INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION

The ITU and the GII:
From Buenos Aires to Valletta and Beyond

Dr. Pekka Tarjanne
Secretary-General International Telecommunication Union
GIIC Annual Meeting, Cologne
28 October 1997

Mr. Chairman,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen
It is a great pleasure to have been invited to address this meeting and to speak to you about the new role of the ITU in assisting the future development of the Global Information Infrastructure, or GII.
It is also a pleasure to see so many friends and colleagues assembled in one place.
Due to the pressures of my work, I was not able to accept a kind invitation from your chairman emeritus – my good friend, Diana Lady Dougan – to be part of the GIIC.  However, I have followed your work with great interest -- and not only as a regular reader of “I-Ways”.
Over the past couple of years, the ITU and the GIIC have established a very good cooperative relationship in a number of areas.
For example, just last month, the ITU hosted a meeting organized by the GIIC to explore the implications of the WTO agreement on trade in basic telecommunications for national telecommunication regulators.  This meeting was unusual in that it brought together representatives of two very different worlds that have not communicated very well in the past.  I am speaking, of course, of telecommunication regulators and trade negotiators.
If the WTO agreements are to bring full benefits to the world of telecommunications, much better communications will be needed between these two worlds in the future.  We were very grateful to the GIIC for taking the initiative to bring together all the interested parties, including the ITU, the WTO and the World Bank.
Promoting this kind of dialogue is something our good friend Russell Pipe has been urging us to do for years.  I am sure I can speak for everyone who took part in the meeting when I say what a great success it was.  More such dialogue is clearly needed.
As well as formal meetings of this kind, there have been numerous informal exchanges between the ITU and the GIIC.
One of your first vice-presidents, Dr. Hans Baur, has been one of the most active members of the World Telecommunications Advisory Council, the group of industry leaders who give me advice on matters of policy and strategy.  I, like you, have benefited enormously from his wise counsel.
Members of the GIIC have also been active participants in ITU events, particularly our TELECOM exhibitions and fora.  Indeed, the theme of our last world TELECOM in 1995, “Breaking Down the Barriers to the Global Information Economy and Society” was very close to your own preoccupations.  Since then, we have also had active participation from GIIC members at Americas TELECOM 96, Asia TELECOM 97, and most recently at our inaugural TELECOM Interactive.

