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Mr. Chairman, Secretary-General, elected officials,
Excellencies, distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentleman, it
is a great pleasure for my delegation to come to one of the most
historical and beautiful cities of the world, Lisbon. We are at
the western most point of Europe -- we are also at the gateway
to Africa, India, the Far East, and to the Western Hemisphere –
the names of Henry the Navigator , Vasco Da Gama, and Pedro
Alvares Cabral, among others, recall the history of this great
country and its links to all parts of the world. The world of
the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries was large,
and lands and cultures were distant, and often defying of
understanding.
The world today is different – President Obama speaking
recently in Strasbourg said that “we’ve arrived at a moment
where each nation and every citizen must choose at last how we
respond to a world that has grown smaller and more connected
than at any time in its existence.” He went on to speak of our
age when he said that “we’ve known for a long time that the
revolutions in communications and technology that took place in
the 20th century would help hold out enormous promise for the
21st century, the promise of broader prosperity and mobility, of
new breakthroughs and discoveries that could help us lead richer
and fuller lives.”
We are in Lisbon to exchange views and information on many of
the great issues facing us today arising from communications and
technology and their impact on convergence, next-generation
networks and the Internet, and emerging telecommunications
policy and regulatory issues. The Informal Group of Experts has
given us much to consider in the six opinions that they have
offered to the World Telecommunication Policy Forum.
With respect to Internet Public Policy, the Experts spoke of
the roles and responsibilities that all governments have to
ensure the “stability, security and continuity of the Internet.”
Experts also spoke of the support for the ITU “according to its
mandate to continue to study certain topics” that are vital to
the Internet, including “the multilingual Internet and diversity
of participation in the Internet.”
Concerning The Implications of the Advent of Next-Generation
Networks (NGNs) and Advanced Broadband Access, - Experts called
upon ITU Member States and Sector Members “to consider the
introduction and deployment of IP-based NGNs, relevant to their
national needs and circumstances.” In so doing, Experts
emphasized the importance of competition, fostering innovation,
open access models, and the “development of public -services
that leverage broadband access.”
Concerning ICT and the Environment, Experts underscored one
of the greatest global challenges of climate change, environment,
and food distribution. The Opinion emphasizes the important
ongoing work within the ITU on these subjects and calls upon all
ITU Member States and Sector Members to continue to support this
work. Lastly, the need for international cooperation and
collaboration is underscored when the Experts asked the
Secretary-General, within the mandate of the ITU, to reach-out
to other UN bodies “for the effective addressing of climate
change.”
With respect to Collaborative Strategies for Creating
Confidence and Security in the Use of ICT’s , the International
Group of Experts called upon the ITU “to promote more efficient
approaches for improving security and risk management processes
through Recommendations and other mechanisms by building upon
the work achieved by ITU in the development of best practices
and standards for cybersecurity.” The Opinion also invited
Member States “consistent with freedom of expression, to share
the understanding that distribution of illegal and harmful
content on the Internet is a global issue, and that global
cooperation and collaboration are required to solve the issue.”
Concerning Capacity Builidng in Support of the Adoption of
Ipv6, Experts considered “IP addresses are fundamental resources
that are essential for the future development of
telecommunication/information and communication technologies,
IP-based networks, and for the the global economy.” The Experts
also considered that “among the most important challenges for
all countries will be an environment in which Ipv4 and Ipv6 co-exist.”
To that end, the Opinion invited the ITU, in close consultation
with relevant interested parties, “to review the circumstances
and provide information on options to facilitate the
co-existence between Ipv4 and Ipv6.”
With respect to The International Telecommunication
Regulations, the Opinion put forth the list, compiled by the
Chairman of the ITR Expert Group , of telecommunications policy
and regulatory issues that “may be considered to be new and
emerging issues.”
The “revolutions in communications and technology” that
President Obama referenced have brought new forms of global
communication. The telephone brought us point-to-point
communication to the far corners of the world and that fact
transformed our previous understanding of what it means to
communicate. However, in 1994, the Maitland Commission lamented
that ½ of the world’s population had yet to make a simple phone
call. We still need to achieve the promise of universal access
envisioned by the Commission. But today we are in a different
place entirely – it is possible that a person somewhere in the
world may have sent a SMS or text message, uploaded a photo, or
made a new friend by being a part of a social utility like the
Facebook global community – all using a mobile device. Indeed,
if the Facebook community was a nation, its nearly 200 million
participants would make it the fifth largest country in the
world.
The universal aspect of today’s communications capabilities
makes the world seem smaller than ever before. The opportunities
and challenges presented by information and communications
technology and the Internet are now shared globally. Some of the
fastest growing websites are those referred to as “social
utilities” that bring people together not only in local
communities but around the world. The use of search engines
continues to grow exponentially around the world bringing to our
citizens information that could not be imagined a mere decade
ago. We are only beginning to understand these still new media
of communications and information-sharing. However, we
understand that these developments have the potential to change
societies and economies .
The “revolutions in communications and technology” that
President Obama saw as helping to “hold out enormous promise for
the 21st century” can be said to extend to all of our countries.
But to realize this potential, we believe, each of us must adopt
a policy approach to information and communications
technologies, the Internet and other innovations that
facilitates the emergence of an environment that will encourage
innovation, free speech, and foster commercial opportunities.
We will have an opportunity at this World Telecommunications
Policy Forum to share information and experiences on how each of
our countries and private sectors are advancing the promises of
the communications and technology revolutions. The United States
is laying the foundation for moving our country toward an
environment that fosters technological innovation, that will
create new jobs, improve the environment, help solve our energy
crisis, increase productivity, reduce health care costs, fuel
economic growth, and to extend opportunities to a new generation
of Americans. We are creating this environment by doing the
following:
- Through a national broadband strategy, connect the country
with ubiquitous and accessible broadband networks that reach
into every neighborhood and household, every school and library,
and every hospital.
- Promote the use of global, market-driven, voluntary consensus
standards that are developed in an open and transparent process.
- Maximize government use of innovative technologies.
- Protect the openness of the Internet.
- Protect our cyber networks.
- Collaborate with stakeholders around the globe to develop a
policy environment that encourages the continued growth and
expansion of the Internet.
We all have an interest in an environment that leads to
innovation, particularly as we face the current challenges of
the global economic crisis. It is only in such an environment
that we can establish the sustainable job creation, economic
growth, and entrepreneurship that lead to the full benefits of a
thriving economy.
The six Opinions that have been brought to us by the Informal
Group of Experts offer us much to consider. They range widely
across many of the pressing issues facing us today. The WTPF
presents us with an opportunity – using the Opinions as our
foundation – to share information and experiences. We should
seize this opportunity, and by so doing mark the World
Telecommunications Policy Forum in Lisbon as a Forum that will
be always remembered for its collegiality, for its wisdom, and
for its commitment to using communications and information
technology to fulfill, in the words of President Obama, “the
promise of broader prosperity and mobility, of new breakthroughs
and discoveries that could help us lead richer and fuller lives.
Thank you.
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