INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION COUNCIL GENEVA - 1993 SESSION - (JUNE-JULY) Secretary-General's Opening Remarks Geneva, June 21, 1993 Mr. Chairman, Excellencies, Distinguished Councillors, Ladies and Gentlemen, It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the 1993 session of the ITU Council. I am sure all of us are aware that today is a day of some importance in the history of the ITU. Following the decisions of last December's Additional Plenipotentiary Conference, this assembly is the first meeting of "the new Council" of "the new ITU", a Council which has been given important new responsibilities in planning and managing the activities of the Union. Both the outgoing and incoming chairmen have already mentioned the change in the name of the Council, as well as the numbering of our Council sessions. I might add that changing numbering systems is the kind of thing telecommunications administrators like to do from time to time to confuse their customers! However, in our case we have made the change not to confuse our members, but to clarify the situation. By numbering this Council session according to the year it takes place, instead of in relation to some past event most of us have probably forgotten, we have tried to symbolize not only the Council's new beginning, but an orientation that is at least contemporary, and hopefully forward-looking. I trust that we all wish to proceed in this spirit. Before looking toward the future and the challenges that face us in the 11 months before the 1994 session, I would like to briefly review some of the main events and principal achievements of the past year, surely one of the most important in the long history of our Union. I am sure that no one would disagree that the most significant event of the past year was the Additional Plenipotentiary Conference held here in Geneva in December 1992. This conference was the culmination of a reform process that was launched at the Nice Plenipotentiary Conference in 1989, a process which involved the active participation of many members of the Union, first through the work of the High Level Committee, then through the efforts of the group that drafted proposals for a new Constitution and Convention, and finally through the achievements of the 140 members who submitted proposals to and took part in the APP. As I do not need to remind you, this Conference was an outstanding success, in terms of both process and substance. It was the first Additional Plenipotentiary Conference in our long history; it was the shortest Plenipotentiary Conference ever held; it completed its work on time; and it met all its objectives. The APP confirmed the policies and strategies that were established at Nice, as they were developed through the work of the HLC and the Drafting Group and it also translated these policies into new constitutional structures and directed that they should be provisionally applied, as of March 1, 1993. I am now happy to report that the Secretariat was able to follow the APP delegates' good example of efficient working methods. The new structures began operating on that date. By coincidence, March 1, 1993 was also the date that had been chosen for the opening of an important ITU event in Helsinki, in my home country, Finland. This made it possible to inaugurate our new structures in a highly visible and highly ceremonial way by transforming the planned CCITT Plenary Assembly into the first ever World Telecommunication Standardization Conference. This conference also was a success. It finished the work of the old CCITT by adopting some 19,000 pages of Recommendations which had been developed in the 1988-92 study period. It reorganized the Standardization Study Groups and adopted a work program for the next standardization cycle, which will terminate in 1997. The WTSC fine-tuned the accelerated approval procedure, in response to concerns that had been raised by some delegations at the APP and it also established the first of the new sectoral advisory groups, the Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group, or TSAG for short. In many respects, the WTSC was a trail- blazing event for the new ITU. That Conference was followed in May by the Asia Regional Development Conference and Asia Telecom, both of which took place in Singapore. These events continued the successful traditions established by previous Regional Development Conferences and regional TELECOMs, and demonstrated once again the important synergies between these two key elements of the ITU product and service portfolio. Both events were very well attended, by Ministers and senior officials in the case of the development conference and by the broader constituency that is always attracted to TELECOM exhibits and fora. Both events resulted in substantive outputs. In the case of the AS-RDC, these results are measured by the detailed resolutions that were adopted to guide the development of telecommunications in the economically most dynamic region of the world. In the case of Asia TELECOM, it was again clear that participation in the Exhibit is an important marketing tool for manufacturers and service providers, and that the Forum provides a premium quality platform for discussing policy, regulatory, economic and technical issues related to the development of telecommunications. Dear friends, the last year has been a very busy one, but the year ahead