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20 October 2008

Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Dr Hamadoun Toure
Director Telecommunication Standardisation Sector (ITU-T), Mr Malcolm Johnson
Honourable ministers
Heads of delegation
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

On behalf of the people and government of South Africa, I would like to welcome all the ITU member states' delegations, sector members and non-members, captains of the ICT industry and the global community who will be following the Global Standards Symposium through telepresencewebcast on the internet.

A special thanks to the ITU and council for agreeing to have this World Telecommunication Standardisation Assembly (WTSA) hosted on the African continent for the first time and for choosing South Africa as the host. We all feel honoured by the confidence and trust you have placed on us as host and on this continent, to hold such an important event on the ITU calendar.

The fact that for the first time the WTSA will be preceded by this Global Standards Symposium (GSS) is even more poignant for us because this happens at a time that the standardisation development gap has reared its head as disparities between developed and developing counties increasingly confront the world.

The GSS which serves as a roundtable and co-ordination meeting for high level policy discussions, whose conclusions will be provided to WTSA, is a very timeous and important innovative idea as it will be addressing pertinent issues such as:
* Bridging the standardisation gap
* The global standardisation challenges that must be overcome
* How to forge the requisite collaborations to achieve the above, especially when our current reality is one of proliferation of standard making bodies and fora.

Today the reality is that growth of the information communication technology (ICT) sector will mainly be in the developing countries of the world. But the ability of developing countries to influence and contribute to international standards setting is almost nonexistent while the ability to access and implement the standards further widens the digital gap between them and the developed countries.

This GSS and WTSA also happens at a time when the global financial crisis has turned the world into confusion, reminding us painfully of the dotcom bust less than a decade ago, thus forcing us to interrogate our assumptions, our practices and power relations and probably make paradigm shifts.

We therefore expect that leading figures in the Information and Technology field here today from both government and industry will give us their vision of the future. We hope they will suggest policies and ways of addressing the standards gap and of increasing the involvement of developing countries in the development and implementation of the sector's standards.

They will have to address the future challenges that face/will face the standards setting community and the role of the ITU-T in the global standardisation landscape.

But given the rising demand for digital inclusion through accessibility and the reality of climate change, all of which have been made more complex by increasing complexity and rising costs of developing standards, they will be severely challenged to seek new pathways, structures, relations and modes of operation and collaboration etc.

I believe the GSS will provide a suitable platform for the exchange of experiences, and ideas from government, the private sector and civil society. We are thankful that ITU facilitated it. It's very much appreciated.

Our hope is that it will also spur developing countries to interact more amongst themselves and with the ITU to bridge the standardisation gap and to ensure that our vision of information communication technologies (ICTs) for all in an inclusive knowledge society becomes a reality.

I trust that all foreign guests will also have some time to enjoy this wonderful country of ours and we hope to see you again soon– at the 2010 World Cup!

Thank you

Issued by: Department of Communication
20 October 2008
Source: Department of Communication (http://www.doc.gov.za)