The 17th Plenipotentiary conference (PP-06) of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has opened at the Vega Convention Centre in Antalya, Turkey, with around 2000 participants, representing over 180 countries.
The inauguration ceremony, which was held on 6 November, was attended by the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdo?an and the Turkish Minister of Transport, Binali Y?ld?r?m, who highlighted the fact that in Turkey there are already over 19 million fixed telephone lines and around 16 million internet users.
The opening session of PP-06 was also addressed by the ITU Secretary General, Yoshio Utsumi, who underlined the Union’s key accomplishments during his mandate, including the increased participation of the private sector, the implementation of efficiency measures and the operational plan, and the involvement of the ITU in the World Summit for the Information Society.
The following summary can be made of the work of the first week of PP-06:
Bringing forward of the electoral process
A European proposal was approved on the first day to bring the elections forward – accordingly the process will begin on the fourth day of the conference with the election of the Union’s Secretary General.
PP-06 structure and Chairmanships
At the start of the week’s work approval was given to the structure of the conference, the presidency and of each committee and working group of the plenary. Accordingly T. Çataltepe of Turkey was nominated as Conference Chairperson, and D. Gross (United States), H. Chono (Japan), M. J. Mulla (Saudi Arabia), P. Mvouo (Congo), L. Reiman (Russian Federation), and K. Smaaland (Norway) as Vice-Chairpersons..
Start of work/first decisions
During the first days of the conference, the various committees started with the presentation of proposals from the countries and regional organisation. The following proposals have been adopted at committee level (being then subject to ratification by the Plenary): The proposals to strike Resolutions 85 (Evaluation of the administrative due diligence procedure for satellite networks defined by WRC-97), 87 (Role of the notifying administration in the case of an administration notifying on behalf of a named group of administrations), 106 (revision of the ITU structure) and 117 (Regional Radiocommunication Conference for the planning of the terrestrial digital broadcasting service). All these proposals are essentially of an editorial nature and include Common European Proposals (CEP) in parallel to proposals of other regions.
Decisions Taken/ confirmed by Plenary
20 November was set as the date by which the class of contribution chosen by each Member State should be announced. The provisional contribution unit, for the purpose of preparing the financial plan, has been maintained at its current value of 318,000 Swiss Francs – of the foreseen options this corresponds to the lowest value. Members may increase their contributions in order to alleviate the ITU’s difficult financial situation, if they so wish.
Elections
M. Touré (Mali) has been elected to the post of Secretary General of the ITU for the period 2009-2011. He is currently the Director of the Telecommunications Development Bureau (BDT)
H. Zhao (China) has been elected to the post of Deputy -Secretary General, winning in the first round with 93 votes, while V. Timofeev (Russia) has been elected to the post of Director of the Radiocommunication Bureau, also in the first round and with 158 votes.
Consult:
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Elections
(PDF 73 KB)
See also:
- Structure and Chairmanships of the PP-06 Committees https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=217762
Further information:
- ITU (PP-06) http://www.itu.int/plenipotentiary/2006/index.html
Related information on ANACOM's website:
- PP-06 https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=283295
