Speech by Malcolm Johnson, ITU Deputy Secretary-General

Parliament of the Information Society 2015 Conference : Opening speech and presentation

18 June 2015, Budapest, Hungary

Excellencies
Ladies and Gentlemen
Good morning

It is a pleasure to be with you this morning. I would like to thank the Minister and the organisers for inviting ITU to speak at the opening of this conference. It is a privilege to be here in this prestigious Parliament building.

The fact that this conference attracts so many participants is a testimony to the extent of interest there is in Hungary in information and communication technology. ICT is now prevalent in all walks of life and is the platform for social and economic sustainable development. It is no longer a niche sector – it encompasses most sectors: education; health; transportation; energy and most forms of social interaction. As such there is an increasing need for collaboration, cooperation and consultation with the many different stakeholders and so I applaud the Parliament of the Information Society for this excellent model of open consultation, which could be replicated in many other countries.

The theme Digital Transformation is timely. Yesterday was the deadline decided by the ITU for the switch-off of analogue broadcasting in 119 countries including all of Europe. The Internet of Things is predicted to connect over 50 billion devices by 2020 generating huge amounts of data, Big Data for analysis. 5G will revolutionise mobile broadband. We are truly at the start of a major digital transformation.

ITU will play a significant role as it has over its long history. It may not be a particularly well-known organisation – partly because of its technical nature, and the fact that it has quietly and effectively been ensuring the development of today's ICT ecosystem, which runs so efficiently. But if you have ever wondered why you can pick up a phone in Budapest and call any other phone in the world on a unique number – it is because of ITU. When you travel the world and make use of your Hungarian mobile phone in most other countries – it is because of ITU.

So I would like to take this opportunity to tell you a bit about the organisation, its objectives and future work, and also about the major ITU event that the Hungarian government is hosting here in Budapest from 12-15 October this year at the Hungexpo: ITU Telecom World – a gathering of leaders of the industry, governments, regulators and this year – innovators, small and medium enterprises and entrepreneurs. 

So turning to my presentation.

Thank you for your attention and I hope to see you all at Telecom World in October.