MEET THE FUTURE

ITU Telecom Asia 2002

A key event at a crucial time for Asia’s telecommunication markets

With the end of the year approaching, leading telecommunication players across Asia and around the world are readying themselves for ITU Telecom Asia 2002, which once again promises to live up to its reputation as the region’s most important and influential telecommunication event.

Following the unprecedented success of the previous event in 2000, ITU Telecom Asia 2002 (2 to 7 December) will again be held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC), located right on the waterfront of the bustling Wanchai district in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China.

For Asia’s policy-makers, leading manufacturers and service providers, this year’s event represents a crucial opportunity to come to grips with the economic uncertainty that has plagued the industry since the dot-com crash and the financial challenges that have cast a pall of gloom over the telecommunication sector worldwide. It also represents a unique chance to take stock of the many exciting opportunities which abound throughout the Asia-Pacific region — still the world’s most buoyant market for fixed, mobile and Internet equipment and services, with growth rates that should see the region account for a full 50 per cent of the global annual telecommunication market by the end of the decade. Located at the heart of Asia’s fastest-growing economies, Hong Kong SAR is also the gateway to the vast potential of the People’s Republic of China — already easily the world’s largest cellular market with more than 185 million subscribers, and on track to become the world’s second largest Internet market by 2005.

ITU Telecom Asia 2002 is hosted by the Government of the People’s Republic of China, and the only regional show that combines a state-of-the-art exhibition and world-class forum, showcasing the very latest equipment and services and bringing together top-level speakers from government and industry to share their vision of Asian telecommunications in the 21st century.

This year’s new ITU Telecom Asia 2002 Forum Programme (available online at www.itu.int/asia2002/forum  ) combines daily opening plenary sessions focused on key issues with three specialized streams.

• Stream A: Investing in the future will cover investment and business issues.

• Stream B: Enabling the future will focus on policy and regulatory issues.

• Stream C: Supporting the future will look at issues related to technology and applications.

The Forum also incorporates a Telecom Development Symposium, a fellowship programme which will bring delegates from the region’s least developed and lowest income countries to Hong Kong to discuss development plans and address emerging issues of importance to their countries or region. Themes for discussion will be:

• Access and future technologies
• Benefits to citizens and society
• Implementation — ICT regulation in the 21st century

The overwhelming success of ITU Telecom’s Youth Forum initiative — held for the first time at ITU Telecom Africa 2001 — will see this event staged at ITU Telecom Asia 2002 as well, inviting two young people from each ITU Member State in the Asia-Pacific region to Hong Kong to visit the show and take part in special interactive Forum sessions. Participants will be chosen via an essay competition, and will have the chance to discuss issues in the areas of Technology; Policy and Regulation and Finance with a wide range of expert panelists. Sponsored by ITU and Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW), this year’s Youth Forum will also incorporate special industry-focused lunchtime sessions sponsored by Cisco Systems, Vodafone, Intelsat and Cable & Wireless Virtual Academy.