GHANA

STATEMENT BY h.e. PROF. MIKE OQUAYE
MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS, COORDINATOR FOR THE COMMONWEALTH

Your Excellency, Mr. Chairman,
His Excellency, the Secretary General of the ITU,
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my honour to greet the distinguished guests and participants of the seventeenth Plenipotentiary Conference of the ITU in this beautiful and exciting city of Antalya.

The delegation of Ghana takes this opportunity to convey the goodwill and felicitations of the President and people of Ghana to the Government and people of this great country for the warm welcome and excellent reception that has been provided to the delegation since our arrival. We also share in the grief of the loss of the illustrious son and former Prime Minister of the country. May he rest in perfect peace.

This Plenipotentiary Conference, coming after the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) provides a unique opportunity for a renewal of the ITU within the context of the Geneva Declaration of Principles, the Geneva Plan of Action, the Tunis Commitment and the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society.

We are also mindful of the recognition that participation of relevant civil society entities and organizations in ITU will strengthen the Union’s role as a specialized telecommunications agency and a member of the United Nations system contributing to the attainment of its objectives.

The Ghana delegation is indeed happy to be here in Antalya to contribute along with other delegations, to the success of the conference and also to be part of the new ITU.

I wish therefore, Mr. Chairman, to join my colleagues in the other delegations and congratulate you on your election as Chair for this historic meeting. We have absolute confidence in your ability to steer this conference to a successful end and we are also assuring you of our unflinching support.

Mr Chairman, you kindly gave the floor to Ghana but, if I may, I would also like to address the Conference on behalf of the countries of the Commonwealth.

I had the honour to be elected Commonwealth co-ordinator for this event. Aside from correspondence and bilateral meetings, the Commonwealth held two meetings in London to prepare for this Conference, the first being December last year, specifically to exchange ideas about issues of importance to the Commonwealth and to agree on the things we think are important for this Conference to achieve. May I take this opportunity of thanking the UK and in particular Ofcom for its support as well as the training opportunities provided on the technical issues before the ITU. I should also like to thank the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation for its help and support.

I should like to add here Mr Chairman, that the Commonwealth quickly established an intention to be helpful and to make a positive contribution to this Conference. Mr Chairman, I assure you now of our intention to help you in your difficult task towards making this Plenipotentiary Conference successful and fruitful.

Every time we have a Conference of this type, we say it is an important one. And it is always true. But this one has a special character because it is tasked with grappling with what to do with the outcomes from the World Summit on the Information Society. If there was dominant theme from that Summit uppermost in the minds of our World leaders, it was to do with making the benefits from ICTs available to all our citizens. The more disadvantaged a citizen may be, the more potent the means of communication and knowledge can be. I am speaking about empowerment and means to help surmount the difficulties faced by so many of our brethren across the world.

Mr Chairman, the Commonwealth is not a formal regional ITU grouping. It is a group of Nations sharing much in common but encompasses some of the poorest countries in the world and some of the richest. Also some of the biggest and smallest Island Nations and also, HIPC countries span our world.

Unsurprisingly then, when it came to some of the issues being discussed we had some differences in approaches but I think it fair to say Mr Chairman, that we had no diverging views as to where we wanted to be after this Conference. The view from the Commonwealth came through loud and clear. We are working towards a stronger ITU. One that is equipped and resourced to do the job for which it was designed. And I would characterise the ITU’s role in two parts.

First, as global regulatory body benefiting industry and consumers by promoting regulatory best practice and market development, enhanced spectrum efficiency, global standards, and new electronic communication services which provide the backbone of the information society. The partnership between Member States and Sector Members and the valuable ITU staff is indispensable for achieving this.

Second, as a member of the United Nations Family, we wish to strive for the humanitarian agenda and, in particular, to strive to improve lives through our work. When we are successful in reducing the digital divide, we simultaneously reduce the gaps between the "haves" and the "have nots." I do not think there is anything more important that we can do than this.

We should be addressing the needs of our rural communities, the empowerment of our women and the special needs of the physically challenged in our society.

Mr Chairman, it would be nice to be able to solve every problem but we have a duty to be realistic. The mandate of the ITU today is broad - so broad that we do not have the recourses to do everything we want to do. The Commonwealth countries do not want to expend time and money reaching for the unreachable. We want to build strong partnerships within the ITU and its sector membership and with external partners with whom we could co-operate fruitfully. We are for change. We are in favour of going forward. But we want to set ourselves realistic goals that we can achieve in a structured way with well-managed, properly focused resources.

Mr. Chairman, the crying demands of developing countries in the emerging Information and Knowledge Society revolve around the development of infrastructure and capacity within our peoples. The ITU, since the adoption of the Istanbul Plan of Action in 2002, has chalked some successes in promoting the development of Human Resources capacity at Policy level.

From the organisation of Study Groups, through advanced executive management programmes such as the MCM course at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, the USTTI courses, TEMIC programme in Canada and also the activities of various Centres of Excellence, it has been possible for developing countries to acquire skills to manage in an entrepreneurial and competitive environment.

We also pay tribute to developing countries’ efforts at supporting one another and in this regard, I can mention the kind assistance of the Government of Egypt in offering at its National Training Institute for African countries.

In this regard, we call on this Conference to seriously address the issues brought from the WTDC-06 because they contain the ingredients for meaningful engagement with the developing countries in the implementation of the provisions of the WSIS.

Before I end my statement, the Ghana delegation wishes through you, Mr. Chairman, to thank the outgoing Secretary General of the ITU and his team for a good work done. The ITU has successfully brought issues of ICT in the forefront of global deliberations.

Let us all work together to attain our noble objectives.

The convening of the WSIS is one legacy that would immortalise their contributions. Now that the agenda has been set, it is the responsibility of this Conference to sustain the awakened hopes and aspirations of the peoples of the world. The Millennium Development Goals have been outlined and the challenge of the Information Society remains to be accomplished. We dare not disappoint, if we genuinely maintain faith in the ITU.

Mr Chairman, we wish this conference great success in all its deliberations.

Thank you for your kind attention.