Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is both a great honor and a pleasure to be here with you today.

I believe that those gathered in this room today share common concerns and common goals. We are concerned with the well-being of our fellow citizens. We have as a common goal the improvement in the quality of life of our nations.

In other words, we would like to see sustained economic and social development in our countries.

In this regard, there is already a widespread awareness that telecommunication infrastructure and services are crucial to achieve such economic development.

More recently, we have come to recognize that improvements in telecommunications—and the economy, as a consequence—are an elusive fantasy without the support of a strong and capable industry-specific regulator. And that is precisely why we are here today.

In recent years, experience has shown that the telecommunication sector was in need of profound reforms. Without it, improvements in the sector and improvements in the economy become less viable.

Developing countries that have opened their telecommunication sector to competition, for example, have expanded their networks twice as fast than those that have kept a monopoly.

Increasing private investment has also had a positive effect. A recent study of 30 developing countries in Africa and Latin America found that private participation in the sector has had a positive impact on network penetration.

However, one of the most interesting findings of the study is that privatization without the presence of an independent and capable regulator has had a negative effect on the pace of network growth.

A similar trend has been found with the opening of markets to competition. The accumulated experience has shown that even in the countries in which a strong, independent, and capable regulator has been set up, it has been difficult to bring to consumers the full benefits often associated with competitive markets.

If the existence of independent and capable regulators is so important for economic development, then what are countries around the world doing in this regard? How many independent regulators are there around the world today?

According to the latest survey carried out by the ITU there were 80 countries—or 42% of all ITU members—that had set up a separate regulatory agency.

And here I would like to call your attention to the fact that I said separate and not independent.

Independence is certainly a fuzzy concept. That is why the Reference Paper under the heading Independent Regulators wisely refers to regulatory bodies that are “separate from and not accountable to”.

If we use the criteria developed by the Reference Paper—that is “the regulatory body is separate from, and not accountable to, any supplier of basic telecommunications services”—then, 95% of those countries that made full commitments to the Reference Paper have already set up a separate regulatory agency.

If the independence of the regulatory agency is the key to a prosperous telecommunication sector, then these figures tell us that we are in the right track, and hopefully in the not so distant future the current 42% of ITU members with a separate regulatory body will rise to 100%.

Yet I would argue that, from the point of view of users and providers of telecommunication services (that is, investors), the independence of the agency is not as important as the transparency of its decision making process, the non-discriminatory nature of its practices, and the professionalism of its actions.

An independent but non-transparent regulator can be influenced to adopt discriminatory, unfair, and anti-competitive practices in favor of one or more of the players in the market. Independence with no transparency can also tempt regulators to abuse the power with which they have been invested.

This is why the Reference Paper correctly emphasize in each of the principles outlined, transparency and non-discrimination as key elements to achieve a sound competitive environment for the provision of services.

What the Reference Paper does not mention, but what is still very important in the context of most developing countries is the professional capabilities and resources of the regulatory agency.

In most developing countries the scarcity of well trained professionals poses problems that are often more acute and pervasive than those posed by the issue of independence—assuming, of course, that the regulator is separate and non-accountable to any supplier of basic telecommunication services.

Distinguished Delegates,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

There is little doubt in the industry today that the existence of an independent, transparent, and capable regulator taking non-discriminatory decisions is essential to the growth of not only the telecommunication sector itself, but that of the national economy at large.

If that is the case, then what are institutions like ours doing to support nations around the world to move in this direction?

The ITU’s Telecom Development Bureau, most commonly known as the BDT, is providing technical assistance to countries that request it. One of the units of the BDT—the sector restructuring Unit—has been specially set up to provide support to developing countries that are in the process of opening their markets to competition, setting up new regulatory agencies, or privatizing their national telecommunication operators.

Let me clarify that since we are an inter-governmental organization we act only when a country puts forward a request for technical assistance in a particular area of their telecommunications sector.

Let me stop here with this brief introduction to our activities in this area. The Director of the BDT, Mr. Hamadoun Touré, is here with us today. During the “Technical Assistance Sources and Needs” session, he will provide you with a more detailed account of what the ITU and, in particular, the BDT is doing and can do for developing nations in this area.

On that note, let me close my remarks by thanking you all for your attention. I hope that this brief overview of the issues at stake will help to enrich and stimulate the forthcoming discussion.

Now let me hand over to our distinguished panel of speakers.