20100906 making south africa a global leader in harnessing icts for socio-economic development...

20100906

Making South Africa a Global Leaderin Harnessing ICTs for Socio-economic Development

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PRESENTATION TO THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON COMMUNICATIONS:

RATIFICATION OF THE FINAL ACTS OF THE ITU PLENIPOTENTIARY CONFERENCE, ANTALYA, TURKEY FROM 6th TO 24th

NOVEMBER 2006

BACKGROUND – ITU

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is the leading United Nations agency providing a platform for the governance of the information and communication technology sector.

The ITU comprises 191 Member States and more than 700 Sector Members (private companies and other institutions) and Associate members. The ITU has 3 core sectors: radiocommunication (ITU-R), telecommunication standardization (ITU-T) and telecommunication development (ITU-D).

The Plenipotentiary( PP) Conference took place in Antalya, Turkey from the 6 – 24 November 2006. The Republic of South Africa signed the Final Acts of PP Conference (Antalya, 2006), subject to approval by competent authorities.

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The ITU Plenipotentiary

Conference

In terms of the ITU constitution, the Plenipotentiary Conference is the supreme organ of the ITU and it is usually convened every four years. Its main functions are:

to decide on the 4 year Strategic and Financial Plans elect the management of the ITU, including the

Secretary-General, Deputy Secretary-General and Directors of the Telecommunications Development Bureau (BDT), the Telecommunications Standardization Bureau (TSB) and the Radiocommunications Bureau.

In addition, the PP Conference also elects Members of the Executive Council and the Radio Regulations Board.

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The Final Acts of the Plenipotentiary

Conference 2006 The Final Acts contains amendments to ITU Constitution

and Convention as well as Resolutions of the Conference. The Chief State Law Adviser: International and the Chief

State Law Adviser at the Department of Justice have indicated that the Final Acts are not in conflict with South African National Legislation, nor with our international treaty obligations

The Chief State Law Adviser: International has indicated that the Final Acts constitute a binding International Treaty and as such must be ratified by Parliament

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Structure of ITU


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Structure (continued)

Article 7 of the Constitution:

Executive Council World Conferences on Telecommunications 3 Sectors of the ITU:

Radiocommunications sector Telecommunication Standardisation Telecommunication Development

The General Secretariat



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Elections

Elections South Africa was re-elected as a member of the Executive Council.

Currently, the ITU Council consists of 46 Member states and the seats are divided into different regions, ensuring seats are distributed according to the number of countries in each region.

For the first time an African was elected to the post of Secretary-General of the ITU. The election of Mr Hamadoun Toure’ of Mali was a reflection of the effective mobilisation of the Africa group during the ITU PP Conference.

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MANDATE OF THE ITU

Article 1 of the Constitution: Purposes of the Union: International cooperation for improvement and

rational use of telecommunications Foster fruitful cooperation and partnership

between entities involved in activities of Union with Member States

Technical assistance for developing countries, and mobilisation of resources, and access to information

Development of technical facilities to improve the efficiency, usefulness and availability of telecommunication services



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Mandate/2

Cooperation with other world and regional intergovernmental organisations and NGOs with respect to role of telecommunications in global information economy and society

Allocation of radio-frequency spectrum bands, allotment of radio-frequencys, registration, orbital positions of satellites, avoiding interference between countries

Eliminate harmful interference between radio-stations and improve the use of radio frequency spectrum

International standardisation of telecommunications



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Mandate/3 International cooperation and solidarity for

technical assistance to developing countries and creation, development and improvement of telecoms

Harmonise development of telecommunication facilities

Collaboration for affordable telecommunications Safety of life Undertake studies, adopt resolutions and

recommendations and regulations Social projects for underserviced areas Promote participation in activities of the union



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Key Outcomes on the Final Acts cont…

International Telecommunications Regulations It was agreed to review the International Telecommunications

Regulations (ITRs), through a World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) to be convened in 2012, which is a treaty level conference.

The ITRs deal with the definition of international telecommunication services; cooperation between countries and national administrations; safety of life and priority of telecommunications; and charging and accounting principles.

South Africa supported the resolution, as the issue is important to many developing countries, and the regulations have not been updated since 1988. Since then there has been an explosion of activity in the ICT sector in terms of technology and infrastructure development, and demand for ICT based services.



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Key Outcomes on the Final Acts cont…

Internet Issues The Conference adopted new/revised resolutions on IP-

based networks; the role of Member States in the management of internationalized domain names; and the ITU’s role with regard to international public policy issues pertaining to the internet and the management of internet resources, including domain names and addresses. These resolutions put into practice some of the decisions taken at the World Summit on the Information Society.

Strengthening the role of ITU in building confidence and security in the use of ICTs

This resolution called on the ITU to assess and address existing and future threats in order to build confidence and security in the use of ICTs. The ITU is also instructed to facilitate access to tools to assist in enhancing confidence and security in the use of ICTs for all Member States.

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Key Outcomes continued

Strengthening Regional presence A revised resolution required an evaluation for strengthening the

ITU regional presence, and a review to meet the evolving requirements and priorities of each region.

Contributory Units for Member States The Conference increased the size of the contributory unit from

318,000 Swiss Francs to 330,000, for the years 2008-2011. In addition, Member States were requested to indicate their respective classes of contribution (number of contributory units) for their forthcoming subscriptions to the ITU. South Africa elected to increase its number of contributory units, from three to four.

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20100906 making south africa a global leader in harnessing icts for socio-economic development...

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