Egypt to Host ITU Telecom Africa 2004 — Cairo, 4-8 May

Geneva, 12 February 2003 — Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), signed an agreement with H.E. Mrs Naéla Gabr, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Egypt to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva, to hold ITU‘s sixth international telecommunication exhibition and forum for the Africa region in Cairo, in the year 2004.

At the signing ceremony Mr Utsumi said "ITU is delighted to have the opportunity of staging an ITU Telecom event in Egypt in 2004. In spite of huge leaps forward in the past five years, Africa is still the region of the world still most in need of telecommunications development, and it is my hope that the Africa 2004 event will enable us to make further important progress."

H.E. Mrs Naéla Gabr confirmed that the region offers a diverse range of business opportunities and tremendous scope for expanding both basic and advanced telecommunications services. "I feel confident that ITU Telecom Africa 2004 will enhance prospects for all of us to develop telecommunications and to act as a catalyst to speed up social and economic progress," she said.

A number of countries in the region expressed interest in hosting the Africa 2004 event, and three detailed offers were received, from Algeria, Egypt and Senegal. A series of consultations and negotiations was undertaken, with particular consideration given to infrastructure, accommodation, transport and conference and exhibition facilities. Given the excellent offer made by Egypt as well as its significant progress in IT and telecom in the past few years, and on advice from the ITU Telecom Board, Yoshio Utsumi accepted the offer of the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt to host the event. The ITU Telecom Board, which represents exhibitors’ views, provides strategic advice to the Secretary-General.

Africa 2004 will be held from Tuesday 4 to Saturday 8 May 2004 at the Cairo International Conference Centre (CICC), with a Press & VIP day on Monday, 3 May. The venue is ideally located and offers advanced forum and exhibition facilities, which will be enhanced by plans to build a new permanent exhibition hall offering a further 8,000 m² of net exhibition space to be ready by the end of 2003. The CICC was previously used by ITU to stage the Africa Telecom 94 event, which was attended by nearly 12,000 participants and opened by His Excellency Mr Mohamed Hosni Mubarak, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, on 25 April 1994.

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 Africa 2004 exhibition will feature a comprehensive 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.

Previous ITU Telecom events for Africa took place in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1986, Harare, Zimbabwe, in 1990, Cairo, Egypt, in 1994 and Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1998 and 2001. The Africa 2001 event brought together 236 exhibitors, and attracted more than 15,000 participants, including over 600 VIPs.

ITU Telecom events were launched more than 30 years ago, with World Telecom first being 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. From the year 2003, the world and regional events will be held in a three-year cycle in order to ensure adequate global coverage across all 189 Member States of ITU.

ITU Telecom World 2003 will take place at Palexpo in Geneva from 12 to 18 October this year. After Africa 2004, ITU will organize regional events for Asia, the Americas and Middle East & Arab States regions, with the next World event taking place in 2006 — dates and venues will be posted as soon as they are available on the ITU Telecom web site.

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ITU Telecom Press Service
Tel: +41 22 730 6047
Fax: +41 22 730 5939
E-mail: telecom.press@itu.int

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