SAUDI ARABIA

STATEMENT BY H.E. Eng. Mohamed Jamil Ahmed Mulla
Minister of Communications and Information Technology

Chairman of the Plenipotentiary Conference of the International Telecommunication Union 2006.

Excellencies, Ministers and heads of the delegations, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Mr. Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union,

Members of the delegations,

Honorable guests.

May Peace, Mercy and Blessing of the ALLAH be upon you.

It is a pleasure for me to address you on the occasion of the Plenipotentiary Conference of the International Telecommunication Union 2006 in Turkey. On behalf of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to the government of Turkey for hosting this important conference in the world of telecommunication and information technology, the warm and courteous welcome and facilities provided to all of us, which made our presence to attend the conference comfortable in this beautiful city, Antalya. Also my sincere congratulation to the Chairman and Vice Chairmen of the conference, the Chairmen and Vice Chairmen of the committees of the conference on their election to guide and steer the work of the conference to achieve its goals and reach successful results of the subjects before it.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we all know that telecommunication and information technology are among the basic means for the progress and growth of nations to stimulate their economics, social and cultural potential and bring their people closer and achieve prosperity for all of them.

However, in spite of the diverse efforts to achieve this objective, there are still big differences between the developed and the developing countries, preventing the developing countries from catching up with the stride for progress and development, necessities putting together all efforts in order to achieve a balanced growth of Telecommunication and Information Technology sector in all countries, so that the Telecommunication and Information Technology loop is complete and achieving its noble goals in granting all peoples means to be linked and communicate easily.

The Telecommunication and Information Technology is a major sector with fast development and has its effective role in improving the efficiency and performance of the other sectors activities and services. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, believing in the importance of this sector, has implemented the necessary steps to restructuring this sector by developing and framing necessary regulations and procedures, which include the issuance of the Telecommunication Act and establishment of Communications and Information Technology Commission ( CITC ) in the 2001 . CITC is an independent Commission to regulate the sector in the Kingdom. National plans for information technology, E – transactions, universal access and universal service and its regulatory, technical and procedures framework were developed in addition to policies to implement this plans and creating the necessary activities for providing and training the required manpower resources and disseminating awareness of the importance of these fields.

The last years witnessed the implementation of several important steps in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to run the Telecommunication and Information Technology services market on commercial basis and attracting the national and international investments in this sector and create a suitable environment for an effective and fair competition and achieve clarity and transparency in procedures in order to cover the whole Saudi Arabia with these services with reasonable and affordable prices. This was achieved through the regulatory environment mentioned above and issuing a second license for mobile service ( GSM ), two licenses for mobile services ( 3G ) and several licenses for data and internet services were issued. More over, the Commission is now completing the required arrangements to open completely the market of the fixed and mobile services, and issuing new licenses for provision of these services in the Kingdom by the end of this year.

Regarding the subjects before the conference, I will limit the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia comments to the following very important subjects, due to the time limitations:

1. The International Telecommunication Union must remain the pre-eminent international and focal point for matters relating to a rapidly changing Telecommunication and Information Technology environment, and therefore , it must regularly review and update, as appropriate, its structure, activities and processes to ensure that they are effective and efficient in the light of the needs of its membership, especially the developing countries.
2. To review and revise the Constitution and Convention of the Union in order to take into consideration the results of the World Summit on Information Society held in Geneva 2003, and in Tunisia 2005.
3. It is necessary that the Union, through its three sectors, plays its role in implementing the results of the Summit and provide the required financial resources within the future financial plans of the Union.
4. ITU Member States, especially developing countries, should be given all possible assistance to draw maximum benefits from the technical and regulatory changes in Telecommunication and Information Technology in order to minimize the differences between them and the developed countries in these fields.

Finally, the past year witnessed a considerable decrease in the Union budgets in spite of increase of the needs of its members. This creates up normal and unbalanced situation, which has negative impact on the Union activities. Therefore, the conference is required to take proper measures to find suitable and practical solutions to this growing problem, including the usage and management of the Union manpower and financial resources in a more efficient manner to enable the Union to continue playing its pre-eminent role in the fields of Telecommunication and Technology and offering its services to its members.

In concluding my address, I do hope that our deliberations, discussions and decisions on the issues before the conference will achieve successful results fulfilling the expectations of all members of the Union, and in the same time I assure you of the full cooperation and support of the delegation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in any effort to achieve these results.

I thank you all for your kind attention and peace be upon you.