Serving ITU is serving humanity

All over the world today, telecommunications and information technologies move at an incredible pace which becomes more and more difficult to catch up with and control. In this context, the main idea on which all the countries have agreed is to offer these ever-evolving technologies to the use of humankind under equal opportunities and conditions. However, the need for single-handed conduct of such a mission has always been felt along with an authority to coordinate. That authority has been ITU for years. It has been very successful in performing its task, and the success it has achieved has been continued into the new millennium as well.

ITU's roots date back to the establishment of the International Telegraph Union, of which the Convention was signed in 1865 by 20 founding Members including Turkey. The Ottoman Empire had participated actively in the work for the establishment of the Union. Despite Turkey's continuous participation in relevant ITU activities for over a period of 135 years, the country had not made a significant contribution until the year 2000 when we hosted the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-2000) in Istanbul. Hosting the third World Telecommunication Development Conference, or WTDC-02, is the second important contribution that Turkey will make to ITU.

WRC-2000 was organized by Turkey's main telecommunications operator, Türk Telekom, of which I happened to be the Director General at that time. Remarkable developments have taken place in the field of telecommunications in Turkey since then. One of them is the establishment of the Telecommunications Authority as the independent regulatory body. This time, WTDC-02 is being hosted by the Telecommunications Authority, of which the Presidency is held by myself. Both events are sources of pride for my country.

In full consciousness of the fact that serving ITU is serving humanity, Turkey has already taken action for the third important contribution to ITU. Now, we wish to serve it as a member of the ITU Council which we, unfortunately, could not have the opportunity to serve over a period of 50 years. Among our other wishes are to make further contributions and host some of the ITU's future activities in Turkey again.

Trusting that WTDC-02 will contribute much to all the world's inhabitants, to the world telecommunication sector and especially to the telecommunication needs of the least developed countries, I wish the delegates a very successful and fruitful conference.

Fatih Mehmet Yurdal
President of the Telecommunications Authority
Republic of Turkey