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ITU-D/1/REP/020-E
/ INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNIONTELECOMMUNICATION
DEVELOPMENT BUREAU
itu-d study groups / Document 1/REP/20-E
5 November 2007
Original: English
SECOND MEETING OF ITU-D STUDY GROUP 1: GENEVA, 18-21 SEPTEMBER 2007
SECOND MEETING OF ITU-D STUDY GROUP 2: GENEVA, 24-27 SEPTEMBER 2007
STUDY GROUP 1
SOURCE:CHAIRMAN OF ITU-D STUDY GROUP 1
TITLE:REPORT OF THE SECOND MEETING OF STUDY GROUP 1, GENEVA, 1821SEPTEMBER 2007
1.Opening of the meeting
The second meeting of the fourth study period of ITU-D Study Group 1 took place in Geneva from 18 to 21 September 2007, in the six working languages of the ITU. It was attended by 118participants from MemberStates and Sector Members, representing 56 countries and 2 regional or international organizations.36 of the participants were women.
The list of participants can be found on the web at the following address:
1.1Introductory remarks by the Chairman of Study Group 1
The Chairman of ITU-D Study Group 1 Mrs. Audrey Loridan-Baudrier opened the meeting, welcomed all attendees and noted with pleasure that participation was quite high in number, showing the renewed interest that MemberStates and ITU-D Sector Members have for the ITU-D Study Groups. She then welcomed the Vice-Chairmen, the Rapporteurs and the Vice-Rapporteurs.
She projected on the screen the following chart showing the progression of contributions to the ITU-D Study Group meetings.
ITU-D Study Group 1 had 51 contributions in 2006 and 77 contributions this year 2007. This figure shows a 50% growth if compared with the year 2006.
Mrs. Loridan-Baudrier then projected a diagram showing the number of contributions received in 2006 and 2007 for each Study Group 1 Question.
She thanked BDT Counsellor and Focal Points for the various Questions for the number and quality of the contributions submitted.
She mentioned the two Seminars which took place on 17 September 2007 on matters relevant to Questions 20/1 and 22/1 and thanked the Rapporteurs for these two Questions, respectively Mrs.Clara-Luz Álvarez and Mr. James Ennis, and the BDT Focal Points for the success obtained. She encouraged the Rapporteurs for the other Questions to continue in this successful initiative for the forthcoming years.
Mrs. Loridan-Baudrier thanked all Rapporteurs for the work accomplished during this year.
1.2Opening address by the Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau
The Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau, Mr. Sami Al-Basheer Al Morsheed, welcomed all delegates. Being the first time he participated to an ITU-D Study Group meeting as Director of BDT, he welcomed all participants and expressed his congratulation to the Chairman Mrs. Loridan-Baudrier for her competence and rigor.
He informed the participants that the Administration of Venezuela informed BDT that the Vice-Chairman of ITU-D Study Group 1, Mrs. Layla Macc Adan, had left ANATEL and that Venezuela had submitted a new candidate to serve as Vice-Chairman. He thanked the Administration of Venezuela for its commitment to the work of the Study Groups.
The BDT Director also informed that, due to the unavailability of Mr. Cheng from China to continue in his role as Rapporteur for Question 21/1, Mr. Haman from Cameroon, who is also Vice-Chairman of the Study Group, was identified as possible Rapporteur for the Question. Mr. Haman already started working and the meeting will examine two documents containing his proposals.
Since 2006 considerable progress has been made in all the Questions. For Questions 18-1/1 and 22/1, thanks to the dynamic work of the Rapporteurs, draft reports are submitted to the appreciation and comments of the meeting.
Since the last Study Group 1 meeting questionnaires were sent for three Questions. The BDT Secretariat developed a new system to answer questionnaires on line, and all participants are encouraged to use it in future. The BDT Director also underlined the continuous close collaboration between the ITU-D Study Group Counsellor and the BDT Focal Points for the different Questions.
Two seminars were organized on 17 September 2007on "Best practices on cyber security and on "Access to ICT for people with disabilities". These seminars, both very successful, stressed the importance of a good synergy between BDT Programmes and activities and the ITU-D Study Groups. He thanked again the Rapporteurs and the Administrations supporting them.
He concluded stressing his confidence that the forthcoming four-days meeting would be extremely useful and thanked again all participants.
The opening speech of Mr. Al-Basheer is attached in Annex 1.
2. Approval of the draft Agenda and the tentative schedule (Documents 1/OJ/011(Rev. 1) and 1/ADM/004(Rev. 1))
The draft Agenda (Annex 2) contained in Document 1/OJ/011(Rev. 1) was approved.
The Russian delegation requested why some of the documents were not translated in the six official ITU languages and the BDT Secretariat informed that, according to Resolution 1 (Doha, 2006) only documents for action, which reached the Secretariat at least 60 days before the meeting are translated. Delayed documents, as well as liaison statements and information documents, are published in the original language only.
