INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION		

					Abidjan, 6 May 1996

African Regional Telecommunication Development Conference
(AF-RTDC-96)
Opening Address by Dr. Pekka Tarjanne, Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union
Mr. Minister of State,
Honourable Ministers,
Excellencies,
Friends and Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my great pleasure to address the participants in this African Regional Telecommunication Development Conference. But first, may I express my utmost thanks to the Government of Côte d’Ivoire for hosting the Conference and for the very warm welcome that has been accorded to me since my arrival in this beautiful city of Abidjan.
It is only 6 years since the first African Regional Telecommunication Development Conference in Harare. In terms of telecommunications development and technological change, however, it is quite a long time, for much has happened since then. The report of the Director of the BDT and the African Telecommunication Indicators report demonstrate how far the aspirations of the African governments, as expressed in various Harare resolutions and recommendations, have been met and to what extent all our efforts have translated into expansion and modernization of the national and international networks.
African governments have made considerable investment in their telecommunication development. As a result, there has been on average a 7% annual growth in main line density over the past decade. However, these achievements must be put in perspective. In spite of this impressive achievement, the overall impact on the goal of universal access to basic service remains quite modest, since teledensity has risen only slightly in Sub Saharan Africa from 0.33 to 0.48 per 100 population in the same period. The PANAFTEL network has still some gaps while some links need modernization and capacity expansion.
However, the situation is not altogether bleak, for some of the countries have made commendable strides ahead. The telecommunication sector outperformed overall economic growth in the region, increasing its share of GDP. I am confident that by the very early part of the 21st century, given a conducive investment environment, the entire continent will have developed a satisfactory network which offers its peoples easier access to basic and novel national and transnational telecommunication services.

Africa is at the core of the Union’s development and technical cooperation activities. The Buenos Aires WTDC and the Kyoto Plenipotentiary Conference have directed that the Union’s priority be accorded to the LDCs. Since Africa has 33 of the 48 LDCs, our telecommunication development priority must be on Africa. This year, in particular, has seen a dramatic increase in activities by the international community aimed at promoting African development. To begin with ITU, about a month ago a Colloquium on Telecommunication Financing was held here in Abidjan and two weeks later a Symposium on the Role of Telecommunication and Information Technology in the Protection of the Environment took place in Tunis. Moving to our sister organizations, the UNCTAD IX Conference is currently underway in Johannesburg with the main theme on globalization and liberalization where the ITU has an input on, inter alia, trade in services aspects of the theme in particular. Also under way at this very moment under the leadership of the Economic Commission for Africa is the Africa’s Information and Communications Initiative meeting at Addis Ababa. Finally, the UN system as a whole has on 15 March 1996 launched a Special New Initiative on Africa in which the ITU is participating, in the part dealing with Harnessing Information Technology for Development. I am also pleased to report that, a week ago in Nairobi, the UN Secretary-General, Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and my fellow Executive Heads have accepted my proposal that ITU lead a United Nations system-wide project aimed at providing universal access to basic communication and information activities - or the right to communicate. The first step in this project is to produce, within one year’s time, a report recommending how the activities of the UN system can be coordinated on the achievement of this objective. This project will help achieve one of the main priorities of the ITU strategic plan, which calls for us to strengthen its relationship with the rest of the UN system and to play an increasingly predominant role in issues relating to the global information economy and society.
The BAAP regular budget resources will be largely spent on Africa. Furthermore, I have just taken a decision to allocate some 80% of the extrabudgetary resources from the Telecom surplus activities (amounting to some 10 million Swiss francs) to support important regional projects and technical assistance programmes for Africa, the details of which are being formulated. Next week the G-7 meeting on the role of communications in Africa will be taking place in South Africa and I hope this Conference will send a strong signal to the G7 meeting.
At Harare, we were still advocating the importance of telecommunications in development. Now, we are certain that all African governments are fully convinced of this role. The Union has now upgraded that role from a priority requirement to a basic human right, and from catalyst to an active element in the development equation. Hence the Union’s advocacy is shifting to policy choice, to the ways governments must restructure the telecommunication sector such that it is well placed to respond adequately in a new and complex environment and to regulate the sector so as to stimulate its faster development and that of the country as a whole. The new game is to attract increased investment to the sector partly through liberalization and infusion of competition. 
But I hasten to add that it is of paramount importance that governments establish strong and efficient regulatory bodies to ensure that the new maze of telecommunication activities is properly regulated and that possible risks and pitfalls arising from globalization and privatization are minimized, especially so for the smaller or weaker operators who could be otherwise marginalized. The Union’s Development Sector is ready to provide neutral advice on matters related to restructuring of the telecommunication sector in developing countries.
All of you have a tremendous responsibility and Côte d’Ivoire (CTI) has a particular responsibility. If you look at CTI it could mean “Computers Telecommunication and Information”, or, for example, in French “Convergence des Télécomunications et de l’Informatique”. 

Over the past decades we have nurtured PANAFTEL from a project to a viable network and RASCOM from a project to a service-providing organization. We will continue to entertain new ideas and to share our views with the African governments and their development partners as regards new projects now under discussion. It is certain that the new cable and satellite technologies will open broader avenues for more speedily resolving Africa’s telecommunication problems. To cater fully for internal, intra-African and extra-African traffic it is my opinion that a mix of technologies will be required as the African network is architectured and optimized to meet the forecast and very diverse traffic and service needs of the next millennium. I trust that you will make wise and informed choices yourselves, taking into account long-term viability of the projects and your countries’ overall foreign exchange commitments.
Talking about new technologies, I should perhaps say a word on the new Global Mobile Personal Communication Systems (GMPCS) due to come into service in the next two years. While these systems will offer unique new opportunities, especially for the rural and remote areas where the majority of your populations lives, I would like to invite you to give due consideration to the regulatory aspects of GMPCS. To this end I cordially invite you to take part in the first ITU World Telecommunication Policy Forum on GMPCS which is due to take place at ITU Headquarters from 21 to 23 October this year, and which will discuss policy and regulatory issues on this important matter. Perhaps your regional/subregional organizations could already start helping to prepare your position on the subject at the Forum. I would also like to draw to your attention the information session on GMPCS which will take place here on Wednesday, 8 May under the chairmanship of the Deputy Secretary-General of the ITU and with the participation of the Bureau Directors.
Excellencies,
Your agenda for the Conference is quite heavy and the BDT Director will be highlighting the key areas of our discussions during this week. I urge you to take wise decisions which will propel Africa to the next millennium with a very efficient telecommunication network which meets the ideals of the Abuja Treaty establishing the African Economic Community. Like all the regions of the world, Africa is very well endowed with the resources needed for success in the global information society, particularly human resources; let us harness these for the benefit of the people of Africa.
Once again, I thank our hosts for the excellent facilities afforded to us for the Conference.
I thank you very much for your attention.