ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau
22 June 2021
Good afternoon from Geneva. Good morning, good evening.
It's great to have you with us for the Industry Advisory Group for Development Issues and the Private Sector Chief Regulatory Officers' meeting.
We are just joining you from our Road2Addis series even on ''Leadership'', with an amazing line up of speakers, and we concluded that: ''This is our world, we need to shape it— we must lead the way''; ''Dream unapologetically big''; because ''Progress is possible''; ''We can bring the best out of ourselves'', to connect the unconnected; and ''Change the world with passion,'' as our young leader Francis Xavier noted.
It has been our tradition to convene this group on the eve of the opening of the GSR. I do want to give a special shout out to our new members that are joining us for the first time.
I also want to thank those of you that made inputs to the Best Practice Guidelines on the ''Regulatory uplift for financing digital infrastructure, access and use.'' Those guidelines were endorsed by the heads of regulators yesterday.
It has been 18 plus long months of virtual meetings. Although I would have preferred to be with you in person on this occasion, I believe that even as we meet virtually, it is critical to make the voice of industry and private sector heard particularly on our shared commitment to advance the connectivity agenda.
I would like to especially thank the Chair, Mr Bocar Ba and the Vice-Chairs of the Industry Advisory Group on Development issues and Private Sector Chief Regulatory Officers meeting (IAGDI-CRO), Ms Amy Alvarez and Ms Oyeronke Oyetunde for their role in promoting the work of industry and private sector.
This COVID-19 pandemic period has brought upon us a lot of challenges. But it also presented an opportunity for the ICT sector. The demand for connectivity has never reached current proportions and gained so much attention.
The global health crisis has pushed the dial on broadband connectivity from ''desirable'' to ''essential'', as we all seek ways to connect the 3.7 billion people who still lack any form of online access.
United by our goal as an industry, to ''connect the world'', we all, as stakeholders, hold an important role in this vision of bringing affordable, accessible broadband to all.
ITU's “Connecting Humanity" report, estimates that bringing the remaining half of the world's population online in the next ten years will cost an estimated US$428 billion in infrastructure investment alone.
This presents an opportunity for industry and private sector – you are the engines for innovation and development. So what can we do as an industry to realise this vision even faster?
In our analysis of the industry responses to the pandemic through our REG4COVID platform, it was evident that we can make faster progress if we have the optimal combination of effective and agile regulatory environments; robust connectivity infrastructure; and a lively ecosystem of digital technology providers.
If all stakeholders take swift specific measures, as they did during this pandemic, to keep crucial telecommunications services resilient and available, then the digital transformation we are all looking towards would not be too far in the horizon.
We have been working hard to step up our engagement with you. This year we introduced the Tech Talks series and Know Your Member Series to specifically engage more closely with ITU-D Sector members.
We have already seen the benefits of getting to know our members better and listening to them to understand their innovative work and how we could help industry and private sector deliver impactful work to countries.
And so, as you share an industry perspective on how we can accelerate inclusive connectivity, access, and use, keep in mind that we are all interdependent.
Your vital role as private sector in connectivity and the effort to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals in general cannot be overemphasized.
Yesterday, in our executive roundtable with the heads of regulators and commissioners from some 90 countries, ''collaboration and partnerships'' were the key messages. And the only way we can make a ''digital leap'' is by working together.
We have seen some promising examples from our GIGA School connectivity programme, Digital Transformation Centres for capacity development, Global EQUALS Partnership for Gender Equality, our Connect2Recover initiative, and many more.
Making collaboration and partnerships the very core of our efforts, will propel us much further in our endeavour to connect the unconnected.
As you know, the World Telecommunication Development Conference is on the horizon. It will be a chance to rethink our models of creating digital transformation.
We will have a Partner2Connect segment of the conference for all stakeholders, both traditional and non-traditional, to engage in conversations and forge new partnerships that can help accelerate connectivity for sustainable development.
The work of industry and private sector through IAGDI-CRO will also inform the WTDC-21 discussions and the resulting outcomes.
I hope that you will remain active in the preparations that include the Partner2Connect segment and the conference itself, so that we can together make it impactful.
