Your Excellency, Azamat Zhamangulov, Minister of digital development and innovative technologies of the Kyrgyz Republic,
Your Excellency, Ms. Bella Cherkesova, Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation,
Mr Altynbek Toktorbaev, Chair of the Service for Regulation and Supervision in the Communications Industry under the Ministry of Digital Development,
Mr Alexey Borodin, Director General of the Regional Commonwealth in the Field of Communications,
Distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen.
It is a great pleasure and honour to address you.
First, let me thank the Ministry of Digital Development and innovative technologies of Kyrgyzstan and the Service for Regulation and Supervision in the Communications Industry
for hosting this Regional Preparatory Meeting for the Commonwealth of Independent States, the last of six RPMs held globally over the past several weeks.That is fitting, because of course it is in this region that the WTDC itself will be held in November in Baku, Azerbaijan.
I am delighted with our progress in implementing the Kigali Action Plan adopted at WTDC-22 which has been made possible by the broad range of stakeholders partnering with us across the world.
Some of this progress is reflected in the State of Digital Development and Trends report which I launched at yesterday's Regional Development Forum.
The CIS region has made great steps forward in the ICT sector in the past three years.
Of course, Kyrgyzstan itself has all the challenges of being a Landlocked Developing Country as so do many of its CIS neighbours. The LLDC 3 will be in this very region - in Turkmenistan this August. I urge your participation and contribution to the common text in the Declaration of that conference, to express the aspirations of how digital can help advance economies of LLDCs.
I am proud of the key role ITU has played in promoting digital transformation in this special part of the world. Here in Kyrgyzstan, we provided expertise under the Connect2Recover assessment followed by a national training for regulators and ICT statisticians on advancing the collection and use of ICT data.
In August 2023, we organized a three-day ITU Regional Forum on Digital Transformation, also here in Kyrgyzstan highlighting the critical role of collaboration and innovation in driving digital progress across the region. Later that year, we held the Arab-CIS Interregional Cyberdrill, hosted in Abu Dhabi, where experts had simulated cyberattacks, sharing best practices and strategies and only last December, more than 200 professionals participated in a national cyberdrill in Armenia, boosting cybersecurity readiness and resilience among the country's critical infrastructure operators.
ITU has also supported connectivity in rural Armenia by deploying broadband networks, conducting training sessions on computer literacy, digital skills, Internet safety, and entrepreneurship.
Last year we held a regional workshop for CIS participants in Tashkent, Uzbekistan to explore the concept of universal and meaningful connectivity and to improve the capacity of countries in the region to produce and disseminate statistical data and identify best practices.
Looking to the future, we have so far gathered more than300 university students and aspiring entrepreneurs at hackathons and ideathons in Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
They learned what the basics of establishing startups and what it takes to begin developing digitally innovative businesses in various fields including agrotech, logistics, education, human resources tech, tourism and other areas.
We also provided comprehensive expert and technical assistance to Azerbaijan to enhance its national ICT data-collection and analysis systems and, of course, it is Azerbaijan that is preparing to host the 2025 World Telecommunication Development Conference this will be a great opportunity to showcase first-hand, the progress that has been made.
You may recall last year's COP29, also in held in Baku, Governments came together to agree on actions to deal with climate change and the natural disasters associated with it.
We urge the private sector and industry to uphold the principles of green digital. These principles are embedded in our recently published report on Greening Digital Companies to enable the private sector to make informed choices that benefit the environment. This will continue to be an important part of our work.
Ladies and gentlemen, more on our achievements will be presented at this RPM. However, allow me to share two highlights. First, I invite you all to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in September where regulators from around the world will meet with policy makers and private sectors to deliberate how to navigate the ever-changing digital wave. As you know, I created an initiative called the Digital Regulation Network we are twinning regulators, to generate support for each other and create progress. Riyadh will be a big step forward in that endeavour. It's going to be great.
Secondly, I would like to highly that today is a very special day. It is International Girls in ICT Day 2025 and this year's theme is, “Girls in ICT for inclusive digital transformation". Our global celebration will take place later this afternoon, and will be co-hosted by the CIS and the Arab States regions as a hybrid event featuring a live link between our celebrations here in Bishkek and those in Nouakchott, Mauritania in an intergenerational dialogue with distinguished panelists from around the world, live streamed for global audience.
We'll celebrate together. We have many girls and young women joining us in the celebrations later today. I invite you to join us in the discussions on this great occasion.
In the meantime, I look forward to your engagement in the RPM and to our ongoing discussions.
Thank you!
