ITU/94-3
9 March 1994
ORIGINAL: English

US Vice-President Al Gore to address
ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference

US Vice-President Al Gore will address the first World Telecommunication 
Development Conference organized by the International Telecommunication 
Union in Buenos Aires (Argentina) on 21 March. The Conference, to last 
until 29 March, is aimed at adopting a common vision for the future of 
telecommunications.

Mr Gore will share with the expected 700 participants from over 130 
countries President Clinton's vision on the role of international 
telecommunications in global development.
 
During the first three days of the Conference, over 40 Ministers and 
business leaders are expected to present their views and share with 
participants their experience and strategies which, for some, have enabled 
their country to experience spectacular progress or for others have guided 
their company's success.

The conference has an ambitious dual objective: 

*	set global goals and strategies to provide the necessary 
guidance to address the new challenges in a rapidly changing 
telecommunication environment

*	adopt a bold Action Plan to enable countries and their 
business partners to successfully set policies conducive to 
development and implement far-reaching programmes to meet the 
needs of all sectors of society
 
According to a new report to be issued by the ITU for the WTDC Conference - 
the World Telecommunication Development Report, the gap between low-income 
and high-income countries is unacceptably high in economic, social and 
humanitarian terms and the gap is only slowly narrowing if at all. Although 
low-income countries have increased their share of global telephone main 
lines over the last ten years and have registered growth of nearly three 
times the global average, they still have less than 5% share of global 
telephone main lines whereas they are home to some 55% of the world's 
population. "A major requirement is for fresh investment which, in turn, 
requires a fresh approach to how the telecommunication sector is to be 
organized and WTDC will provide a opportunity for the wider 
telecommunication community to focus on these and other policy issues and 
priorities", concludes the report.