation of this resolution.

A lot of discussion, similar to that witnessed on Friday night and Saturday, took place again in Committee 6 on how to proceed with the cuts needed to bridge the gap between income and expenditure. Discussions were guided by a document from the Chairman of Committee 6. A document from the secretariat on "guiding principles to be used to prepare the draft Financial Plan" (DL/29 Rev.1) served as reference material. After much debate, Committee 6 approved the Financial Plan for 2004-2007 and established guidelines to be followed in the implementation of the Plan. The approved guidelines provide for:

• maintenance of a strong and effective internal audit function
• no cuts related to activities subject to cost-recovery or to self-financing activities such as the GMPCS MoU
• no reduction in fixed costs such as those related to the reimbursement of loans, pension obligations
• no reduction in minimum maintenance costs for ITU buildings or for the information services function in the Union

Earlier on, Members of the ITU Coordination Committee provided their views on the proposed cuts. They stressed the hardship they would face in view of the challenges they are already grappling with, most of which are dictated by market forces and the current state of the industry. They have agreed to consider cuts to be made in a spirit of solidarity. 

The debate on how to balance the budget reached boiling point on Friday night and Saturday when countries started to go into the fine details of possible reduction areas. In doing so, certain departments and units were singled out as immune to cuts while others were identified as candidates for the axe. A number of countries expressed the danger in making specific cuts as the Committee did not have the level of information necessary to make informed decisions. They stressed that without full knowledge of how the ITU structure works and what is mission-critical, a percentage level cut should be applied across-the-board. Others warned the Committee of the danger of hampering the work of ITU if cuts were made arbitrarily. 

The Committee considered and approved a resolution on the need for efficient ITU operations within the constraints of limited human and financial resources. The resolution resolves to progressively refine and improve the elements associated with the application of the planning framework in ITU through the enhancement, in particular, of the methodology for prioritizing its activities as well as the application of evaluation mechanisms.

The Council would be instructed to consider the possibility of establishing a working group open to all Member States, with due regard to the limited resources of the Union, to examine mechanisms for enhancing the process by which priorities in ITU activities are established, and for evaluating the achievement of objectives as part of the strategic and operational planning functions.

The Committee reached consensus that ITU will only bear travel and subsistence expenses for Member States on the Council from least developed countries, listed as such by the United Nations. Councillors from developing countries would only receive travel costs. This measure is expected to save CHF 1.8 million.

The goal of ensuring a cultural and linguistic diversity in the Information Society was put to test in the final meeting of the Working Group of the Plenary as a great deal of the discussions seemingly focused on semantics.

What does market access imply? How small is small in "small island developing countries"? What’s the meaning of indigenous people? What is understood by "accessible equipment"? What is "unauthorized interference"?

A fairly important part of the morning was spent on debating what many of the terms used in the framework document actually meant and whether the concept behind them were falling within the ITU remit. For example, much was said about network security. Some delegations felt that ITU’s input for building confidence and promoting trust in the use of ICTs was hinging on the security of networks whereas others viewed confidence building in a much broader dimension encompassing security of transactions, protection of data or privacy. Another difficulty was whether market access issues should be included until it became clear that the idea was to improve market access for products and services from developing countries.

Under the plan of action, an interesting debate emerged on whether to include that "wireless communications such as radio and satellite services could offer opportune and economical solutions" to serving remote and isolated areas. For some like the US and Switzerland considered that the statement was not technology-neutral and should be generalized under the term "new technologies". Others such as Canada and Mexico felt that the useful role of wireless communications in rural areas was a demonstrated fact and that this was also very much at the heart of ITU’s work. A compromise was finally agreed with "Information and Communication Technologies (for example wireless communications including radio and satellite services) could offer opportune and economical solutions."

Discussions were often slowed down by delegations wanting to include topics that had already been discussed but had not found the necessary support to be retained or by text that had not been included because they did not fit the structure of the framework or were not logically falling under any of the three broad categories.

With the cooperation of all delegations, the Working Group of the Plenary finally agreed to a general framework for the preparation of ITU input to the WSIS Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action. But the surprise came when it was time to adopt the decision concerning the fate of the Working Group’s output. Some wanted the output to go directly to PrepCom2 of WSIS meeting in early February. Others considered that the input document was to serve as guidelines to the WSIS Working Group of the Council in preparing the ITU contribution to PrepCom2 and the Working Group would be updating the document for PrepCom2. The chairman was of the view that in any case, the decision and its two annexes (the input to the WSIS declaration of principles and plan of action and the information document on ITU activities related to WSIS) should be distributed to the membership if the work of this Working Group was to serve a purpose.

In the end, the Chairman decided to revise the decision and table it directly to the Plenary due to lack of time. She indicated that the Decision would be a Decision of the Conference; that it would indicate that the two documents annexed to the Decision are output of the Plenipotentiary Conference but would not be form part of the Final Acts and that the Decision along with its two annexes would be circulated to Member States to assist them in their preparation to PrepCom2.

It took almost three weeks of negotiations to produce a resolution that consolidates and coordinates more than 200 proposals for reforming the structure and functioning of ITU. The proposed resolution is based primarily on the Australian, Arab States and European Common proposals. Australia noted that a common theme contained in all was for flexibility within the sectors. The United States observed that even though the discussions had been ‘detailed and difficult’, there was also broad agreement on the need to review the functions of the three Sectors.

Morocco introduced the proposal noting that it is structured in two sections. Section 1 provided the draft resolution and Section 2 contains proposed changes to the Constitution and Convention with a view to providing some flexibility to the three ITU Sectors. It resolves to ask the Council to set up a group that will:

• review the functions of the three Sectors in light of the changes that have occurred in the operation and regulation of the telecommunication sector at the national level and to define the respective role for ITU
• study the current structure of the ITU, its working methods and procedures of its Sectors and make the appropriate recommendations
• submit a report to the Council containing draft texts of the related modifications to the Constitution and Convention that may be used by Member States in preparing their proposals to the next Plenipotentiary Conference

The Secretary-General, within budgetary limitations, is to facilitate developing countries' participation in the group and to ensure that both Member States and Sector Members have an opportunity to comment on the report produced by the group. The resolution also instructs the Council to implement any changes in advance of the next Plenipotentiary as long as they conform to the Constitution, Convention and Administrative Regulations of the Union.

The annex of the resolution outlines the guiding principles the group is to follow. Amongst these are recognition of the increasingly important role of Sector Members in some of the Union’s activities. It also suggests that when considering changes to the structure and functioning of ITU it is essential to uphold the principles of ‘solidarity and complementarity’ between Member States and Sector Members and between the Sectors, in order to fulfil the purposes of the Union.

The challenge came at deciding who would make up this group. Finally, with no compromise in sight, the Chairman chose to send the resolution to Plenary with five options on its composition still in square brackets. These options include: 1) Member States and Sector Members, 2) Member States alone, 3) Member States whose delegations include the representatives of Sector Members, 4) Member States whose delegations include appropriate technical, legal and regulatory experts or 5) Member States with contributions from Sector Members.

The new "General Rules of Conferences, Assemblies and Meetings of the Union" was adopted in second reading by the Conference. The purpose of the transfer of provisions from the Convention dealing with admission to conferences and meetings to this new instrument should provide the required flexibility to adapt to new conditions as they arise. Because they can be amended by the Plenipotentiary Conference and, unless decided otherwise by a qualified majority of 2/3, will enter into force on the date of signature of the Final Acts of the Plenipotentiary Conference which amended the Rules. The new stable elections procedures, also adopted, form part of this new instrument to achieve greater time efficiency, and therefore cost-effectiveness, for future plenipotentiary conferences.