The objective of the Programme is "to advise the Secretary-General, in an informal manner, on new  topics of a regulatory, policy or other nature of high-current interest which cut across the work of the ITU Sectors, with a view to possible inclusion of these topics in the regular work programme of the Union". The ongoing work under the New Initiatives Programme is reported to the ITU Council on an annual basis.

The topics of the workshops are selected from areas of high current interest by the Secretary-General in consultation with the Member States and Sector Members.

In line with Council Decision 496, the main objective of the workshop is to inform the Secretary-General on the subject of possible new work items for the Union.

In addition, the workshop will serve as a forum for competition and telecommunications policy-makers, national telecommunications regulators, user groups, experts and industry, to exchange information and experiences on the issue of competition policy and law in telecommunications regulation.

Through the discussions, the workshop will also seek to identify key issues with respect to the relationship between competition law and telecommunications regulation. Issues raised might range from the institutional, such as whether competition agencies or national telecommunications regulators are best placed to deal with telecommunication competition issues, to the substantive, such as how relevant markets and significant market power are determined. From these discussions, the workshop will attempt to distil a set of principles or “best practices” that could be used by countries that have recently introduced or are planning to introduce competition into their telecommunication markets, as well as by countries seeking to maintain or increase the level of competition in their markets.