Mr. Toshiyuki Yamada, APT Secretary General.
Mr. Mohamad Sari Tarmizi, Chief Operating Officer, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia,
Mr. Sami Al Basheer Al Morshid, Director BDT,
Dear Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my pleasure to be here with you for the opening of this APT preparatory meeting for the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference and WTDC. On behalf of the Secretary-General I would like to thank APT for their continued dedication to coordinating with countries in the region, in order to provide useful input to ITU through its Conferences.  

Over the last three days I have participated in ITU/BDTs successful meeting for the RPM ASP.  I am very pleased to note that APT organized this meeting to review its preparations for the WTDC-10 and that APT is planning three more meets before the WTDC-10. APTs meetings will also address its preparation for the next Plenipotentiary Meeting; which as you know will take place in Mexico in October 2010. The PP-10 will review the ITU’s work of the last four years, prepare the budget, review and define administrative and structural issues of the Union, review or modify the Constitution and Convention and define the Union’s strategic goals for the next four years.  PP-10 will also elect the leader of the Union for the next four year cycle. APT has always been active and effective in coordinating the participation of its Members, I noted from Mr. Yamada that four APT preparation meetings for PP-10 will be organized. We will do our best to coordinate with APT to prepare the contributions of the members of this region to PP-10.

Last month, ITU held the World Telecommunication Policy Forum in Lisbon, Portugal, bringing together leaders from government and industry for a high-level dialogue on the theme “Confronting the Crisis”.  The conference approved the “Lisbon consensus”, recognizing the importance of ICT and calling on global cooperation to implement the six opinions agreed on: Internet-related public policy  matters, the advent of NGN and broadband access, ICT and the environment, strategies of confidence and security in the use of ICTs and support for the adoption IPV6 and International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs).  I wish you to join the ITU’s efforts on these 6 opinions.

The WSIS Forum, to be held in ten days’ time in Geneva, will be a chance to assess our progress and renew our efforts towards meeting the goals set by WSIS.  At the beginning of the Forum, in celebration of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, we will be giving special attention to the Child Online Protection initiative, a multi-stakeholder coalition developed under the framework of the Global Cybersecurity Agenda, and dedicated to the protection of children online.

As you know, TELECOM World will be held in Geneva in October this year I am pleased to have seen the active role shown by our regions in the preparation of TELECOM. I would like to take this opportunity to encourage and invite you all to attend this interesting event.

I wish you every success with your meeting and preparatory work.