The 17th meeting of the Advisory Committee (IAC) of the International Telecommunications Satellite Organisation (ITSO) took place last 7-8 March in the US capital Washington.
This was the first meeting since the current IAC was elected at the 35th Assembly of Parties (AP35). It was attended by 38 delegates representing 17 of the 23 countries comprising the IAC, as well as six countries as observers. Portugal took part for the first time as an effective member (elected at the aforementioned Assembly); it had attended previous meetings as an observer.
The Committee decided to maintain Eleazor Lankoande of Burkina Faso as chair and appointed Ida-Gaye Warburton of Jamaica as vice-chair.
Noteworthy among the various issues discussed was the organisation’s future financing. According to decisions made when Intelsat was reorganised in 2000, Intelsat is meant to finance ITSO starting this year (financial year beginning in July 2013); ITSO and Intelsat should hence negotiate “in good faith” to set the amount of annual financing, bearing in mind the budgets from previous years.
But the negotiations the ITSO director-general (DG) tried to start soon after AP35 in July 2012 have been postponed by Intelsat, which indicated its intention to begin them only in 2013. The first meetings held in the meanwhile were unable to achieve significant progress, with Intelsat showing a great deal of resistance. The IAC members have indicated concern about the delayed definition of ITSO’s financing, given that it should be applied in the second half of this year – there are thus only three months left to finish the negotiations. The DG indicated he was making every effort with a view to using the dispute settlement mechanisms set out in the ITSO instruments, should this become necessary due to a lack of Intelsat collaboration.
The IAC also took note of various financial documents, namely the report from the external auditor for the previous budget period and other account verification documents produced by the external auditor.
The DG also reported on the organisation’s involvement in the Commission on Broadband for Digital Development (promoted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)) and other initiatives in the scope of the ITU, as well as on capacity-building activities.
The IAC should next meet in the last quarter of 2013.