promises to be even busier. Over the next 15 months, we have what I think is probably the fullest agenda ever in the history of the ITU. The next major event on our calendar is the first ever Radiocommunication Assembly and World Radiocommunication Conference. These overlapping events will take place in Geneva in November and will lay the foundations for the next four years' of work in the new Radiocommunication Sector, with respect to both Study Group activities and administrative Conference agendas. The Assembly will also formally establish a Radiocommunication Advisory Group to provide strategic guidance on sectoral plans and priorities, by building on the good work that has already been done by the Res. 106 and 107 Ad Hoc Advisory Groups. These twin events will be followed in March, 1994 by the first ever World Telecommunication Development Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This conference will provide the first opportunity since the work of the Maitland Commission almost a decade ago to take a "top-down" look at the state of telecommunications development in the world today, to measure the progress that has been made, and to identify the challenges that still lie ahead as we approach the year 2000. The WTDC will also provide an opportunity to draw together all of the work that has been done in the various regions since the Nice Plenipotentiary Conference. The Asia Regional Development Conference brought to a close the cycle of regional development conferences that began in Harare in 1990. It is time to take the results of all these efforts, to merge both "top down" and "bottom up" views of telecommunications development, in order to chart a course for the next century. The Development Conference will be followed by Africa Telecom in Cairo in April and by the 1994 session of Council in early May. This will not be an ordinary session. Councillors will have to draw together all the work that has been done since the Nice Plenipotentiary Conference. You will have to evaluate our successes and failures, and prepare reports for the Kyoto Plenipotentiary Conference, both on what has been done to implement their decisions, and to recommend what should be done in the upcoming plenipotentiary period. As to the Plenipotentiary Conference which will take place in Kyoto in September and October, I am convinced that it will be another important step in the evolution of the ITU. There are some who argue that it will not be necessary to revisit the Constitution or Convention so soon after the APP. They point out that the duration of the Conference has already been reduced from five weeks to four, that the usual time must be allotted for political statements and ceremonial pronouncements, and that delegates will be preoccupied with the large number of elections that will have to take place. While all this is true, of course, it is also true that the pace of change in the telecommunications environment is not likely to slow down, just so that the ITU can catch its breath. As I have often said, I view the APP as the first step in the process of reforming the ITU, not the last. As a result of the resolutions adopted by the APP, there are already a number of very important and difficult issues that will have to be discussed at Kyoto -- including new approaches to the management of the Union, and the question of enhancing participation by "small-m" members. We will certainly want to look back at some of the major decisions that were taken at Nice, and examine how effective they have been in practice. Other issues, not foreseen at present, may arise as a result of changes in the telecommunications industry, the international economic and trading environment, and general geopolitical relations. And of course, hanging over everything, will be the question of the Union's finances, and the budgetary decisions for the next plenipotentiary period. I hope, dear friends, that you will therefore agree with me that there is a lot of serious work to be done over the next year, beginning of course with the next few days here in Geneva. The agenda for this year's Council is, however, not unduly heavy. In fact, as you know, we have planned for a slightly shortened session, an 8-day session, always with the possibility of working on the weekend if necessary. While the full two weeks originally foreseen may therefore not be needed, there are nevertheless a number of important items that you will be asked to deal with. As for the duration of the session, it is always for you, the Councillors to take the final decision. In order to prepare for that, I would like now to highlight some of the key items on the agenda. One of the new responsibilities of the "new Council" is to consider and take action on an annual report recommending policies and strategies for the Union in light of changes in the telecommunications environment. With the help of the new Strategic Planning Unit, my colleagues in the Coordination Committee and I have put quite a bit of work into preparing our first ever report on ITU strategies and policies. We look forward to a good discussion of the recommendations it presents, so that with your assistance we can proceed to develop a fuller report for your consideration at next year's meeting, and subsequent submission to Kyoto. One of the main themes in our report on strategies and policies is the need to increase the effective participation