Speech by Malcolm Johnson, ITU Deputy Secretary-General

Commonwealth Telecommunication Organisation Forum : Opening Remarks and presentation during the High Level Panel

14 September 2015, Nairobi, Kenya

Excellencies
Distinguished delegates
Ladies and gentlemen 

Good morning, habary a asubuhi! 

Greeting from ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao. Unfortunately he was unable to be with you due to another pressing engagement. However his loss is my gain – it is a great pleasure to join you here. I have had a long association with the Commonwealth going back to when I was the UK representative on the CTO Council, and since joining ITU in 2007 I have continued this close association. Even though ITU is 150 years old this year, and CTO was founded 114 years ago, it was not until we organised the Forum on Next Generation Networks in Sri Lanka in April 2009 that both organisations held a joint event. I am pleased to say quite a few have followed since, which makes sense since both organisations have common objectives and common membership. 

In 2002 I started the Commonwealth coordination for ITU conferences that proved very successful. Commonwealth countries are key players in four of the six ITU regions, so agreeing on common objectives to be pursued in the regional groups, not only helped Commonwealth countries but also helped the ITU conferences reach consensus more quickly. Commonwealth countries are very diverse in terms of development and geographic spread, so consensus building in the Commonwealth is a good basis for consensus building in ITU. 

Unfortunately Commonwealth coordination has become somewhat defunct recently and so I am particularly pleased that one of the first actions of the CTO Secretary-General elect is to call a Commonwealth coordination meeting in London in October to prepare for the ITU World Radio Conference which will be held in Geneva throughout November. 

I won't take more of your time as I also have a keynote address later this morning, as well as participating in two panel sessions! 

But before closing I would like to thank out-going Secretary-General Tim Unwin for his excellent collaboration with ITU during his term of office; and I would like to congratulate my good friend Shola Taylor on his appointment as Tim's successor. I am confident he will continue and further the excellent collaboration between ITU and CTO, especially since he has excellent knowledge and experience in both. 

I wish you all a very enjoyable CTO Forum and also a very successful CTO Council later in the week.

 Presentation during the High Level Panel on Increasing International Capacity