Speech by Malcolm Johnson, ITU Deputy Secretary-General
IGF 2016 - Opening Session - Opening Remarks
6 December 2016, Guadalajara, Mexico
Madam Chairman, Alejandra Lagunes
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen
It is a great pleasure to be back in the beautiful city of Guadalajara, 6 years after the city hosted the very successful ITU Plenipotentiary Conference of 2010. ITU Secretary-General, Mr. Houlin Zhao was very disappointed not to be here himself and sends you his best wishes for a very successful IGF, his thanks to the Mexican Government for hosting this meeting, and his congratulations to UNDESA for its excellent work in organizing the meeting. As Mr Zhao said at the ICANN meeting in Marrakesh last March: it is important to keep the Internet a global and stable common good for all and promised that ITU will continue its contribution to strengthen it.
Dear friends,
The ICT sector is increasingly important for environmentally sustainable socio and economic development, and it is now widely recognized as essential for the achievement of the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals. Good collaboration, cooperation and coordination between all the various bodies, agencies and businesses that make up the ICT ecosystem is essential if this is to be successful.
That is why ITU, as the lead UN agency for ICTs, has always supported and always will support the IGF which plays an important role as a platform for exchanging ideas and best practices and furthering progress in bringing the benefits of the information and knowledge society to all people.
As reflected in ITU’s annual Measuring the Information Society Report – which was launched last month and ranks countries on ICT development across 11 different indicators - we are pleased to see that there continues to be significant progress in ICT development in every region of the world.
However, despite the significant improvement over the past year, half the world remains unconnected -- and great disparities continue to exist especially in the least developed countries where only one out seven people are connected.
ITU takes this very seriously, as connecting the unconnected is at the core of its mission, and closing the digital divide has long been one of its major goals.
The last ITU Plenipotentiary Conference set a number of ambitious global connectivity targets –the Connect 2020 Agenda – which will be a major contributor towards achieving the 2030 sustainable development agenda.
To help achieve this, ITU has forged and joined a number of global alliances and partnerships - including with the World Economic Forum’s Internet for All, and the US Government’s Global Connect Initiative.
Where we found gaps, we have established global multistakeholder initiatives – such as EQUALS - the Global Partnership for Gender Equality in the Digital Age – recently launched by ITU and UN Women.
ITU regularly convenes the global community to discuss and identify solutions, in particular in the annual World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum – co-organized with UNESCO, UNCTAD, and UNDP - which is the largest ICT for development conference in the world and serves as a platform for discussing the role of ICTs as a means of implementing the SDGs.
The recent ITU World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly gave further impetus to ITU’s standardization efforts, in particular the network standards to support cloud computing, the Internet of Things and Smart Sustainable Cities.
The ITU Telecom World – held in Bangkok also last month – serves as a platform for accelerating ICT innovation for social and economic development through exhibiting solutions, sharing knowledge and networking.
These events together with the IGF and similar events around the world all have the same goal: to ensure the active participation of all nations and peoples in the development and use of the Internet and ICTs generally.
The IANA transition on September 30 was an important milestone in the management of critical Internet resources. On behalf of the ITU Secretary General, I convey our best wishes to Göran Malby and his team as they embark on the implementation phase, and look forward to strengthening the relationship between ICANN and ITU to our mutual benefit.
ITU is open and willing to work with all stakeholders to ensure a more equitable, accessible and trustworthy Internet for all.
Thank you and I wish you all a very productive and enjoyable IGF.