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International Telecommunication Union
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Argentina to Host ITU TELECOM AMERICAS 2003
Issued simultaneously in Geneva and Buenos Aires
Geneva, 24 September 2001 — The fifth international telecommunications exhibition and
forum for the Americas region, ITU TELECOM
AMERICAS 2003, will be
hosted by the Government of the Argentine Republic and held in Buenos Aires,
from Tuesday 25 to Friday 28 February 2003, at La Rural.
A signing ceremony was held at ITU’s
headquarters in Geneva today with Mrs Norma Nascimbene de Dumont, Minister and
Deputy Permanent Representative of the Republic of Argentina to the Office of
the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva, and Yoshio
Utsumi, ITU Secretary-General.
A VIP and Press Day will be held on Monday
24 February, which will feature an Opening Ceremony, a VIP Tour of the
Exhibition and a Welcome Reception.
Buenos Aires promises to be an excellent
venue for the ITU TELECOM event, with a
communications and transport infrastructure which reflects its importance as a
business hub for the region, and its high-quality facilities and urban
amenities. The event venue, La Rural, with its exceptional location and
facilities, will be the ideal venue for the most important telecoms meeting in
Latin America and the Caribbean in the year 2003.
The Exhibition at AMERICAS
2003 will feature the latest products and services from the broad
telecommunications industry and will demonstrate the shape of things to come.
For more information on the exhibition and details of how to apply for space at
the event please see www.itu.int/americas2003/exhibition
or call +41 22 730 6161.
The AMERICAS
2003 Forum will cover the whole breadth of the telecommunications field – but
is particularly likely to put the spotlight on the opening of markets in light
of the wave of liberalization in Latin America, and on the dual boom underway in
the Americas region in mobile communications and in the uptake of the Internet.
Latin American countries, in fact, are
experiencing the fastest Internet host growth rate in the world, with the number
of hosts more than doubling year on year. As for mobile cellular, the number of
subscribers in the region soared from just 3.5 million at the end of 1995 to
over 60 million by the beginning of 2001. By the end of last year more people
already had cellular telephones than fixed-line ones in a number of countries in
the region, including Chile, El Salvador, Mexico, Paraguay and Venezuela.
The Forum at AMERICAS
2003 will also feature a Telecom Development Symposium and various combined
sessions, along with the more traditional Summits. The Telecom Development
Symposium will bring two telecommunications specialists from each of the ITU’s
Least Developed and Lowest Income Member States in the region, on a fellowship,
to discuss the principal factors that governments, regulatory bodies and
operators need to bear in mind in order to be customer and business oriented, to
improve services within their own countries and, in the case of operators, to
survive in a liberalized market.
For more information on participating in
the Forum, either as a speaker or as a delegate, please see www.itu.int/americas2003/forum
or call +41 22 730 6161.
The ITU’s unique position as a
specialized agency of the United Nations enables it to bring together in Buenos
Aires 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 Americas region.
The AMERICAS
2003 event will be the 26th ITU 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.
Previous AMERICAS
events took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1988, 1996 and 2000, and in
Acapulco, Mexico, in 1992. The AMERICAS 2000
event, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 10 to 15 April 2000, attracted over
17 000 trade visitors, 303 exhibitors, 445 VIPs and 407 media representatives.
Exhibition space comprised 22 535 m2, including upper floors. A total
of 1 109 participants attended the Forum sessions.
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FORTHCOMING ITU TELECOM
EVENTS
The next ITU TELECOM
event is AFRICA 2001
which is being hosted by the Government of the Republic of South Africa in
Johannesburg, from 12 to 16 November 2001.
Next year the ITU will be
organizing its sixth regional ITU TELECOM
event for the Asia-Pacific region, ASIA
2002. Following the enormously successful ASIA
2000 event, ASIA 2002
will also be hosted by the Government of the People’s Republic of China
in Hong Kong SAR, and will for the second time be taking place at the Hong
Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC). The event will be held from
Monday 2 to Saturday 7 December 2002, and is expected to draw more than
50 000 attendees. Completing the current four year cycle will be the
Olympics of telecommunications events, ITU TELECOM
WORLD 2003, which will
build on the strengths of the giant TELECOM
99 + INTERACTIVE 99
event which took place in Geneva in October 1999. WORLD
2003 will take place at the newly expanded Palexpo venue in Geneva from 12
to 18 October 2003. |
For further information on ITU TELECOM
and the AMERICAS 2003 event please contact:
Piers Letcher
Press and Public Relations Officer, ITU TELECOM
Tel: +41 22 730 6602 / Fax: +41 22 730 6444
E-mail: piers.letcher@itu.int
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