WSIS - Reports from Multi-stakeholder events Address International Telecommunication Union Tunis, Tunisia 18th November 2005

Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

The second phase of the World Summit of the Information Society has once again provided an exceptional framework to pursue our debate on the future of the Information Society.

The International Telecommunication Union has taken this opportunity to organize a series of events that hopefully contributed to this debate and also paved the way for new initiatives.

ITU has held two conferences. Both considered the promising impact on society of innovation in technologies, such as Voice over IP, Broadband and Wireless.

• First of all, regulators from 100 countries participated at the 6th Annual Global Symposium for Regulators in Hammamet from 14-15 November 2005.
  They discussed and agreed on best practices and regulatory guidelines on effective and efficient spectrum management to promote broadband access while allowing innovative services for consumers, encouraging rapid deployment of infrastructure, promoting transparency and ensuring affordability.
  
• Secondly, with the presence of key speakers such as Ministers from the Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Indonesia, Mexico as well as high level representatives from KADO, Nokia, Skype, Sentech and the Gramen Technology Center, the ITU High-Level Panel was an opportunity to discuss how convergence as well as rapid innovation can help to achieve the 2015 connectivity goals. We learned from successful policies, discussed remaining obstacles and identified main areas in which to move forward.

Drawing from the debates and deliberation of those two events, I wish to highlight some key issues:

• Firstly, continuous innovation dynamics in the sectors of ICTs hold great promise for all countries seeking to ensure the widespread availability of access to information and communication technologies and the creation of an inclusive Information Society. Broadband development (wired and wireless) together with the convergence trends between telecommunication, information technologies and the media will allow indefinite ICT applications, promote economic and social progress, and help to bridge the digital divide.
• Secondly, the role of the regulators is crucial in building the Information Society. The onus is on them to adjust, alter or reform their regulatory codes wherever possible to dismantle any rules which today may adversely affect the operation of innovative technologies and systems.
• Thirdly, intensive exchange of experiences between stakeholders as well as a global approach of these innovations and their impact on society, needs to be one of the main features of the post WSIS phase.
• Lastly, if we want technological innovation to play a critical role in bridging the digital divide, if we want to give a full meaning to the WSIS Plan of Action and the Tunis outcome documents, we should keep in mind that we must balance technical challenges with human needs, capacities and opportunities. The infrastructure and technical deployment needs to be combined with building human capacity and strengthening communities’ empowerment.

The future of the Information Society was also at the heart of the event commemorating the launch of the new ITU report on the "Internet of Things". Professor Nicholas Negroponte with other key speakers from Microsoft, KDDI, Alcatel, Nokia and Sun Microsystems, discussed the next technological revolution in which, from anytime, any place, we shall not only have connectivity for anyone but also connectivity for anything. We examined the market opportunities that such a revolution might bring forward, its challenges on privacy and its implications for the developing countries.

The Summit has been, in addition, a platform for the Union to show its willingness to continue initiating key concrete activities.

Leaders from the recently launched "Connect the World Initiative" gathered to exchange experiences. They pledged their commitments to combine their forces to bring the power of today’s technologies to connect the unconnected by 2015 through concrete actions. Amongst the distinguished participants, ITU was pleased to welcome His Excellency Mr. Abdoulaye Wade, President of Senegal, Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for the Information Society, and Craig Barret, Chairman of Intel.

The WSIS Partnership Pavilion was moreover a place for ITU and its partners to showcase key initiatives and sign partnerships for future projects. For example, the ITU and the Infodev program from the World-Bank launched a new online ICT Regulation Toolkit. This toolkit is intended to become a reference tool for any regulator, decision maker or other stakeholder seeking practical advice on ICT regulation.

Finally, paving the way for future work on implementing and following up the WSIS decisions, ITU confirmed its role as a leading provider of comprehensive ICT statistics and indicators to monitor the digital divide.

The Union has been actively involved in the event organized by the "Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development"

The Union also launched two complementary reports:

"From the Digital Divide to Digital Opportunities: measuring infostates for Development" which has been published together with Orbicom. This report includes the ICT Opportunity Index, which covers the large majority of the world’s economies, including the developing world and allows linkage of ICTs to economic development.

The "Building Digital Bridges" report, which results from the ITU/Korea WSIS Thematic Meeting on "Multi stakeholder partnerships for bridging the digital divide" as well as a number of country case studies. As part of the work done under this "Digital Bridges project, ITU together with MIC Korea, KADO and UNCTAD, has also launched a pilot methodology for a "Digital Opportunity Index"(DOI) which has been proposed and applied to 40 leading economies.

Before closing I would like to inform you that ITU has also been involved in the preparation and launch of a special commemorative book marking the 20th anniversary of the Maitland Report on the "Missing Link". This new collection of 20 essays, entitled "Maitland+20 – Fixing the Missing Link" reveals a very changed world of telecommunications. It is a message of enterprise and hope but it also reflects the challenge that remains – of connecting the one billion people in the world who still have no access to basic telecom services

I thank you for your attention.