Regional Preparatory Meeting for WTDC-21- Americas (RPM-AMS)
Closing Remarks
Ms Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director,
ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau
27 April 2021
Hon Diego Carrillo, Communications Vice minister of Peru and Chairman of the RPM,
Hon Vice Chairpersons,
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,
First, I would like to thank you, Hon Carrillo for your leadership and for doing an excellent job in chairing the event over these two days.
I also would like to recognise the invaluable contributions of your vice-chairs and everyone else who was involved in making this event a great success.
As we conclude our final Regional Preparatory Meeting with a productive two days, we can be proud of the progress we have made already towards the WTDC.
In this preparatory meeting we had: 252 registered delegate; nearly 150 registered delegates from 26 Member States of the Americas region and; over 100 representatives from academia, NGOs, regional organizations and other agencies.
It was also notable that more than 40% of registered participants were women. We're almost there, but need to make sure we continue to work hard to get to full gender parity.
We also received 13 contributions and 3 information documents in this meeting.
Together, the region was able to set some common regional priorities around:
- Deployment of modern, resilient, secure and sustainable telecommunication/ICT infrastructure.
- Enhancement and expansion of digital literacy, skills and inclusion programs, especially among vulnerable populations.
- Effective support for the digital transformation and innovation ecosystems in the Americas through scalable, funded and sustainable connectivity projects.
- Development of enabling policy and regulatory environments to connect the unconnected through accessible and affordable telecommunications/ICTs that support the achievement of SDGs and progress towards the digital economy.
We recognize that the region will continue to hold discussions and collaboratively identify programmes that will help deliver on the region's needs.
The Regional Digital Trends report was found to be quite useful in providing an up-to-date overview of the regions' progress in its priorities for the past 4 years concerning connectivity, Giga, cybersecurity, AI, IOT and 5G, among others.
It was noted that the COVID pandemic has accelerated the need for digital transformation.
The side events—the Generation Connect Americas Youth Group, and i-Codi, directed important attention on the need for an inclusive and collaborative approach as we advance our work. We also just launched the Network of Women for the WTDC in the Americas region.
I believe the network will boost the participation of women in the ITU-D activities and promote the gender inclusivity in the sector.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Because of your active participation and constructive contributions, The WTDC outcome will be that much more meaningful and impactful in our mission to connect the unconnected,
We are still working out plans with the Government of Ethiopia, and we will continue to keep you updated.
Before I close, let me again thank you and your team, Hon Vice Minister Carrillo for your tremendous support to the ITU. You always have a special place with us here at ITU.
A special thanks to my own team, starting with our Director, Bruno Ramos, and all our colleagues at the ITU Regional and area Offices for the Americas, and of course the team at ITU headquarters (including our colleagues from the Radiocommunications and Standardization bureaux), our colleagues from the other 5 regions that also followed the sessions, and our captioners and interpreters.
Thank you. Until we meet again, stay safe and stay healthy.
