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Opening address for the Workshop on
"Reform of technical regulation: International experience of standardization
in the field of communication"
Almaty, Kazakhstan, 23 November 2005
Houlin Zhao
Director, TSB/ITU
Mr. Zhumagaliyev Askar, First Deputy to the Agency Head, Agency for
Informatization and Communications, Republic of Kazakhstan,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good morning!
At the kind invitation of the Agency for Informatization and Communications of
the Republic of Kazakhstan, the ITU-T and the ITU-D are jointly organizing a
Workshop “Reform of technical regulation: International experience of
standardization in the field of communication”, which opens today at the
Sanatorium Alatau in Almaty, Kazakhstan. I am very pleased to be with you at
this workshop. I would sincerely like to thank the Administration for their kind
invitation.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) was founded in 1865. After the
United Nations was established, the ITU became a UN specialized agency for
Telecommunications. Essentially, ITU provides a forum in which membership can
cooperate for the improvement and rational use of all kinds of
telecommunications. There are three major Sectors in ITU, including the
Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R), the Telecommunication Standardization Sector
(ITU-T), and the Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU-D). As Director of
the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau of ITU, please allow me to briefly
introduce our telecom standardization work. With the rapid growth of the
Internet and mobile telecommunication, globalization, the worldwide trend for
liberalization, and the convergence of technology and services, standardization
plays a more and more important role in making telecommunications accessible to
all, thus fostering development and growth in all domains. Indeed the importance
of international standards has been highlighted by Phase I of the World Summit
on the Information Society (WSIS), held in 2003, in two output documents:
“Declaration of Principles” and “Action Plan”. The ITU has a wide membership
including 189 Member States, and about 750 Sector Members including
manufacturers, service providers, regulators, researchers and university
students, as well as regional organizations and international organizations.
The ITU-T’s standardization work is a unique collaboration between governments,
operators and manufacturers. The main functions of ITU-T are to study technical,
operational and tariff questions and to adopt Recommendations on them with a
view to standardizing telecommunications on a worldwide basis. Among many areas
of study, IP-related issues, mobile technologies and tariff and accounting
issues are topics of high priority. Other areas of study include optical fiber
transmission technologies, local access technologies, multimedia,
telecommunications management network (TMN), signaling, numbering and
addressing, global interconnectivity and interoperability, security, etc. The
latest topic of priority is NGN (next generation networks). ITU-T will improve
its work on conformance testing and possibly introduce a new area of work on
certification.
ITU’s standardization environment has changed a lot in the last decade. Today,
ITU-T can approve its technical Recommendations in less than two months with its
famous tool, Alternative Approval Procedure (AAP), which was officially launched
at the end of January 2001. Today, we have managed to get more than 1000 draft
new or revised Recommendations approved by AAP. The success of the NGN Focus
Group, which will issue its first set of specifications - Release 1 - by the end
of 2005, is another good demonstration of ITU’s quick reaction to market needs.
ITU-T continues to improve its working methods to increase its efficiency in
order to attract new members.
As one of its strategies, over the last few years, ITU-T has worked very hard to
bridge the standardization gap between developing and developed countries.
Following WTSA Resolution 17: Telecommunication standardization in relation to
the interests of developing countries, ITU-T has taken several measures to
increase its cooperation with developing countries in the international
telecommunication standardization work. ITU-T has organized Study Group, Working
Party or Rapporteur meetings and workshops in different regions of the world so
that our regional experts, mainly experts from developing countries can attend
the ITU-T high-level meetings. ITU-T has strengthened its presence in regional
activities by sending its staff or experts to participate in regional events.
ITU-T has encouraged developing countries to participate in the ITU-T SG
activities by providing briefings and training to regional members, and
assisting them with necessary support wherever we can.
There is positive awareness that amidst the rapid changes in the technological
environment, it is vital that developing countries should actively participate
in international standardization activities. With the introduction of market
competition, the operators in developing countries need information on new
technologies as well as new measures to run businesses, etc. On the other hand,
the concerns and interests of developing countries will only be addressed if
their members bring them to ITU. Developing countries have potential markets and
highly educated experts. Active participation in ITU-T meetings will help
developing countries gain more experience, and more importantly, more confidence
to deal with the rest of the world. The developed world needs the knowledge of
your markets and business requirements, your concerns and interests so that
global standards are developed to cover all parts of the world. Therefore, the
participation of developing countries in ITU activities is beneficial to both
developing countries and ITU. We are pleased to welcome many developing
countries including China, India, Thailand and Iran from Asia, Syria, Egypt and
Sudan from the Arab Region, Senegal, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Cameroon and
Gabon from Africa, Brazil, Venezuela, and Mexico from the Americas.
I am very pleased with the initiative of the Authority of Kazakhstan to invite
us to hold this ITU workshop, which clearly demonstrates its increasing interest
and strong desire to participate in international standardization activities. I
would like to express my sincere congratulations to you! I hope Kazakhstan will
play a more active role in the regional and international standardization
activities.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
This workshop will provide a good opportunity for your national engineers and
researchers to understand the ITU-T’s situation, how it works, and how you can
participate in the meetings. This workshop will in particular provide
familiarization with technical regulation models, development of modern national
telecommunications infrastructure functioning on the basis of a single
organizational and technical ideology as well as the creation of a world-class
industry standardization, certification and metrology system. This workshop also
provides a good opportunity for ITU staff, particularly TSB staff, to understand
the situation as well as the difficulties encountered by the Kazakhstan
telecommunication community. I hope this workshop will prove to be useful to
both sides.
To conclude my opening remarks, I would like to express my appreciation to the
speakers from both Kazakhstan and abroad and the ITU staff who have worked very
hard to organize this workshop. Finally, I would like to thank our host again.
I hope you will all enjoy this workshop.
Thank you for your attention. |
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