Speech by Malcolm Johnson, ITU Deputy Secretary-General
6th ITU Green Standards Week - Forum on "Building the Cities we want: Connecting the Dots for the New Urban Agenda": Opening remarks
9 September 2016, Montevideo, Uruguay
H.E. Ms Carolina Cosse, Minister, Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining, Uruguay
H.E. Ms Daiva Matoniene, Vice-Minister of the Environment, Republic of Lithuania
Fernando Nopistch, Secretary General, Municipality of Montevideo
Andres Tolosa, President, ANTEL
Antonio Prado, Deputy Executive Secretary, ECLAC
Héctor Huici, Secretary of ICT, Ministry of Communication, Argentina
Buenos días a todas y todos
Good Morning Ladies and Gentleman,
Welcome to the last and final day of the Green Standards Week 2016. I hope you agree that it has been a very interesting and worthwhile experience. During this week we have benefited from many excellent speeches and interesting discussions on this important subject of smart sustainable cities.
I would like to thank once again the Municipality of Montevideo that provided excellent facilities and generous hospitality, and in particular the Mayor Daniel Martínez for his personal support, and the other co-organizers: ASIET, ECLAC, CRBAS and CAF.
Special thanks also to Antel that has generously supported this event sponsoring today's lunch.
Today, as I mentioned at the opening on Monday, we want to finish with agree to a Montevideo Declaration drawing attention to key factors that are required for the transition to smart sustainable cities.
The draft has been with you for sometime and we have received several suggestions to take account of the presentations and discussion we have had during the week.
The declaration should draw attention to the rapid development of ICT-based services and present us the possibility for transforming the global economy and societies.
ICTs have proven their capacity to play a fundamental role in the improvement of education, in the battle against climate change, towards bettering gender equality and ensuring sustainability by finding local solutions for the growing problem of e-waste.
In the wake of today's sweeping ICT revolution the world over, fulfilment of our smart city dream, that we have been discussing over the course of this week, cannot be far behind.
As such, we should not lose the momentum gained this week. Let us resolve to continue to work together to meet the urban challenges, and realise smart sustainable cities.
Collaboration and cooperation will be key to success. Together we can disseminate best practices and innovative ideas.
In this regard let me draw your attention to the World Summit on Information Society Forum held each year in Geneva and open to all as an efficient mechanism for sharing best practices towards advancing development goals. I invite you to share your best practices to the WSIS Stocktaking Process and nominate your projects for the contest of WSIS Prizes 2017, which is now open until 15 February 2017. You will find all the details on the ITU website.
So I will conclude by inviting you all to agree to support the Montevideo Declaration.
It has been amended in line with the suggestions made during the week, and based on the presentations and discussions, and I hope is something we can all sign up to.
I thank you once all the speakers and moderators, and all the participants for your enthusiasm and contributions.
I will now pass the floor to the Secretary-General of the Municipality of Montevideo.
Muchas gracias!