“The most valuable asset of any organization is its human resources!”

From Buenos Aires to Valletta and now Istanbul we meet to review how best the ITU can assist the communications sector with its development. Particular emphasis is placed on how the developed nations can create opportunities for improvement of the least developed countries (LDC).

The most valuable asset of any organization is its human resources!

In Buenos Aires in 1994, ITU was instructed by its Members to develop a “Global Telecommunications University” and this request was reiterated at the Valletta Conference four years later. Today, this is becoming a reality thanks to the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) and the private sector working together.

Not only has BDT coordinated on-line training courses, but it has also, in conjunction with a number of universities, commissioned post-graduate programmes to address the specific shortfalls in knowledge which are so desperately needed by the LDCs.

In December 2001, a group of graduates received a Master of Communications Management (MCM) award from the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. The private sector and BDT are working together to ensure that such programmes as the MCM are delivered online via the Internet in at least three of the ITU languages, namely English, French and Spanish.

Although management of human resources and technology are critical skills for operating communication networks, the LDCs still require engineering competencies and thanks to the University of Dalhousie in Canada an innovative programme covering Internetworking is being developed which will also be available online.

Last November at ITU TELECOM AFRICA 2001, ITU and Cable & Wireless signed a cooperation agreement committing the Cable & Wireless Virtual Academy to the provision of a number of scholarships each year to enable the LDCs to benefit from its portfolio.

Organizations such as the United States Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI) and the United Kingdom Telecommunications Academy (UKTA) have played a vital role through their member organizations in the provision of training materials. Since entering the new millennium, both organizations have recognized the benefit of supporting taught programmes with on-line knowledge.

Critical to the enhancement of skills in Africa are the “Centres of Excellence”, which came about as a result of the ITU making extremely effective use of the surplus funds generated by its TELECOM Exhibition programme. The purpose of the Centres of Excellence is to develop programmes that enable strategic high-level initiatives to be created.

Today, the ITU Global Telecommunications University is a truly virtual organization addressing the needs of the Union’s membership.

Africa must be congratulated for hosting the Youth Forum at ITU TELECOM AFRICA 2001, which demonstrated once again how ITU and the private sector by working together, created an opportunity for some very bright individuals from across the whole continent to meet and explore the world of telecommunications. This initiative must continue since the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow.

We meet in Istanbul for the third World Telecommunication Development Conference and this is clearly the opportunity world leaders of the communications industry must take to determine how developments over the past eight years can be enhanced for the future.

Last year in Coventry, participants from around the world explored the e-Culture and concluded that this is the future whether it be e-Government, e-Banking, e-Taxation, e-Media, e-Commerce, e-Education or e-Training. The ‘e’ is with us now, and in the future will play a critical role in our efforts to aid the bridging of the digital divide.

This year UKTA will host a conference on “Wireless Access to the Information Society”, which it believes will enable discussion to take place as to how the next generation of mobile products will assist in the provision of increased access to information.

The rapid changes in technology over the past eight years have created considerable pressure on operators in the developed and developing countries and this has resulted in a very different skill-set being required by the human resources of the organizations.

Globally, we have seen a move towards liberalization of the communications sector. When competition is introduced, the government of the country needs to ensure that both the incumbent and new entrants have a fair chance of conducting their businesses. To do this, a regulator is required, laws need to be revised and a new Telecommunications Act needs to be produced. The regulator is a vital human resource and his or her skill-set is quite unique and critical to the successful introduction of competition. The incumbent operating company will invariably have been a part of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and heavily engineering led. The skill set required is a lean, highly efficient organization with a strong marketing/selling portfolio. The human resources need to be changed or re-educated before the technology for the successful introduction of competition.

The challenges facing the human resources of the membership of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU–D) will be addressed, and together we will bridge the digital divide!