Speech by Malcolm Johnson, ITU Deputy Secretary-General

6th ITU Green Standards Week - XVII Ibero-American Meeting of Digital Cities: Opening remarks

8 September 2016, Montevideo, Uruguay

Gabriel Lombide, President, URSEC, Uruguay
Pablo Bello, Executive Director, ASIET
Antonio Prado, Deputy Executive Secretary, ECLAC 

Buenos días a todas y todos,
Distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues and friends,

Let me thank ASIET for holding its 17th edition of the Ibero-American Meeting of Digital Cities in conjunction with Green Standards Week. This is a good illustration of the collaboration and cooperation between different organisations and stakeholders that will be essential to transition to smart sustainable cities.

We are all well aware that by 2050, nearly 70% of the human race is expected to live in urban areas. In Latin America, 85.7% of the population will be living in cities. 

This poses major challenges that only the advancement of technological innovation will meet. It will lead to the creation of a digital society that will create new and exciting means of living, doing business and sharing knowledge. 

Last year the UN adopted the 2030 development agenda with 17 Sustainable Development Goals including SDG 11 on sustainable cities and communities.

I am sure we all here are convinced that this SDG, and in fact all 17 SDGs, can only be achieved through the implementation of innovative ICTs.

With their immense potential in providing an improved quality of life and increased economic growth, smart sustainable cities can also serve as ecosystems for innovation and in the process become hubs for economic growth and social inclusion.  

The governance systems envisaged for smart sustainable cities will encouraging people to share their inputs with policy-makers. 

This means that a smart sustainable city needs to encourage start-ups and young professionals, women and other excluded communities, to increase economic growth, jobs, and drive innovation.

Realising the potential that these SMEs possess in the smart city realm, some ITU Member States are promoting their active participation in ITU standards making work.

So we encourage the setting up of governmental policies which encourage and enable public-private partnerships by investing in scalable projects, to support smart regulation systems to create new digital realities and innovation clusters, and thereby contribute to creating jobs and vibrant economies, all to propel our smart sustainable city dream.

I am pleased to see we will have a session on entrepreneurship and startups in Latin America this afternoon.

So once again, we are grateful for the collaboration with ASIET, ECLAC and others especially our Uruguay hosts for their warm and hospitable hosting of this and the other Green Standards Week events this week.

I wish you another enjoyable and productive day.

Thank You