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Opening Remarks
Arthur Levin
Chief of Operations and Planning
Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, ITU
Honorable Attorney General and Minister
Honorable President of PITA
Honorable Director General of Korean
Communications Commission
Excellencies
Distinguished delegates
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure to be here this morning
at such a beautiful venue and to enjoy such
excellent hospitality.
On behalf of the Director of the TSB, Malcolm
Johnson, I am pleased to welcome you to this
important workshop.
To start, let me thank the Honorable Aiyaz
Sayed-Khaiyum, Attorney General and Minister,
for joining with us this morning to open the
workshop.
Let me also express deepest appreciation to our
hosts from the Pacific Islands
Telecommunications Association (PITA) and to the
workshop co-organizers, the Telecommunications
Technology Association of the Republic of Korea
(TTA). My gratitude as well to the Korean
Communication Commission (KCC), for their
generous financial support and for their deep
commitment to the BSG Project.
Bridging the Standardization Gap is one of the
three strategic goals of the ITU-T Strategic
Plan.
To help bridge the gap, this event is designed
to assist developing countries in Asia-Pacific
become active players in the standards work of
ITU.
Standards are critical to the development and
evolution of the ICT industry and to general
economic and social development.
Global standards can reduce costs. They serve to
avoid costly market battles over preferred
technologies and create a level playing field
for companies from emerging markets.
Take the example of next generation networks
(NGN). Standards work is lowering the capital
cost of deployment in the network core.
Operating costs in NGN are also significantly
lower than in circuit switched technologies,
enabling a more rapid expansion of network
capabilities. NGN offers the opportunity for
developing countries to jump several generations
of technology and is a key component of our
standards work at ITU.
Standards also are an essential tool in bridging
the digital divide and thus fulfilling the goal
of connecting the world.
One of the key causes of the digital divide is
unequal access to technologies. By participating
in standards work, developing countries can
ensure that their voices are heard and that
their requirements are taken into account in the
development of new technologies.
The ITU is uniquely placed to foster global
standards. The Union is the lead United Nations
agency for Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) with a membership of 192
Member States. Importantly, over 700 private
sector entities, academic and research
institutes are also part of the ITU community.
The strength of ITU is its membership, and for
technical standardization it is our industry
members that drive the work.
The 2010 Plenipotentiary Conference took 2
important decisions to help grow our membership
and to assist developing countries.
First, companies and organizations from
developing countries with a GDP of less than
$2,000 can now join ITU at a sharply discounted
membership fee.
Second, a new membership category was created
for academia to join in our work. Universities
are great incubators for new technologies and
bringing them to ITU will help get an early
start on the standards needed to bring new
technologies to market. Already, some 20
academic institutions have joined ITU.
We have already seen positive results from our
efforts began to Bridge the Standards Gap. In
the past few years, there has been a sharp
increase in the participation of delegates from
developing countries and in their number of
written contributions. In 2010, the
participation of developing countries in ITU-T
Study Group meetings for the first time exceeded
that of developed countries. Some 17 new
countries have participated in Study Group
meetings since 2008.
Sitting here in Fiji, Geneva, Switzerland seems
very far away. Some of you may want to
participate in ITU but find the travel and cost
difficult. It is 10,450 miles from Geneva to
Fiji as the crow flies, i.e. 16, 800 kilometers.
So here’s more good news. Almost all ITU-T study
groups are now using online meetings as part of
their regular working methods. ITU is now
providing an audio conferencing service as an
option for participants to use during online
meetings and all plenary meetings of Study
Groups are webcast.
What are we hoping to accomplish over the next
three days?
This workshop is designed to inform about key
standards work going on in ITU and serve as an
introduction to ITU. A number of hot topics in
ICT standards will be discussed. The workshop
also will address actions that can be taken at
the national level to promote standards and
develop the necessary framework and strategy.
Effective standards work requires trained staff,
so the workshop will conclude with an
interactive Training Session on how to be an
effective delegate.
We have a very interesting program to look
forward to and many excellent speakers. I would
like to thank the speakers for their efforts to
prepare their presentations and for coming here
to support our workshop.
In closing, let me mention two important events
that will take place next year. In November of
2012 the World Telecommunication Standardization
Assembly will take place. WTSA is the main
governing body to the ITU Standardization Sector
and will set the course for future standards
work. We hope that all countries from
Asia-Pacific will attend.
WTSA will be followed by the World Conference on
International Telecommunications, which is
tasked to review the International
Telecommunications Regulations, a treaty that
was last revised in Melbourne in 1988. Regional
preparations for these two conferences will be
critical to their success and the APT is already
organizing a series of meetings to develop
regional viewpoints.
I wish you all a very productive and fruitful
workshop. Thank you all for attending. |
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