of "small-m" members in the activities and decision-making processes of the Union. As a first step in this direction and as instructed by APP Resolution 4, we will be presenting for your consideration a document containing recommendations on the criteria and procedures which should govern the admission to sector membership of the new categories of "small-m" entities and organizations which were established in Article 19 of the Geneva Convention. This document also makes recommendations regarding the rights and obligations which all non-Administration participants should enjoy under the present Constitution and Convention. I expect of course that the budget document, as always, will be of interest to Councillors, particularly so this year. As you know, 1994 is the last financial year to fall under the expenditure ceiling of 600,000,000 Swiss Francs established by the Nice Plenipotentiary Conference. I am today proud to announce that, I think that we have managed the Union's finances reasonably well throughout the current plenipotentiary period. If you decide to accept the 1994 budget as presented, we will spend only 576,000,000 Francs over the course of the plenipotentiary period, that means a saving of 24,000,000 Francs, with respect to the said ceilings, or 4% of the total budgetary ceiling established at Nice. We will have achieved this good result in spite of the fact that 1994 is an exceptionally difficult year financially, because of the fact that we have abandoned our long-standing tradition and decided to hold two world-level conferences in a single year. As you may recall, I warned Council last year that the financial pressures arising from the 1994 calendar of activities might well result in a 10% rise in the Contributory Unit. I am pleased to report that through tight financial management, we will be able to fully serve the needs of our members with only a 5% rise in the value of the Contributory Unit, only half of what was forecast last year. In the past couple of years, personnel issues have occupied much of Council's time. Unless you wish to delve deeply into these personnel questions, it should be possible to deal with them relatively expeditiously this year. Perhaps the most interesting personnel item on the agenda is the report of the Consultative Committee on Personnel Matters which was established at last year's session to examine a number of policies that are applied in other UN agencies in order to see if they should also be applied in the ITU, in order to bring us more closely in line with the common system. As you will recall, one of the main results of the APP was to confirm the Telecommunication Development Sector on an equal footing with the Radiocommunication and Standardization Sectors, and to elect the Director of the BDT. Logic might therefore suggest that Council no longer needs a Committee 3 to look into technical cooperation and development matters. However, in the consultations I undertook in preparing for Council, I found a clear majority, among developed and developing countries alike, that Committee 3 should continue at least during this session of the Council. We have therefore retained Committee 3 in the Council structure, and allotted what we hope will be sufficient time to discuss development issues. As well as considering reports on the strategies and activities of "the new BDT", Councillors are invited to discuss the agenda of the WTDC. This agenda should be finalized as quickly as possible, so that members can continue their preparations for Buenos Aires. No summary of the main issues facing Council this year would be complete without a reference to the report of the Council Working Group on Working Methods. I think that all of us recognize the need to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Council proceedings. The members of the Working Group and the Councillors who have commented on their report have put forward a number of interesting ideas for achieving these objectives. Before the end of this session, I hope it will be possible to agree on the steps that should be taken by the Secretariat, and by the members of Council themselves to improve their working methods, prior to Kyoto if possible, but certainly for the next plenipotentiary period. Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Councillors, My review of the events of the past year would not be complete without reference to the fact that the membership of the ITU continues to grow and evolve. At the start of last year's Council session, the Union had 170 Members. Some two weeks' later, by the end of the session, it had 172 members and today, we have 180 Members. While there have been many gains in the past year, there have also been some losses. As a result of the dissolution of the former Czech and Slovak Federal Republic, there are only 42 delegations present at this year's Council, not 43. On the basis of some preliminary consultations with Members from Region C, it appears that the most sensible course of action would be to fill this vacant seat at Kyoto. I will continue my consultations on this question during the present session. Dear friends, you have a lot of work to do in the next few days and the next few months. I wish you well in your deliberations, and pledge the full support of the Secretariat as we prepare for the next Plenipotentiary Conference, which is now only 15 months away. Thank you very much.