Keynote Address
by
H.E. Mr Ahmet Necdet Sezer
President of the Republic of Turkey

Monday, 18 March 2002

Mr. Secretary General,
Ministers,
Distinguished Guests,

I am happy to be with you at this important conference. Welcome to Istanbul, which has been the cradle of many civilizations throughout history.

Technology, which is advancing with a mind-boggling speed in these days, although affecting every aspect of our lives in a positive way, also brings some problems and obstacles within itself. In this transformation process that we experience, we observe that the world is getting smaller and the cultural barriers are eliminated. This process, while forming the information society, which makes substantial changes in our lives, also forces the states to undertake fundamental measures in their national systems.

Information society, undoubtedly offers new opportunities, which make our lives easier. We must not forget however, that every new technology has some negative aspects and we must exert special effort to mitigate these negative aspects and to benefit from these technologies in the best and most appropriate way.

One of the main challenges the new telecommunication technologies create is that, only certain countries and circles posses these technologies while the other countries are not benefiting from the information society and the opportunities it brings. One of the goals of this conference is to develop a joint direction and understanding for the information society, with a view to developing a strategic plan of action in order to bridge the digital divide between the countries, which have the telecommunication resources that are easily accessible and the countries who don’t have these resources.

This divide emanates from the ever-increasing differences between the rich and the poor, the educated and the uneducated, the young and the old, the village and the city, the developed countries and the developing countries. We believe that, in order to mitigate the negative impacts of these differences, developing countries should pursue policies enhancing the accession capabilities of the developing countries to telecommunication services and policies, which decrease the costs of these services.

Telecommunication services have become an essential necessity. In other words, lack of telecommunication services is as serious as the lack of other essential necessities. If this problem is not solved, it will lead to bigger problems. Because of this, developed and developing countries should work together in order to eliminate the technological gap and the digital divide between them.

Turkey, who is hosting this conference and serving as a bridge between Asia and Europe, is ready to take the necessary steps on its part, to enable that benefits of information technologies reaches all, especially to the developing countries. My country sees this conference as an opportunity to be used in order to start cooperation towards the solving of problems between the governments, non- governmental organizations and the other actors of the economy.

Turkey attaches special importance to the endeavors aiming at the bridging of the technological gap. In our country, there are plans to enhance the role of the government in order to ensure a suitable environment for the continuation of the progress in the field of information and telecommunication technologies and for the competition in this field. Besides the support given in this field for research and development activities, important steps are also taken towards a smaller government structure, which is supplying public services in this field. In order to ensure that telecommunication services are provided in a more productive and equitable way, regulations have been made aiming at the liberalization of this sector and necessary preparations are undertaken to give license to the new generation mobile telecommunication services. Our Government has also announced that it will take all measures with a view to forming a national plan aiming at the protection of the consumers’ rights, enabling the consumers to use the telecommunication infrastructure and services with suitable prices and developing of the internet services according to the needs of the consumers and the private sector.

The structural changes encountered in recent years in global telecommunication markets have rendered it necessary for Turkey to undertake several legal adjustments too. As a result of the legal changes made in the field of telecommunication sector; policy planning, regulation and operation functions have been separated. Telecommunications Authority, which has administrative and financial autonomy, has been established as an independent regulatory body.

At this point, I would like to dwell on the developments in the Turkish telecommunication sector. The number of telephone lines have increased eight fold between the years 1985 and 2001, increasing from 2,2 million to 18,9 million. This figure shows that telephone lines for every 100 households has increased from 4,5 to 28,3. In order to reach the rural areas, 10 thousand local exchanges have been installed. The number of mobile telephone users has surpassed 19 million at the end of 2001 whereas this number was 81 thousand at the end of 1994. The number of Internet subscribers, which was 0,3 million in 1999, has surpassed 3 million at the end of the year 2001. Cable television infrastructure has the capacity to serve 2,3 million subscribers. The number of cable television subscribers has reached 1 million at the end of 2001. Digitalization of fixed and mobile networks has been 88,5 and 99 percent respectively.

While concluding my remarks, I would like to express my trust that this important conference, with the endeavors and contributions of its participants, will reach its expected goals. I would like to thank to those who have contributed to the preparation of this conference. I call upon to work together to unite all the peoples of the world in the information age and I wish you success in your work.