The Chairman of Study Group 2 confirmed the WTDC-06 rules and informed that, following Council decision, TDAG and the advisory bodies of the other two Sectors are called upon to give guidance regarding translations. The issue will be handled in detail in 2008 and works will still go on with temporary measures until next year.
The BDT Secretariat introduced Document 1/ADM/005 containing the Allocation of documents to the various Questions and mentioned the delayed documents to be added to the list.
The final list of documents can be found at the following address:
3. Approval of the Report of the last meeting (Document 1/REP/010)
The BDT Secretariat informed that the Report of the last ITU-D Study Group 1 meeting was sent with Administrative Circular CA/05 STG of 6 December 2006 and that no comments were received.
The document wastherefore approved.
4.Matters arising from the last TDAG meeting (18-20 April 2007)
(Documents TDAG 0712/05, 26, 28, 32 and 38)
The BDT Secretariat informed the meeting about the decisions taken by the last TDAG meeting about Study Group matters. In particular, the importance to avoid changing the dates of Rapporteur’s Group meetings once established and to respect deadlines for submission of contributions and fellowship forms were stressed, and a proposal to cluster Rapporteur's Group meeting dates in the same period was madewith the aim of allowing more participants to come to Geneva for more than one meeting.
TDAG endorsed in principle these proposals, but left the final decision to the Joint Management Team meeting of the two ITU-D Study Groups, to be held on 21 September 2007.
The Study Group 1 Chairman expressed her intention to make a report to inform next TDAG on Study Group1 activities.
5.Matters arising from the last Council meeting (4-14 September 2007) with relevance to the work of the Study Groups
The BDT Secretariat informed the meeting that the ITU Council (Geneva, 4-14 September 2007) approved the 2008-2009 biannual budget, foreseeing an amount of CHF 1.183.000 for both ITU-D Study Groups for the biennium.
6.Appointment of a new Vice-Chairman for Study Group 1 and of a new Rapporteur for Question 21/1 (Document 1/111(Rev. 1))
The Study Group 1 Chairman informed the meeting that, as anticipated by the BDT Director, the Administration of Venezuela communicated that the Vice-Chairman of ITU-D Study Group 1, Mrs.Layla Macc Adan, had left ANATEL and that Venezuela had submitted the candidature of the General Director of International Affairs Mrs. María Dolores Peña to serve as new Vice-Chairman for the Americas region. Mrs. Peña was in Geneva the week before the meeting to participate in the ITU Council but had to go back to Caracas.
The appointment of Mrs. Peña was approved by the meeting.
The representative of Venezuela excused Mrs. Peña for not being present in the meeting and thanked the participants for her appointment.
The Chairman thanked Venezuela for its commitment to the work of Study Group 1 and requested the delegation of Venezuela to convey the welcome of all the Study Group to Mrs. Peña in her new responsibilities.
Mrs. Loridan-Baudrier then informed the meeting that, due to the unavailability of Mr. Cheng from China to continue in his role as Rapporteur for Question 21/1, Mr. Haman from Cameroon was identified as possible Rapporteur for the Question. Mr. Haman, who is also Vice-Chairman of ITUD Study Group 1, already started working, chaired the Rapporteur’s Group meeting and submitted proposals for the work of his Group.
The meeting approved the appointment of Mr. Haman. The Chairman thanked Mr. Haman and the Administration of Cameroon and invited all participants interested in the study of Question 21/1 to contact the new Rapporteur.
Mr. Chen of the Administration of China complimented Mr. Haman and stressed his intention to continue working as Vice-Rapporteur for the Question, which is of high interest to China.
The list of the Study Group 1 Management Team can be found at the following web address:
7.Management of Study Group 1 activities
7.1.Matters arising from the new BDT structure
The Chairman referred to the new BDT structure. She said that with this new structure, with two Counsellors, one for each Study Group, responding to two different Departments, and with all the logistic aspects of the organization of the meeting centralized in a single Unit for all the BDT, the Study Groups are more linked and dependant from the other BDT Departments.
Mrs. Loridan-Baudrier informed that her intention was to meet in the forthcoming months with all the BDT Units concerned with the Study Group activities, in particular with the Unit dealing with the BDT Web site, in order to update the Study Groups Web site and make it more attractive and graphically in line with the rest of the ITU and BDT sites.
She said that she would like to draw for the future meetings a reporting table showing participation and number of contributions per meeting and per Question, in order to have a clear idea of the progression of the activities and to bring to the next WTDC a complete picture and a detailed activity report.
The Chairman said that she really wished and was confident that the new BDT structure be benefic for the Study Group 1 activities.
The representative of the Polytechnic School Bucharest Association requested the BDT Director to have the chart of the new BDT structure, with the names of the heads of the various Departments. The BDT Director said that the postage on the Web of the new structure was delayed waiting for final approval by Council. Now that Council has approved, not only the BDT, but all the ITU new structure, the chart will be published on the Web.
