The 14th meeting of the Telecommunications Development Advisory Group (TDAG) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) was held last 28-30 January in Geneva.
The group, chaired by Vladimir Minkin of Russia, reviewed implementation of the 2008 operational plan and studied the performance of the ITU Development Sector (ITU-D) members - 2008 had seen 26 entities become associated. Also, TDAG was informed of the main activities undertaken by ITU-D in 2008, with particular emphasis on regional initiatives and activities aiming to implement results of the World Summit on the Information Society. The group was also informed that the Connect the World project will continue; plans call for a summit for countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States to be held in November 2009 in Belarus.
In the wake of Japan's proposal for the Study Group meetings to use the automatic translation tool to facilitate discussions, agreement was reached to set up an e-correspondence group with the presidents and participants in the two groups, which should determine the necessary changes for the working methods and specifically whether automatic translation is needed.
During the talks the importance of determining the quantitative and qualitative key project indicators (KPIs) was constantly stressed, which should enable implementation of the operational plan to be gauged. The group was informed that substantial progress has been made and that one of the KPIs will enable the satisfaction of activity and programme beneficiaries to be assessed, as repeatedly requested by the members.
TDAG also considered the preparatory activities for the 2010 World Telecommunications Development Conference (WTDC-10). The participants were asked to send comments by email to the TDAG chairman, with respect to holding a high level segment the day before the Conference starts, to discuss the challenges deriving from the development and role of information and communication technologies in the creation of the information society and the global economy.
Also discussed was a document presented by a number of European countries, among them Portugal, warning of the need for WTDC to be informed about the financial implications of proposals it is asked to approve. Some Arab and African countries argued that such a measure might limit the implementation of important projects and stressed that the budget committee already carried out that task, for which reason the status quo was maintained. Given that the current TDAG working group chairpersons cannot continue to hold office, the following were appointed: as chairperson of the working group on private sector issues, Dominique Wurges (France Telecom, France); and to head the group on human resources development, Simone Scholze (ANATEL, Brazil).
The next TDAG meeting has been scheduled for 23-27 February 2010.
