Res Communis

Ghana holds chairmanship of ITU Council for 2009-2010

by P.J. Blount with the blog faculty

From the ITU:

Ghana holds chairmanship of ITU Council for 2009-2010
India to host ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference in 2010

Geneva, 20 October 2009 — ITU’s governing body, the Council comprising of 46 Member States, began its annual session today. The Council will review and approve ITU’s biennial budget for 2010-2011 and focus on issues related to implementing the Union’s strategic plan, with the objective of responding to the current demands of a dynamic, rapidly changing telecommunications and ICT environment.

At the opening plenary meeting, Ghana took over the rotating chairmanship from Bulgaria. Mr Haruna Iddrisu, Member of Parliament and Minister of Communications of Ghana, said, “Ghana is committed to the ideals and values of ITU. Our major task is to bridge the digital divide. We must set the tone and agenda on how to strengthen regulatory practices, address issues related to convergence and ensure the smooth functioning of the Internet. We must also address the key challenges of our times, such as harnessing the power of ICTs to combat climate change. At the same time, we must focus on the issues affecting developing countries: how they can build capacity and attract investment in order to achieve the connectivity targets set by the World Summit on the Information Society and meet the 2015 Millennium Development Goals.”

Outgoing Chairman, Plamen Vatchkov of Bulgaria expressed his appreciation of the challenges addressed by ITU and its membership during his tenure. He said, “In the past year we addressed the challenges of strengthening cybersecurity, in particular protecting children online, as well as climate change and emergency communications. The year was marked by a severe economic downturn, but the ICT sector has weathered the storm well. I am confident that ITU, as the leading intergovernmental body for telecommunications and ICT, will continue to support all its stakeholders.”

“This has been a very successful year in raising ITU’s profile on the international stage,” ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré said in his opening remarks at the Council meeting. “ITU has demonstrated that information and communication technologies are vital and beneficial in addressing each and every one of the global issues faced today, particularly in the key areas of climate change, cybersecurity, and the financial crisis — areas where ICTs are now clearly recognized as being part of the solution, not part of the problem.” Dr Touré added that next year “promises to be as exciting as ITU continues to drive and influence the rapidly changing ICT landscape”.

The ITU Council will be in session until 30 October.