Opening Address

N^o 014 - en 

Mr. Under Secretary General,
Distinguished participants,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is both an honour and a pleasure for us at the International Telecommunication Union to host this annual session of the Inter-Agency Meeting on Language Arrangements, Documentation and Publications (IAMLADP), and I welcome you all most warmly to ITU headquarters on behalf of the Secretary-General, Mr Yoshio Utsumi, who is unfortunately unable to be present with you today on account of an important prior commitment.

As you may know, ITU, which dates back to 1865, is the oldest of the specialized agencies; and yet, paradoxically, its sphere of activity is today an essential pillar of social and economic developments worldwide. ITU is an intergovernmental organization of the United Nations family, and an organization in which governments and the private sector cooperate closely, in order to fulfil the Union's purpose to foster peaceful uses of telecommunications.

From the ubiquitous Internet that our younger generation takes for granted, to aeronautical radionavigation and safety of life at sea; from radio and TV broadcasting, to Earth exploration and radioastronomy; from telemedicine and tele-education, to international trade and e-commerce; from cell-phones to plain old fax – everyone is affected. Information and communication technologies, or "ICT", are developing at a startling pace. ITU plays a key role in fostering the development of ICT infrastructures in the framework of its mandate and in line with the ideals of the United Nations.

In meeting this difficult challenge, ITU has built a track-record of partnerships and voluntary cooperation with its sister organizations in the United Nations family and with regional organizations, – such as UNESCO (for broadcasting and tele-education); WTO (for trade in telecommunication services and telecommunication regulation); IMO (for maritime communications); ICAO (for aeronautical radionavigation and communications); UNDP (for technical cooperation projects)… the list is endless.

Probably the boldest and most significant cooperative venture currently being undertaken, under the high patronage and guidance of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr Kofi Annan, is the organization of the forthcoming World Summit on the Information Society.

Recognizing the crucial importance of information and communication technologies and the urgent need to bridge the "digital divide" between the "information rich" and the "information poor", the United Nations Administrative Committee on Coordination has endorsed the holding of the World Summit on the Information Society – it already has its own acronym: "WSIS"! - to lay the foundations for tomorrow's information society. WSIS will set out to develop a common vision and understanding for the information society and draw up a strategic plan of action for concerted development towards realizing this vision. The summit will also seek to define an agenda covering the objectives to be achieved and resources to be mobilized.

In collaboration with other international organizations, the private sector and civil society, ITU is already busy preparing this major milestone, the first phase of which will take place in Switzerland in 2003, and the second phase in Tunisia in 2005. We invite you all to join us in making this global summit a success.

Just as ICT is an engine of change in the society at large, it is also affecting the needs of our constituencies and therefore our internal management and methods of work in each of our organizations. In other words, we must also look inwards, and be attentive to how technologies and applications can be used within our own organizations in order to improve the services we provide to our membership and to the world community.

This meeting, brings together senior conference, documentation and publication service officials and decision-makers for precisely that purpose.

Over the next three days, with what looks like a very heavy agenda, you will be discussing working methods in a core area for our organizations' activity. The language services, are fundamental to promote understanding among all people, to provide delegates with the right conditions to resolve global problems, and to disseminate the results of our work worldwide. We must do all this; and, as needs increase and response times shorten, we have to do it increasingly efficiently in order to economize our scarce resources. Telecommunications and telecommunication-related applications can play an important role in helping us meet this challenge. This fact, I believe, was amply demonstrated at yesterday's "Technology Day". The presentations given and exhibits on display certainly reinforced the impression that technological innovation offers opportunities and possibilities for all our organizations for the provision of language, documentation, publication and conference services. Indeed, in a time of severe budgetary stringency, it may even be the only way forward. We sincerely hope that you enjoyed the Technology Day and benefited from the more informal atmosphere it provided for discussions and contacts on technological applications in your field of activity, and that it will provide food for thought and additional input to your formal deliberations.

Being very attached to inter-agency cooperation as a means of achieving synergy, and recognizing the major responsibility incumbent upon it in view of the importance of telecommunications for improving working methods in all domains, ITU has always endeavoured to contribute actively to all facets of your work. This year, again, my staff, led by Hanne Laugesen and Hamid Radjy, will be sharing our thoughts with you in areas such as remote interpretation, electronic document management, electronic document handling to reduce the cost and volume and documentation, machine translation and workload forecasting. And we very much look forward to hearing and profiting from the contributions from other organizations, and the lively debate that will doubtless ensue.

Mr Under Secretary General,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It only remains for me therefore to step aside and let you delve into your rich agenda.

Rest assured that my staff will do everything in their power to help you make this meeting a fruitful and successful one.

Once again, I transmit to you the greetings of our Secretary-General, Mr Utsumi, to which I add my own warm welcome and very best wishes for a successful IAMLADP.

Thank you for your attention.

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