EGYPT TO HOST BRAND NEW ITU TELECOM EVENT
MIDDLE EAST AND ARAB STATES 2001 - Cairo, 7-10 May

Geneva, 22 September 2000 — Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), signed an agreement today with H.E. Mrs Fayza Aboulnaga, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Egypt to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva, to hold an international telecommunication exhibition and forum in Cairo in the year 2001.

At the signing ceremony Mr Utsumi said "The ITU is delighted to have the opportunity of staging a Telecom event in Egypt in 2001. It will be the ideal opportunity for the key players in the region, from both industry and government, to see the latest developments in the world of telecommunications and to meet and discuss the most pressing issues facing the telecommunications marketplace today."

H.E. Mrs Fayza Aboulnaga confirmed that the region offers a diverse range of business opportunities and tremendous scope for expanding both basic and advanced telecommunications services. "I feel sure that Middle East and Arab States 2001 will enhance prospects for all of us to develop telecommunications and to act as a catalyst to speed up our social and economic progress," she said.

The ITU received invitations with very attractive conditions from a number of countries in the region to host Middle East and Arab States 2001, and it was not therefore easy to decide on the venue. After many consultations and a series of negotiations, however, and taking into account the particular considerations of infrastructure, accommodation, transport and conference and exhibition facilities, Yoshio Utsumi accepted the offer of the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt to host the event.

Middle East and Arab States 2001 will be held from Monday 7 to Thursday 10 May 2001 at the Cairo International Conference Centre. The venue is ideally located and offers advanced exhibition and forum facilities. It was previously used by the ITU to stage the highly successful Africa Telecom 94 event.

The ITU’s unique position as a specialized agency of the United Nations enables it to bring together in Cairo all the strategic players in the world of telecommunications, where visitors, exhibitors and speakers will have access to the technology and ideas that will shape the future for the region.

The Middle East and Arab States 2001 exhibition will feature an impressive range of telecommunications-related products and services, while the associated forum will focus on the latest telecommunication developments and growth and will provide a platform for telecommunication leaders to share their ideas on future trends and discuss appropriate strategies for the developing as well as the industrialized world.

The event will be the 24^th Telecom event since World Telecom was first held in Geneva in 1971. The regional events, which include Telecoms for the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Africa regions, were introduced in 1985 in order to address the more specific concerns of the individual regions. Since then these events have grown in size and prestige and have become the most respected and authoritative in the world. The world events are now held in four year cycles and the regionals in two year cycles in order to ensure adequate global coverage across all 189 Member States of the ITU.

For further information on ITU Telecom, please contact:

Thomas Frankl
Press and Public Relations Officer, ITU Telecom
Tel: +41 22 730 6345
Fax: +41 22 730 6444
E-mail: thomas.frankl@itu.int

About ITU