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Turkey

Mr Tayfun ACARER
Chairman and President
Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA)

22 October 2014


Mr. Chairman,
Secretary General,
Honorable Ministers,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great privilege and honor for me to address in the 2014 Plenipotentiary Conference of International Telecommunication Union. This important gathering will shape the general policies and strategies of the Union along with the way forward for future roles of the Union in the ICT ecosystem.  

I would like to congratulate the Administration of Republic of Korea for hosting this important conference and welcoming us in this beautiful city of Busan with the great organization of the event.  

Having this chance, I would like to congratulate you Mr. Chairman for your election as Chairman of the PP-14. With your leadership, Mr. Chairman, I am very confident that we will have very fruitful conference in achieving our goals and objectives.

ITU has always been at the core of dynamic and impressive changes in the information and communication technologies. The Union plays leading role in promoting the connectivity worldwide and bridging the digital divide. Turkey, being one of the founding members of ITU, has always supported ITU's efforts in enabling and fostering the access to ICTs and actively involved in pursuing the objectives of the ITU as Council Member for the last 3 periods.   

In the rapidly evolving ICT ecosystem, efforts and initiatives of ITU in enabling new technologies and services for all are very important. We believe that ITU's leading role in this ecosystem should be further strengthened and expanded.

We all know that ICTs are the main instruments for economic and social development. In bringing new services to people's life, broadband networks are indispensible for every nation and it is very important to accommodate the increasing demand to be connected anytime and anywhere. In this respect, Governments play important role in developing forward-looking ICT strategies for development of broadband infrastructure to meet the increasing demand. 

Turkey is focused on achieving a major set of goals within her Strategic Vision 2023. These goals include expanding the economy to rank among the global top ten; transformation to knowledge-based society; building an intercontinental hub for ICTs; providing an ICT-based economic growth, enhancing high speed broadband access for all.

In parallel to this Strategic Vision, in order to enable high speed broadband access and to encourage investments, ICTA took the decision to exclude the fibre from market analysis for the next five years or until the percentage of fibre subscriptions reaches the 25% of the whole fixed broadband subscriptions. In addition, with the ICTA Board Decision, the rights of alternative operators ensured where copper network transformed to fiber by the incumbent. We have seen the positive effects of subject decisions by the rapid increase in the number of broadband subscribers.

Turkey gives utmost importance to equal access for all. In this respect, in order to have broadband access in rural areas; wireless infrastructure is established for the settlement areas which have no internet and telephone access.  Improvement of GSM coverage is initiated for rural settlement areas with population less than 500 inhabitants.  

As is known, wireless technologies provide enabling platform for emergence of new services and applications. Given the rising trend of mobile services, development of mobile broadband is the priority for governments in developing their ICT strategies. To this end, we implement various projects in Turkey which can demonstrate how ICT and mobile broadband in particular can contribute to human capacity and change our daily life in many ways. As mobile technologies develop, mobile services have the potential to impact economic development further through the provision of high value mobile services.

I am very proud to say that Turkey enjoys new information and communication technologies and services within her strong and sustainable economic growth. This growth creates opportunities to make use of new technologies and services.

With her rich background and culture, I sincerely believe that Turkey will continue to contribute to the ITU and provides effective supports for achieving goals of ITU. Based on her commitment and performance as a Council Member, Turkey puts forward her candidature for the Council membership for the period of 2014-2018 from Region B. Also, Turkey put the candidacy of Dr. Ahmet Erdinç ÇAVUŞOĞLU for the post of Director for ITU Telecommunications Standardization Bureau. With his valuable knowledge and experience, I am very confident that Dr. ÇAVUŞOĞLU will make significant contribution to the work of ITU with a long term vision of reinforcing the ITU's role in ICT sector.

Having this chance I wish to express my sincere appreciation for your valuable support for the candidacy of Dr. Ahmet Erdinç ÇAVUŞOĞLU for the post of Director of TSB as well as Turkey's candidacy for re-election to the ITU Council.  

On behalf of Government of Turkey, I would like to convey our sincere thanks to Secretary General, Hamadoun Toure and all ITU elected officials and staff once again for the work done in realization of this conference. Also, we would like to express our sincere appreciation to our host, Republic of Korea for the warm hospitality and the excellent organization of the conference. 

Mr. Chairman, we have very ambitious agenda in our front. Let me conclude my remarks by wishing for all very smooth and successful conference.

Thank you very much for your kind attention.