Mr. Chairman
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Before talking about the new role of the ITU in assisting the future development of the Global Information Infrastructure, I would like to give you my assessment of where we stand today in our collective pursuit of the GII vision.
I know that I do not need to remind this audience that the concept of the GII was articulated for the first time at the ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference which took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina in March, 1994.
In his keynote address to that conference, United States Vice-President Al Gore said proposed a set of five basic principles to guide development of the GII, principles which very much reflected the approach being taken in the United States to develop the NII, or National Information Infrastructure.
Vice-President Gore’s call to action triggered an immediate response in the international community.  As a famous German philosopher once said, the GII was clearly an idea whose time had come.
A number of GII initiatives were launched following the Buenos Aires conference.
Under the leadership of the European Union, the G-7 group convened a conference in Brussels in February 1995.  The subject of this conference was not simply the Global Information Infrastructure.  It was the broader concept of the Global Information Society or GIS that would be built upon the GII.
Reflecting this broader vision, the Brussels meeting agreed to a number of further principles, additional to those proposed by Vice-President Gore, and addressing key social concerns such as employment and cultural diversity.
This meeting also agreed to establish a series of pilot projects which would apply communications and information technology in key domains of economic and social activity, such as electronic commerce, tele-medicine and tele-education.
As a former physicist, I of course believe in experiments of this kind.  They are the only way to determine whether our theories are sound, and whether philosophical principles can be translated into practical reality.
The Brussels meeting, of course, coincided with the official launch of the Global Information Infrastructure Commission.  This further symbolized the partnership between the public and private sectors which will be needed to make the GII and the GIS a reality.
The Brussels meetings were followed by the Information Society and Development Conference in Midrand, South Africa in May 1996.  Once again, the vision guiding the GII and the GIS was enlarged to include the concerns of developing countries.
Throughout this period, we in the ITU took the twin notions of the GII and the GIS very seriously.  
As many of you may recall, as well as being the birth year of the GII concept, 1994 was the year of an important ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Kyoto, Japan.
That conference took two decisions that positioned the ITU in relation to the GII and the GIS.
One decision was to adopt the first ever ITU strategic plan.  The overall goal of this plan – which we will continue to follow until we are told to do otherwise – is “to establish the ITU as the international focal point for all matters relating to telecommunication in the global information economy and society”.
In support of this goal, the plan spells out in detail what action the three ITU Sectors will take – in the fields of standardization, regulation (mainly but not limited to radicommunication) and assistance to developing countries – to support the development of the GII and the GIS.
To give you a concrete idea of actions taken to implement these strategies, I will mention only three of many possible examples.
•	Under the leadership of Theo Irmer, the Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, the ITU has been actively involved in a number of international conferences involving all the major players to define the scope of standardization work required to facilitate the development of the GII.  Most recently, at the GII Standards Conference held in Brussels at the start of this month.
•	I have just left a very important conference of the ITU Radiocommunication Sector which will continue the ongoing work to allocate radio frequencies for the new services, particularly the new satellite services, that will be such an important part of the GII.  The challenge at this conference is to mediate between the competing demands of different services and different countries.
•	For its part, the ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau has launched a series of projects whose purpose is to integrate the developing countries into the GII and the GIS, by supporting the development of their infrastructures, and by encouraging the application of technologies for economic and social development.
In sum, the basic role of the ITU is to “facilitate, mediate, and integrate”.
But there is more to the story than that.
Another important decision from Kyoto was to establish a new ITU event – the World Telecommunication Policy Forum.
The idea behind this event is to create a forum where the ITU membership – both our 188 Member States and our more than 450 non-governmental members – can discuss and exchange information on the global telecommunications policy and regulatory issues that must be resolved, to facilitate the development of the GII.
As you may know, the first such forum was held a little over a year ago in October 1996 on the theme of Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite, or GMPCS.
GMPCS is a term that refers to a range of satellite systems, including the so-called “Little LEOs”, “Big LEOs” and “Mega LEOs”, some of which are already operational.  What these systems have in common is that they provide communication services – whether data, voice, or broadband – on a transnational or global basis.  They are likely to be a key component of the global information infrastructure.
Almost 900 representatives of industry and government took part in the first policy forum.  They were able to agree – in only three days – on a set of principles to guide the introduction of GMPCS, as well as on a series of practical actions to implement these principles.
Next March, we will hold a second policy forum on a topic that is even more crucial to the development of the GII – the implications of the WTO agreements on trade in telecommunications.
I am hopeful that we will see an equally outstanding result.
In addition to these activities, as I have already mentioned themes and topics related to the GII and the GIS have become central to our global and regional TELECOM events.
In sum, in the three and one half years since the Buenos Aires Conference, development of the GII and the GIS have become a – perhaps the – central policy and strategy focus of all ITU activities.
So, with all this background, where do we stand today?
To be frank, it is my impression that at least some of the momentum that was so evident at the highest levels of industry and government just a couple of years ago has been lost.  And that is not just my opinion.
I have mentioned the World Telecommunication Advisory Council.  The GII has been one of the items on WTAC’s agenda for the past year or so.  As Hans Baur will confirm, the distinguished members of this council do not currently see the GII going anywhere.  In their view, it has been overtaken by newer developments, such as the Internet and the WTO agreements.  These phenomena have now captured the attention of leaders in government and industry, particularly the internet.  As I said in a speech last year “the Internet is the closest we will get to the information superhighway this side of the millenium”.  
This impression that the GII and GIS concepts are losing momentum is confirmed if one looks for the results of the Brussels and Midrand conferences.  What is being done to develop the principles?  What is happening with the pilot projects?
I for one do not know the answer to these questions.
I do not even know if the GIIC plans to continue its excellent work, or whether your activities will sunset next year, as originally planned.
So where do we go from here?
This question is very important for the ITU.  As I have said, we have made the notions of the GII and the GIS central to our work.  If the leaders of the international community are losing interest in them, we will need to re-think and re-formulate our strategies.
I for one do not believe that we should give up on these ideas.  I continue to believe that the concepts of the global information infrastructure and the global information society are sound.  However, I do think they need to be developed and made more “user friendly”, by relating them more closely to people’s basic preoccupations and today’s “buzzwords”.  As presently conceived, they are rather abstract and remote from daily life.
All of us in this room lead a very privileged existence.  Most people in the world can only dream of what we take for granted.  This is true whether we are talking about telecommunications, information or any of the other necessities of life.
To my mind, we need to make a connection between what we are talking about at this conference today and the major developmental challenges facing mankind.
How can this be done?
I will be leaving your meeting directly after my speech to fly to New York to meet with Kofi Annan and my fellow Executive Heads of UN programs and specialized agencies.  While in New York, I hope to be able to present to the UN General Assembly a report on how the UN system as a whole can help the world community achieve universal access to basic communication and information services – what I like to call “the right to communicate”.
Kofi Annan and my colleagues have already endorsed this report, and I am counting on their support to help me convince the General Assembly that the right to communicate should be considered a fundamental human right.
Why should this be so?
For me, the argument is simple – and it makes the link that I think all of us need to make between the development of the GII and the most basic realities of human nature.
It is true, of course, that philosophers have never been able to agree on a definition of human nature.  Most of them seem to have given up trying!  However, as a practical matter, it seems to me that the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are as close as we can come to defining what it is that people everywhere have in common, and the rights and freedoms to which everyone is entitled.
I am sure you will also agree with me that in the global information society, every aspect of human life will be increasingly influenced by developments in communications and information technology.  This is true whether we are speaking about economic activity, social activity, cultural activity and political  activity.
It is therefore clear to me that in the global information society, it will be impossible to enjoy the rights and freedoms recognized in the Universal Declaration - in each and every one of these areas – without having access to at least basic communication and information services.
When you have a chance to think about it, I hope that you – and my audience in New York – will find this argument as persuasive as I do.
By linking the development of communications and information technology with the satisfaction of mankind’s most basic needs and the realization of our most basic values, we can bring the GII and the GIS down to earth.
To do this, we need more than words.  We need practical action as well.
Next year will be a busy year for the ITU – just as every year is.  In mid-March, we will hold the second World Telecommunication Policy Forum.  In late March and early April, we will hold the second World Telecommunication Development Conference in Valletta, Malta.  In May, we will hold Africa TELECOM 98 in Johannesburg, South Africa.  Finally, in October and November, we will hold our next Plenipotentiary Conference in Minneapolis, USA.
This series of events offers the international community an unparalleled opportunity to come to grips with ideas such as the GII, the GIS and the “right to communicate”. 
My goal is to do everything I can to help the ITU membership define a global strategy through this series of meetings aimed at ensuring that people everywhere have the opportunity to benefit in their daily lives from the incredible advances that are taking place in communications and information technology, so that the right to communicate becomes a reality.
I would invite all of you present today to join in this noble crusade. 
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