UNION INTERNATIONALE DES TELECOMMUNICATIONS
INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION
UNIÓN INTERNACIONAL DE TELECOMUNICACIONES
 


ASIA TELECOM 93
Singapore, 19 May 1993

Technical Symposium - Technological challenge: Interfacing regional needs

Opening Remarks by  Pekka Tarjanne


Ladies and Gentlemen,

	Asia TELECOM 93 is the third Regional Exhibition and 
Forum organized by the ITU and hosted jointly by the Republic of 
Singapore.

	The pioneering work of Singapore Telecom makes the 
country the natural host for this timely event, which will welcome 
the most influential voices of the world's biggest industry.  
Telecommunications is increasingly being approached in the larger and 
much broader context of information exchange and economic growth and 
the many challenges ahead exist in all sectors of the industry.

	The Special Session of the World Telecommunication Forum 
has been designed with this multi-faceted approach in mind - Asia 
TELECOM 93 Forum offers four separate Symposia:  the Policy - which 
has just finished, the Technical, the Regulatory and the Economic.  
It is in the sessions of these four events that the complementarity 
of telecommunications technology and the telecommunications 
environment will be underlined.  Policy, regulatory and economic 
issues are increasingly overlapping but it is becoming more and more 
apparent that none of these areas can be entirely divorced from 
technological questions.

	International telecommunications policy has traditionally 
been determined by Administrations, through fora provided by the ITU, 
and largely implemented by public telecommunications operators.  
However, telecommunications are now inextricably woven into the 
economic and social fabric of a nation and the subsequent changes in 
the national and international telecommunications environments have 
recently led to a readjustment in the role of the ITU as the 
coordinator of overall policy matters.

	The revolution in telecommunications technology, 
regulation and industry structure has necessitated a coordination and 
harmonization process capable of embracing deregulation and 
liberalization, privatization and competition - apparent dichotomies 
which can easily co-exist within one region, and even one nation.  
The Asia-Pacific region has a high growth potential, yet there exists 
extreme diversity in the needs of an area which is home to more than 
half of the world's population.

	The Technical programme has been conceptualized with 
these diverse needs in mind - urban/rural, developed and developing.  
In the Asia-Pacific region, some countries have become prosperous in 
the last ten to fifteen years and others are developing with great 
speed.  Some countries still need basic telephone services whilst 
others are ready for advanced multimedia applications as a result of 
the growing digital network and computer technology industries.  It 
is extremely important that national networks are developed and 
designed to integrate the diverse needs of the different countries in 
the region - to accommodate both domestic and international interests 
simultaneously.

	It is for this reason that two Panel Sessions are 
highlighted in this Technical Symposium - "Evolution of the Networks" 
and "Mobile Communications".  The former will examine the evolution 
of the networks in the Asia-Pacific area from the present time (both 
rural and urban) to the trends for broadband networks well into the 
21st century.  The latter will, of course, examine the enormous 
potential of universal personal telecommunications systems.

	It is hoped that you - the audience - will engage in 
lively debate with the panelists on these two topics which, I am 
sure, will generate a great deal of interest in an overall programme 
designed to encourage greater audience participation.

	And it is my hope that all of you here today will learn 
from and share your experience in this Technical Symposium with a 
view to enhancing the telecommunications environment of the Asia-
Pacific region.