Speech by Malcolm Johnson, ITU Deputy Secretary-General

ITU Meeting

26 November 2015, Da Nang, Vietnam

Excellency Nguyen Bac Son, Minister of Information and Communications, Viet Nam;
Excellency Le Loung Minh, ASEAN Secretary-General
Excellencies, Distinguished Colleagues
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good afternoon!

It is an honour and a pleasure to join you and co-chair this eminent Meeting of ASEAN Telecommunications and IT Ministers and the International Telecommunication Union.

I would like to extend greetings from ITU Secretary-General, Mr Houlin Zhao and the other elected ITU officials, and express our sincere thanks to H. E. Minister Nguyen Bac Son for inviting ITU to participate in this important meeting in this beautiful city of Da Nang.

We appreciate very much the warm welcome and hospitality of the Government and people of Viet Nam shown us since our arrival.

I would like to take this opportunity to express the great importance that ITU accords to the long-standing and strong relationship with ASEAN and its individual member states.  ITU is committed to further strengthening the close relationship with ASEAN TELMIN, TELSOM, its Working Groups, the ASEAN Secretariat and each ASEAN Member State.

The ten Member States of ASEAN make a significant contribution to the work of ITU:

• Three out of the 48 ITU Council Members (Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand) are from ASEAN and we truly appreciate their active participation and contributions as representatives of Region E in the Union's governing body.
• For several years, ASEAN Member States have successfully hosted approximately 70% (on the average) of all ITU Asia-Pacific Regional events annually.
• Delegates from ASEAN countries have been the most active contributors and respected chairmen and members of committees, study groups and working groups, and make significant contributions to ITU's global activities and events.
• Viet Nam expert Mr Doan Quang Hoan is a member of the very important ITU Radio Regulation Board and currently assisting with the World Radio Conference in Geneva.

ITU's Regional Office in Bangkok and the Area Office in Jakarta are generously hosted by the two ASEAN Member States: the Royal Kingdom of Thailand and the Republic of Indonesia, respectively.

This significant contribution to ITU by the ASEAN Member States is very much appreciated both by the ITU Secretariat and the ITU membership, and we are truly thankful for your cooperation and support.

I am also pleased that since the signing of the ASEAN-ITU MoU on Joint Cooperation in ICT Development in November 2012, ITU and ASEAN have jointly implemented eight (8) initiatives with great success in areas ranging from ICT indicators and statistics, cyberdrills, social media, submarine cables, broadband connectivity to schools, OTT and ICT accessibility.

During this 3-year period, ITU also collaborated with individual ASEAN Member States with more than 50 direct country actions. 

We look forward to continuing and furthering this important collaboration.

ITU congratulates ASEAN on the establishment of the ASEAN Community from the end of next month. The theme of this meeting "Towards a Digitally-enabled, Inclusive, Secure and Sustainable ASEAN Community" and the very impressive and ambitious ASEAN ICT Masterplan 2020 illustrate the importance of ICTs for the implementation of the ASEAN Community. 

I assure you of ITU's full support to the achievement of the vision and objectives of the Masterplan 2020.

At the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference last year Member States adopted the Connect 2020 Agenda. This will be a significant contribution by ITU towards achieving the post-2015 sustainable development goals (SDGs). We believe that ICTs are essential for the implementation of all the 17 SDGs. So we very much look forward to working together towards implementing the Connect 2020 Agenda and assisting you in the implementation of the Master plan 2020.  This will make a significant contribution to sustainable development in the region.

As you know, ITU is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year and I would like to sincerely thank you for celebrating in your own special and unique ways this important milestone, as we look ahead together to the future of telecommunications and ICTs as drivers of innovation for the benefit of humanity.

To conclude, I am very pleased to have this opportunity to meet with you to discuss the further strengthening of ASEAN-ITU cooperation and any suggestions for further improvement in the service we provide. We are very proud of the long-standing and strong relationship and collaboration between ITU and ASEAN and its individual Member States and look forward to its continuation and furtherance under the umbrella of the extended MoU we will sign today.

I wish you a very successful and productive meeting.