INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION Joint Opening of TELECOM 95 Technology and Strategy Summits Dr Pekka Tarjanne, Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union Geneva, 3 October 1995 Mr. Chairman, Distinguished guests, Ladies and gentlemen, On behalf of the International Telecommunication Union, I would like to welcome you to the joint opening session of the TELECOM 95 Technology and Strategy Summits -- otherwise known as the 7th World Telecommunication Forum. Those of you who have attended previous TELECOM events will probably have noticed that we have a new format this year. In the past, we have organized separate forums to deal with technology, policy, regulatory, legal, economic, and financial subjects. Technology is still separate, but we decided to combine all the other subjects in a single "Strategies Summit". This not only reflects the linkages between these different issue areas. It will enable those of you who are not physicists or engineers to concentrate your brainpower on the theme of "Breaking Down the Barriers to the Global Information Society", and on solving all of mankind’s problems. This also means that -- while the lawyers and economists argue about what the "global information society" means and who should pay it -- the engineers will be able to get on with the job of building it, free from philosophical distractions. That way, both groups will be happy! Political Visions There is another reason we have changed our approach. Something very important has happened since the 6th World TELECOM, in 1991. World leaders have realized that telecommunications is the most important industry in the world today, and that it holds the key to mankind’s future. In the four years since TELECOM 91, many countries have launched initiatives to develop information infrastructures and prepare their people for the information society. At the ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference in Buenos Aires last year US Vice-President Gore proposed that all ITU members should cooperate in developing a "Global Information Infrastructure", or "GII". This idea was taken up by the G-7 group of countries. At a special meeting in Brussels in February this year, they endorsed a set of principles to guide the development of the GII, and launched a series of pilot projects to get it going. This year’s ITU World Telecommunications Development Report, which I launched at a press conference yesterday, provides a comprehensive guide to all these initiatives, and much more besides. I urge you to get a copy, before they sell out! The ITU’s Policy Mission Something important has also happened at the ITU since TELECOM 91. We have had two Plenipotentiary Conferences, one here in Geneva in 1992, the other in Kyoto in 1994. At the Kyoto conference, our member countries took a very important decision. They recognized that that ITU has a "policy mission" -- and that the ITU should provide a forum for the discussion of global telecommunications policy and regulatory issues. This does not mean that we are going to become a global regulator with powers similar to national regulators. Far from it. It simply recognizes the fact that government and industry need a forum where they can talk about issues that affect them all -- like the GII -- and that the ITU is the natural place to do it. The TELECOM 95 Technology and Strategy Summits are the first steps in carrying out this new mission. Today, I would like to concentrate my remarks on the theme of the Strategies Summit -- "Breaking Down the Barriers to the Global Information Society". The first question many of you may ask is "What does it mean?". The "Global Information Society" Let’s start with the word "society". For me, the meaning is simple. It means we are all one. This is not to deny the reality and value of political and cultural differences. It is only to say that we are members of the same human family, inhabit the same planetary home, and that our fates are increasingly interdependent. Today, there is a lot of interest in "chaos theory". It began in physics, but is now spreading to many other disciplines. One of the best-known postulates of chaos theory is that the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Beijing may set off a storm in New York. Is it not increasingly the same in human affairs? What is it that has brought us together? The answer, of course, is global telecommunication networks, and the information they carry. Thanks to telecommunications, we know more about what is happening, everywhere in the world, more quickly than ever before. Telecommunications have made it possible to build and manage global organizations. The information flowing on global networks is more than a means of organizational control. It is a source of wealth, a creator of value, a main source of employment -- and not just in developed countries. Some so- called "developing countries" have more information workers, more highly developed telecommunication networks, and higher GDP per capita than countries we tend to think of as fully "developed". According to a recent edition of Time, telecommunication networks and global information flows may even become the battlefield in future "Cyber- Wars"! These developments have given rise to the vision of the global information society, and to the many benefits in could bring to mankind. Other developments -- including financial crashes, pornographic databases, and technological unemployment -- have also given us an idea of the threats it poses. As an optimist, I believe that the benefits of the global information society could far outweigh the costs -- but only if we act wisely, cooperatively and in full knowledge of the consequences of our actions. That is why this Summit is so important. We need a global strategy for the global information society. Towards a Global Agenda for Action In developing a strategy, it is always a good idea to begin with a clear idea of the goal to be achieved. For me, there can be no doubt about our goal. We will never have a global information society -- in the true sense of the words -- unless everyone has an opportunity to take part. In the information society, the "right to communicate" should be recognized as a fundamental human right. What do I mean by "the right to communicate"? I cannot give you a final, definite answer, just as I could not give you a final, definite answer about the meaning of any of the other fundamental human rights that enjoy universal recognition. What the "right to communicate" means will change over time. It will vary from country to country. It will evolve, and will be the subject of ongoing debate. What is important is not the precise meaning of the term, but the recognition that in the global information society, each and every human being -- no matter where they live, no matter what their circumstances -- should have the right to access at least the minimum telecommunications and information resources needed to live a decent life. In the information society of the twenty-first century, telecommunications and information technology will be so powerful, and so pervasive, that people who do not have access to these resources will be unable to enjoy any of the basic political, economic, social and cultural rights to which every human being is entitled, according to the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- rights such as the right of association, the right to take part in government, the right to work and have a decent standard of living, the right to education, and so forth. As well as access, there is another equally important dimension to the right to communicate. When using telecommunications and information resources, people should be able to exercise the fundamental personal rights that are also recognized in the Universal Declaration -- rights like freedom of thought and expression, the right to privacy, and the right to protection for intellectual property. Some of these ideas may seem radical, but there is nothing particularly new in them. Universal service has always been an objective of the telecommunications industry. Since the report of the Maitland Commission a decade ago, the world community has gradually come to accept its key recommendation -- that by the end of this century, there should be access to basic telecommunication services, not just in the richest countries, but everywhere in the world. Thanks to new technologies and the world-wide trend to market liberalization, this goal is in sight, if not by the year 2000, at least not too far into the next century. It is time to set a new goal for telecommunications, and for mankind. Recognition of the right to communicate will require two of the rarest elements in the universe -- political vision and political courage! But it is only the starting point. Implementing this right, and ensuring that it is respected, will require other elements that are even more rare -- organizational initiative and bureaucratic creativity! What we will need is nothing less than a new agenda for global action, and a new model of international cooperation, involving government and the private sector. With this agenda in place, and a clear notion of our roles and responsibilities, all the members of the international telecommunications community will be in a position to begin confronting the many challenging issues that are being thrown up, almost daily, by our emerging global information society. These are the first two items on my agenda for breaking down the barriers to the global information society. I am convinced that if we know where we want to go, and agree on how to organize ourselves to reach our objective, everything else will begin to fall into place. Other agendas are certainly possible. We should all listen carefully over the next few days to what all the Summit speakers have to say, before making up our minds. I certainly shall. When all is said and done, perhaps I will come back at the end of the Summit, to share my concluding thoughts with you. Mr. Chairman, Distinguished guests, Ladies and gentlemen, We are privileged to be living in an era when so many of the basic resources needed for human development are present in such abundance. Technology is abundant. Capital is abundant. Human resources are not, but the raw material is certainly there, everywhere in the world, waiting to be developed. What is in short supply is the political courage and organizational imagination needed to make the vision of the global information society a reality. Above all, what we need are political acts, in the noblest sense of the word. Good luck! TELECOM ‘95 4 TELECOM ‘95