POLICY STATEMENT
MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS
OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA
H.E. Mr. Agum Gumelar

Your Excellency Mr. Nasr Hajji, Secretary of State to the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Morocco,
Mr. Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary General of ITU,
Mr. Roberto Blois, Deputy Secretary General,
Mr. Robert W. Jones, Director Radiocommunication Bureau,
Mr. Houlin Zhao, Director of Telecommunication Standardization Bureau,
Mr. Hamadoun I. Toure, Director of Telecommunication Development Bureau,
Excellencies, Distinguished delegates to the Plenipotentiary Conference 2002,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great honor and pleasure for me and our delegation to be present at this auspicious Plenipotentiary Conference in Marrakesh, Morocco. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Government of the Kingdom of Morocco as the host of this Plenipotentiary Conference and also present our deepest gratitude for your warm welcome and hospitality.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

We would like to note that this Plenipotentiary Conference held in Marrakesh is the first of its kind in the beginning of the twenty-first century. And if we mention the twenty-first century, we are reminded of the historical moment when in 1985 the Maitland Commission pointed out that "…in the next century every mankind should be able to have an easy access to a telephone".

The question is whether we really have reached the stage that the Maitland Commission had guided us.

Each of us here present is now being asked to reply whether we have done sufficiently to reach this goal. Have we done sufficiently to close the gap between the developed and the developing members of ITU?

Indonesia was also a member of this Commission. More challenging for me is that the member of Indonesia, was H.E. Achmad Tahir, then the Minister for Tourism, Posts and Telecommunications. And the hard facts mentioned below indicates that we haven't accomplished our task as had been prescribed by the Maitland Commission.

Although the average telephone density has increased tremendously, there are still so many villages that have no access to a basic telephone. Although the basic telephone gap between among the ITU members has narrowed, however, the digital gap has widened.

Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,

We have to acknowledge, and we should be proud of our efforts since the last ITU Plenipotentiary Conference (Nice, 1989), to improve ITU's effectiveness and to maintain its preeminence as a global standardization body, by restructuring its organization, which ultimately had been confirmed at the Additional Plenipotentiary Conference (Geneva, 1992). Hence, we were able to face the crucial challenge of the telecommunication industry, particularly to avoid the escalation of regional standardization exercises which could undermine not only the harmonious telecommunication development in the developing world but also hamper the global and innovative development of the telecommunication industry.

Presently, a greater challenge lies ahead of us. The challenge is the crucial problems we are going to face with the ever-widening gap of telecommunication facilities among our member countries, as well as between the metropolitan areas and the rural areas - the villages, in many developing countries. We believe that ITU could contribute concretely to this endeavor. Hence, providing a great service to mankind in narrowing this gap by boosting the development in developing countries, particularly its rural areas to the extend that it would induce its own spirally escalating momentum.

However, with its present limited resources ITU will only be able to contribute patchwork in mending the present grave situation. In our opinion ITU needs another restructuring, a second restructuring that enables the ITU to meet the real requirements for telecommunication development in the developing world. The ITU needs innovative initiatives to engage into tangible driving schemes for telecommunication development projects, which would positively sustain economic and national developments in the developing world. Its success would be crowned not only with the enhanced economic growth in the developing countries, however, also with the widening market for the industrialized world.

We all here present would have a share in laying the foundation for this crucial goal and bright future for the global and national telecommunication development. We need a concerted effort to lay the first heavy stones to establish a strong foundation. We need to set aside more resources to succeed, we need to sacrifice more in the initial stages, unless we aggravate it by postponing the unavoidable problems coming in our way, and one day would explode without control and hence we have to pay with a high price in the end.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

We may recall the proposal for by the developing countries for total ITU restructuring at the Plenipotentiary Conference (Nice, 1989). The proposal for that restructuring was initiated by Indonesia (Document 66) and was supported by most of the developing countries. It was a painful experience when the developing countries' far-reaching initiative to improve ITU's structure in the interests of the organization's future was interpreted by the industrialized countries as a blow to their establishment. Even our sincere and logical reasons for rejuvenating ITU to enable CCIR and CCITT to come up with global standards within a minimum period of time - as supported by the then Director of CCITT - were not adequate to change the a priori thinking of the industrialized countries. Indeed, even our proposal to have an additional plenipotentiary conference before the regular one in 1994 (Kyoto) was initially rejected.

The Additional Plenipotentiary Conference (Geneva, 1992) turned out to be a historical milestone, confirming the restructuring of ITU. At the same time, Indonesia provided the first Director of BDT, elected during this historic Plenipotentiary Conference.

Arriving at the present Plenipotentiary Conference, with the second restructuring of ITU in mind, we invite the entire ITU membership to observe that a great challenge lies ahead of us all. This crucial challenge has to do with the fact that if we are unable to find a genuine solution for closing the widening gap between the developed and developing countries in this digital age, the implication is a far-reaching economic imbalance which, so far as development is concerned, would be counter-productive in terms of the welfare and peace of the global community.

All ITU members should agree that the Maitland Commission's conclusion to the effect that in the next century (which is where we now are) every person should be within easy reach of a telephone is still valid and should continue to be acted upon. The importance of digital access for all parts of the globe was re-emphasized during the first Development Conference in 1994 by the then United States Vice-President, Al Gore.

It is our belief that Indonesia with your cooperation would be able to contribute greatly to ITU's present and future development, as we had done in the past, particularly if Indonesia is elected as a council Member. When elected, we will be very pleased to cooperate with all Council Members to intensify ITU's concrete assistance to the developing world, which ultimately would also benefit the developed members.

In the light of the foregoing, we have to address the need for a total revision of ITU-D to enable it to cope with the tremendous challenge faced commonly faced by all the ITU members, developing as well as. The only solution is to establish a more effective ITU-D, with the industrialized world setting aside more resources for the activities of ITU-D, and of BDT in particular, and the developing members to take care more for balancing the development of their rural areas.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I feel that the time has come for all of us to sit together and discuss the problems faced by the all nations. I believe that there may be differences of opinions and therefore it is important for us to listen to each other and to work together in order to reach a conclusion that is reflective of the needs and conditions of all nations.

Thank You.