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ITU Secretary-General at the World Economic Forum, Davos

ITU SG Houlin Zhao with Estonian President Toomas
Hendrik Ilves

21-24 January 2015, Davos, Switzerland

ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao had a particularly busy agenda at this year's WEF session in Davos, Switzerland, leading a special session of the Broadband Commission for Digital Development alongside Commission co-Chair President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, and meeting with several Heads of State and CEOs, including the President of Estonia, His Excellency Toomas Hendrik Ilves; Chinese Premier Li Keqiang; and US Under-Secretary of State Catherine Novelli, as well as Randall Stephenson, CEO of AT&T; Cisco CEO John Chambers; Digicel CEO and Broadband Commissioner Denis O'Brien; Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei; and many other high-level political business leaders.

Speaking at a session on Building Trust in Cyberspace on Wednesday 21 January, Mr Zhao noted that while the Internet has been "an important force for good", there was still much to be done to protect and enhance security and privacy online.

"The Internet also brings new dangers, challenges and risks, which we need to address and learn to cope with. And these risks magnify with more people coming online. It is our common responsibility to ensure that everyone is able to enjoy this space of knowledge and opportunities without putting themselves – or others – in danger."

While in Davos, Mr Zhao also extended an invitation to global operators to meet at ITU headquarters to discuss issues of growing importance to the evolving telecoms community.