Speech by ITU Secretary-General, Dr Hamadoun I. Touré

Closing Remarks

05 June 2014, Manama, Bahrain

Distinguished guests, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure for me personally to have had the chance to participate once again in the GSR.

Those of you who know me know that I am, by nature, a modest man.

But I do not think it is overstating matters if I venture to say that, over the past 15 years, this event has grown into the world's most important and influential meeting of the global ICT regulatory community.

I can say this without being boastful, because it is not because of me that we have achieved such success.

It is not even because of ITU, even though we have an exceptionally talented GSR team, led by Mario Maniewicz, Makhtar Fall and Nancy Sundberg, along with Youlia Lozanova, Christine Sund and Na Demoulin, who are supported by many others too numerous to mention.

No, it is because of YOU, our regulators. It is your engagement, and your expert insights, that make this such a stimulating and rewarding event.

I personally think it is also because of the willingness of our industry counterparts to engage in the GRID programme. This innovation by Brahima Sanou gives us all an invaluable insight into the perspectives of the telcos, the satellite operators, the software developers – and, increasingly, the new breed of players like Facebook and Google, both of which were active participants at this GSR-14.

Ladies and gentlemen,

As you know, this will be my last GSR as Secretary-General of ITU. So it gave me great pleasure on Tuesday night to be able to thank the truly exceptional group of leaders who have served as our GSR Chairs over the past 15 years. Without their skill, expertise and commitment, the GSR could never grown into the outstanding event that it is today.

It remains only for me to extend my warmest thanks to our amazing GSR Chair, Dr Mohammed Alamer, and the host country team led by Mohammed Bubashait, who have not only exceeded all expectations in their organization of GSR-14, but who have been such a pleasure to collaborate with. Thank you all for your commitment, your talent, and your good humour throughout. You have truly made GSR-14 an unforgettable experience.

I congratulate ITU's Director of Telecommunication Development, Brahima Sanou, and hand back to him to close this year's symposium.