Remarks by Malcolm Johnson, ITU Deputy Secretary-General
CTO Partnership Breakfast
27 September 2022 - Bucharest, Romania - Palace of Parliament
I would like to thank Secretary-General Bernadette Lewis for inviting me to this breakfast. It is a great pleasure to join you.
I have had a long association with the CTO. Before joining ITU I was the UK representative on the CTO Council, and since joining ITU in 2007 I have encouraged closer collaboration between ITU and CTO.
Even though CTO is over 120 years old and ITU over 150 years old, and both organisations have common objectives and common membership, until I joined ITU we had never had any joint events. I am pleased we have had since, and we look forward to more in the future.
I believe that with the growing importance of ICTs to social, economic and environmentally sustainable development, close collaboration and cooperation between ITU and CTO will be increasingly beneficial, so as to pool resources and avoid duplication of effort.
ITU has had the benefit of a large private sector membership for most of its existence, which is unique in the UN family, and I am very pleased to see CTO reaching out to the private sector for support in taking forward its important work. Public-Private partnerships are essential if we are going to meet the challenges that we face in connecting the unconnected.
So, I wish these partnerships every success.