7.2.Management of the Rapporteur's Group activities(Document 1/111(Rev. 1))
The Chairman mentioned Document 1/111, which will be amended with the names of the new Vice-Chairman, the new Rapporteur for Question 21/1 and the new BDT Focal Points following the modifications in the BDT structure. The new list of Chairman, Vice-Chairmen, Rapporteurs, Vice-Rapporteurs and BDT Focal Point can be found in Document 1/111 (Rev. 1) at the following web address: .
All Rapporteur’s Groups decided to hold a meeting in the period from February to May 2008, trying to cluster meetings and in agreement with the Rapporteur’s Groups of Study Group 2. As a trial, a minimum of ten participants and of five contributions, among which one from the Rapporteur and one from the BDT Focal Point, will be requested to hold a physical meeting. Otherwise, electronic meetings will be organized. The invitations to Rapporteur’s Groups meetings will be sent to all MemberStates, Sector Members and Study Group 1 participants and will not be limited, as it was the case in the past, to the participants who showed their specific interest for a given Question.
Contributions shall be of a maximum of five pages and focus on the essential. Rapporteur’s final reports shall be limited to fifty pages and will possibly contain annexes that will be published in the original language or translated in English only.
8.Study of the relevant input documents (1/090)
The BDT Secretariat introduced Document 1/090 containing “Best Practice Guidelines for Next-Generation Networks (NGNs) Migration”approved by the regulators participating in the 2007 Global Symposium for Regulators (Dubai, 57February 2007).
The Chairman invited all Rapporteurs to consider this important document for the study of their Questions.
9.Tentative work plan
The Chairman said that the Joint Management Team meeting would decide if the Study Group meetings would go back to a duration of five days from 2008, and proposed that for Study Group 1 the first meeting day be used to repeat the successful experience of this year, with two Seminars organized in close collaboration with the BDT Programmes on two specific Questions.
The Chairman of Study Group 2 stressed that seminars and workshops are part of the activities of the Programmes and their cost does not have to be charged to the Study Groups.
The Chairman of Study Group 1 said that the experience of this year and the two Seminars organized in the past by BDT Programme 1 together with the Rapporteur’s Group on Question181/1 show that Seminars and Study Groups activities can be successfully organized back to back.
10.Coordination with Study Group 2 and the relevant Programmes of Doha Action Plan (DAP)
The Chairman underlined the very good collaboration of the ITU-D Study Groups with the BDT Programmes. Example of this are the two Seminars held on 17 September, for which she thanked the representatives of BDT Programme 3 and of the BDT Special Initiatives Department. She added that the Rapporteurs’ Groups should be informed ahead of time of the activities of Programmes in order to let them to participate in.
An even strengthened cooperation of the Rapporteurs and the Study Group Secretariat is needed with all BDT Focal Points and the BDT Focal Points for Action Lines C2 and C5 of the WSIS.
There is a need for the Rapporteurs to maintain constant contact with the BDT Focal Points. She mentioned as an example the Regional meeting on Telecommunication Services for Persons with Disabilities, which will be held in Cairo from 13 to 15 November 2007.
The Chairman also invited the Rapporteurs, at least those working for their national Administration, to use G-Rex, a very useful mean of exchange of information by which the Rapporteurs could give their support to people requesting help and could also find useful material for the study of their Questions. Both BDT and the Study Groups can take advantage from this collaboration. It is possible to subscribe to G-Rex at the following web address:
Mrs. Loridan-Baudrier said that the contact with the Chairman of ITU-D Study Group 2 Mr.Kisrawi is constant and she thanked him for the very good cooperation.
11.Cooperation with other Sectors, including liaison statements (Document 1/091)
The Chairman observed with pleasure that ITU-T is more and more involved in the problems dealt with by developing countries. Example of this interest is Document 1/091 containing a Liaison Statementfrom TSAG to TDAG and ITU-D and ITU-T Study Groups on ITU-T activities on bridging the standardization gap.
The representative of TSB, Mr. Tim Kelly, made a presentation of the document. He reminded that, following a Council decision, the ITU-T Recommendations are now free of charge on line. Many of these Recommendations have been downloaded in the last trial year in developing countries. Also, several ITU-T Study Group meetings were held in developing countries, and this situation increasedthe number of contributions from developing countries, particularly from China.
The representative of Tanzania thanked TSB for the presentation which stimulates developing countries to participate in the work of the other Sectors. However, she emphasized the financial difficulties that developing countries encounter in allowing this participation and requested BDT to assist granting fellowships. She also encouraged the idea of having regional meetings to widen the participations.
The Chairman requested TSB to invite ITU-D Study Group Rapporteurs to participate in their meetings.
The Chairman stressed the importance to make more promotion of the Study Group 1 workstowards the World Bank, the European Commission andthe OECD in systematically sending the reports of the Study Questions (CD-Rom or paper), even by creating ane-mail newsletter announcing the meetings, the seminars of the Rapporteurs Groups, etc.
12.Approval of the reports of the Rapporteur’s Group meetings