World Telecommunication Development Conference Buenos Aires, 21 - 29 March 1994 Info - For media information only. Not an official record Issue N 3 - 25 March 1994 "Since the internal markets of the developed countries are sluggish and highly competitive, it is only by promoting the communications and the economy of a large number of developing countries and achieving worldwide economic prosperity that the developed countries can find greater vistas for development", said the Vice-Minister of Communications of China, Mr Zhu Gaofeng. He described the conditions under which cooperation between developed countries (governments and private companies)should take place. He also provided a general overview of the development of Chinese telecommunications, highlighting a traffic growth of 68.5% and the addition of 10.8 million main lines in 1993. The completion of a digital trunk transmission network by 1995 was also forecast. "The rapid expansion in the past decade has started to alleviate the grave shortage in Chinese telecommunications, playing an important part in promoting China's economic growth, improving the investment environment and opening up further to the outside world" Vice-Minister of Communications Goafeng, China "Our objective is to reach a 16-fold increase in the communications capacity of the country over that of 1980, by the end of the century," said Mr Gaofeng. To reach this target, high speed transmission and wideband switching including SDH and ATM, common channel signalling and digital mobile communications will be rapidly put into use. Spanish Secretary-General of Communications, Dr Elena Salgado Méndez indicated that through an extension Plan for rural cellular telephony, truly universal service would be available throughout Spain by 1996. Today, nearly half a million of inhabitants of Spain do not have access to telecommunication in rural or remote areas despite an average of 35 main lines per 100 inhabitants. The Plan is financed 75% by Telefónica de España and 25% by budgets of the region. Dr Méndez stressed that one of the problems of telecoms development was that of financing. "In this respect," she said, "access to external capital is a necessity which requires the adoption of national policies, but public initiatives will remain indispensable". Commenting on the proposal of information superhighways, Dr Méndez said that they should not contribute to divide people in information 'haves and have-nots'. "In many countries, there is a new intellectual and political flexibility - a readiness to explore new models, new ideas, new approaches. And it seems to be working" O. Lundberg, Director-General,INMARSAT "In the mobile satellite sector", stated Mr O. Lundberg, Director- General of INMARSAT, "technology and services advances have already changed the landscape. Today, we have INMARSAT-M, the briefcase satellite telephone - usable anywhere - at about a third the cost of INMARSAT A. In a few years, the briefcase will shrink to about half the current size once INMARSAT brings into service its powerful third-generation satellite series." Mr Lundberg explained that with INMARSAT-M satellites, for example, reliable phone service could be extended to any village or remote area instantly and at low cost. "Using INMARSAT-M", he said, "it may be possible for a medium-sized country to extend a rudimentary telephone service to every village at the cost of installing cellular in a single city". The INMARSAT Director-General also expressed confidence that plans in Kenya, Nigeria, and the Sudan to privatize telecommunications under the tutelage of the World Bank would provide new ways of doing business and provide impetus for modernization. "The move towards different regulatory regimes in Asia, Eastern Europe and the CIS republics would yield similar results", Mr Lundberg stated. "Today, we have a growing catalogue of success stories where, through regulatory reform, often combined with new commercial and investment vehicles, remarkable progress and turnarounds can be made in a relatively short time," Mr. Lundberg concluded. "Our approach to partnerships is fully consistent with the thrust of the Buenos Aires Action Plan to which we have subscribed in advance by our actions. The Action Plan is an ambitious and intelligent document with a broad vision" B. Brochier - Vice-President France TELECOM Speaking for France Télécom, Mr B.Brochier, Deputy Director-General outlined the new approach to development which France Télécom is adopting. He said that while continuing to support old-style technical assistance activities which are being pursued under the aegis of public authorities and remain extremely useful, it was also moving into new forms of exchange and transfer, more germane to a private enterprise, thus making a full and effective contribution to world telecommunication development. Mr Brochier also stressed the need to foster synergies from balanced and lasting partnerships. "It is with this in mind, that we have recently embarked on an important strategic alliance with German operator Telekom in order to respond without delay to the highly sophisticated needs of the world market for business communications". "We have no doubt that the work of the Conference will feed and consolidate the lines of action already drawn in the Action Plan and France Télécom will endeavour to foster this process", said Mr Brochier. Dr Paul Laufs, Parliamentary State Secretary of Germany emphasized the special challenge for every country of which the growing importance of information technology is posing, for it is this that will be one of the main factors determining competitiveness. He also stressed that the financing of telecommunication development could not be met entirely by assistance funds. "The worldwide need for investment in telecommunications is so great that an improvement in telephone provision in the developing countries cannot be brought about by development cooperation only. Well thought out financing models must be drawn up and applied that ensure the participation of the private sector", Dr Laufs said. "The ITU can help to bring the relevant parties together, but the ITU itself is not a financing organization", he added. "In order to make the public aware of the importance of telecommunications, we, in the telecommunication business, have a mission to publicize that importance, even to the extent of being overbearing" Mr Y. Utsumi, MPT, Japan The Director-General of International Relations of the Ministry of PTT, Mr Utsumi, announced Japan's plan to prepare the advent of the future multimedia society. "This plan calls for the construction of a fiber-optic network across the whole country by the year 2010 to pave the way for the information society of the 21st century" Mr. Utsumi said. 45 other speakers made statements in the first three days of the conference. Most speeches are available, as