NP/93-4
7 July 1993
Original: English
THE ITU COUNCIL CONCLUDES ITS WORK
The Council of the International Telecommunication Union met in Geneva from 21 June to 1 July 1993 under the chairmanship of Mr J. N. Sanchez Valle (Spain), assisted by Mr S. Mbaye (Senegal) as Vice-Chairman.
The Council set up three committees as follows:
 Committee 1  Finance
	Chairman:	Mr P. Gagné (Canada)
	Vice-Chairman:	Mr U. Mohr (Germany)
 Committee 2  Staff and pensions
	Chairman: 	Mr S. Al-Basheer (Saudi Arabia)
	Vice-Chairman:	Mr K. Mirski (Bulgaria)
 Committee 3  Development
	Chairman:	Mr H. Vignon (Benin)
	Vice-Chairman:	Mr M. A. Yusoff (Malaysia)
Budget of the Union
One important item on the agenda was the adoption of the budget for 1994. A sum of 139,975,000 Swiss francs was allocated for the ordinary budget as compared to 132,610,000 Swiss francs for 1993. The contributory unit has been fixed at 319,200 Swiss francs.
The budget of the Union as a whole, comprising the ordinary budget, the Technical Cooperation special acounts budget (UNDP and other external sources of financing) and the supplementary publications budget (service publications sold by the Union) amounts to 154,768,000 Swiss francs for 1994 as compared with 146,226,000 Swiss francs  for 1993.
Strategic policies and plans for the Union
In view of the rapidly evolving telecommunications environment and the urgent need for the Union to adapt, the Council was presented with a document on strategic policies and planning. One of the salient point of this document is the question for an intergovernmental organization such as the ITU, based on national sovereignty, to adapt to the emerging requirements of the global information society in which telecommunications are becoming the most important business activity. What role should "small-m" members, such as recognized private agencies, scientific and industrial organizations as well as regional telecommunications organizations, play within the ITU? What should their rights be in the ITU decision-making process?
Furthermore, for the ITU to retain a leading role in the globalized and liberalized telecommunications industry, it must enlarge its membership to include sectors such as the computing industry and the user community.
If these two requirements are to be met, the profile of the Union would most certainly change and the repercussions on its working methods would be so extensive that the Council agreed to establish a working group which will present a more detailed report on this matter to the 1994 session of the Council.
Development
The question of development has been as usual a major theme of discussion within the Council. The Councillors urged that more attention should be paid to the needs of Africa and of the least developed countries (LDCs) in particular.
The Councillors from the African region called for a special information session on strategic planning focussed on development for the whole of the region. This special session will be held in Cairo in April 1994 in conjunction with Africa TELECOM 94 at the kind invitation of the Government of Egypt delivered by the Minister of Communications and Transports.
A major decision of the Council was to approve the agenda of the World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC/94) to be held in Buenos Aires from 21 to 29 March 1994. This first World Conference is to review the telecommunication development world-wide and to set up goals and objectives for this development for the year 2000 and beyond.
This Conference will attract world bodies to discuss the critical issue of the "missing link" which is said to be increasing rather than diminishing. The Minister of Communications of Colombia who addressed the Council called attention to the importance of that global meeting on telecommunications as mankind advances in the Information Age.
Conferences
The Council adopted the calendar of conferences, the most important events being:
 the Radiocommunication Assembly (Geneva, 8-16 November 1993)
 the World Radiocommunication Conference (Geneva, 15-19 November 1993)
 the World Telecommunication Development Conference (Buenos Aires, 21-29 March 1994)
 the Kyoto Plenipotentiary Conference (Kyoto, 19 September-14 October 1994).
The next session of the Council will be held in Geneva from 2 to 17 May 1994.