delivered, on request. On Wednesday afternoon, in addition to the presentation of the report by the Director of ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau and by the Telecommunication Development Advisory Board as well as a background document on the policy perspectives on the role of the ITU in development, the draft Buenos Aires Action Plan was tabled in Plenary. The draft Buenos Aires Action Plan was drafted prior to the Conference, by a group of countries having taken part in the work of a group called "support group" set up to prepare the Conference. Proposals relating to the Action Plan were introduced on Thursday morning. A long debate followed the introduction of a proposal from Morocco which put forward a substantially different approach to the structure and focus of the Action Plan. The Plenary decided to assign to the two substantive committees (3 and 4) the parts of the Action Plan relevant to their respective work together with the related proposals. t also decided to prepare two documents (DT/36 and DT/37) for the consideration of Committees 3 and 4. Document DT/36 consists of: * a draft resolution on telecommunication policy and strategy * a resolution on the establishment of Study Group 1 on Telecommunication Development Strategies and Policies including: ** the mandate (see press release ITU/95-5) ** a set of questions to be studied during the next cycle (1995-1999) and ** the procedures to be applied by the Study Group for the adoption of Questions and Recommendations. Recommendations represent the output of Study Groups. The document integrates, within the text, the various proposals tabled by delegations for discussion. Document DT/37 consists of a draft resolution prepared by the Support Group on the establishment of Study Group 2 and the draft Questions to be assigned to it (see press release ITU/94-6). The procedures to be applied by the Study Group for the adoption of Questions and Recommendations are also included (the same as those examined by Committee 3). Discussions of these two documents began on Friday. Committee 3 considered and adopted the draft resolution on telecommunication policy and strategy and started only towards the end of its meeting, consideration of the mandate of Study Group 1. The resolution provides guidelines for governments and administrations when establishing and implementing their telecommunication policies. With respect to the structure of the sector, the following reforms are to be considered with a view to favouring investments, increasing efficiency, broadening the supply of services and improving service quality: * separation of the postal and telecommunication services in order for their respective policies to be more specific to the requirements of each branch * separation of the regulatory and operational functions for a more efficient management based on customers' needs for more cost-effective services * creation of a regulatory body to ensure objectivity and transparency of decisions regulating the sector and for the development and impartial supervision of competition rules * provision of financial and management independence to operators to enable them to develop commercial policies adapted to market requirements. The guidelines also stress the need for a clear, consistent and transparent regulatory framework to ensure, on a stable basis, the long- term development of the sector while facilitating technological innovation, infrastructure modernization, service diversification and improved quality of service. National regulatory frameworks should also aim at promoting the provision of basic services in rural or remote areas at an affordable price and at allowing sufficient flexibility to adapt to technological and commercial changes and to the growing market segmentation. Moreover, national regulatory frameworks should allow opportunities for all interested parties including users and the private sector, to provide opinions into the regulatory policy-making process. In the area of general policies, one of the chief objectives at which telecoms policies should aim is to promote access to all basic telecoms services at an affordable charge and encourage the development of networks and services to reduce not only regional but also national disparities. The global interoperability of networks should also be fostered. General policies should also consider the use of wireless telephone networks to introduce telecommunication services in rural and remote areas. Policies promoting, where appropriate, the development of local or regional telecoms industries were advocated. To this end, opening up at least certain markets to competition should be considered. So should the need to develop a pool of highly-trained manpower in all aspects and of the need to encourage greater R&D efforts. In order to meet the considerable investment needs arising from the development of modern telecoms infrastructures, it is proposed that administrations explore every possibility of attracting investment from national savings and encouraging internal and external private participation including through investment policies and alternatives such as Official Development Assistance, leasing, Build-Operate- Transfer, or joint ventures. The choices will have to take into account the degree of access to multilateral, bilateral and private sources of funding based on the status of the operator (and its evolution within the framework of the restructuring), the degree of liberalization in regulations governing foreign investments, the regulatory framework and the tariff policies/pricing regulation. Committee 4 considered and approved DT/37 with the exception of two proposals by the US delegation, to be discussed on Saturday and one joint proposal by France and the US concerning coordination between the two study groups of issues concerning human resources development. One concerned issues arising from the work of by the Radiocommunication and Telecommunication Standardization sectors which are of particular concern to developing countries; the other related to the planning, management, operation and maintenance of telecommunication networks. Committee 4 also examined the 5 programme areas of the draft Buenos Aires Action Plan which were assigned to it and approved them with minor modifications to the text. These are: - Human Resources Management and Development - Business-oriented development plan guidelines, network planning, maintenance and frequency management - Integrated Rural Development - Broadcasting - Development of telematics and electronic networks An informal working group of the Steering Committee under the chairmanship of Mr A. Berrada of Morocco, was convened on Friday night to review the draft Plan of Action taking account the proposals of the various countries. The revised draft Action Plan is due to be considered in Plenary on Monday.