TRA Announces Details Of UAE Participation In The Upcoming ITU Plenipotentiary Conference

UAE is participating in the upcoming ITU Plenipotentiary Conference, which will be held in the Mexican city of Guadalajara starting from October 4th till 22nd of October 2010.

The (PP) conference that convened every four years, is considered the top policy-making body of the International Union of Telecommunications (ITU), which sets the Union’s general policies, adopts four -year strategic and financial plans for the three main sectors of the ITU (Radio-communications, Standardization and Development) and elects the ITU management team.

The last Plenipotentiary conference was held in the Turkish city of Antalya in 2006, where the UAE was successfully elected for the membership of the ITU Council for the first time. The ITU council comprises of 46 countries from the 192 member states of the International Telecommunication Union.

The successful election of the United Arab Emirates came as a result of the great efforts made by the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA).

These efforts were the bedrock to establish policies and restructure the ICT sector in the UAE. At 2010 (PP10) UAE nominates again for the membership of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Council for the term (2010-2014) as well as the nomination of Engineer Nasser Bin Hammad, Senior Manager of International Affairs at TRA, to the membership of Radio Regulations Board which comprises of 12 members around the word for the term (2010-2014).

Mohammed Nasser Al Ghanim, TRA Director General, commented on the UAE candidacy saying, "We are proud of what we achieved, the UAE re-nomination for the membership of Council comes in a very important phase where all the Member States are looking forward for the coming four years. We need to have a far-reaching clear vision regarding the future of the ICT sector globally, the access to the ICT and spreading ICT education to all over the world especially in the developing countries".

"The re-nomination of the country for the ITU council and membership of the Radio Regulation Board reflects the keenness of the UAE on establishing and strengthening the relations with the specialized international organization as well as to influence these organizations by holding leadership positions," he added.

"The UAE delegation, chaired by the TRA, consists of participants from the UAE Governments Officials, the Armed Forces, Etisalat, du, Thuraya and Al Yah Sat. We have worked together intensively to prepare for the conference in a way that ensures an active and strong participation that leaves a good impression on other countries and shows them the evolution achieved recently in the UAE ICT sector," Al Ghanim said.

The preparation for 2nd term candidacy for the ITU council started in Geneve during the ITU Council Meeting in 2009 where the TRA organized a dinner reception at President Wilson Hotel, honoring the participating delegations in the 2009 ITU Council Meeting. The reception was to rally international support for the UAE re-running for a seat at the ITU Council and for the membership of the RRB at the ITU-R.

In December 2009 the TRA hosted the first Arab group meeting in Dubai entrusted with the preparations for the Plenipotentiary Conference (PP-10) chaired by Eng. Tariq Al Awahdi, the Executive Director of the Spectrum and International Affairs, - the second Arab group meeting was held in Damascus from 19th till 21st July 2010.

The United Arab Emirates is among the few countries with effective partnership in the ITU, it has chaired several Working Groups in the three sectors of the Union; it was selected to chair ITU-T Study Group 13 during World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-08), chaired the drafting group on internet public policy related issues during WTSA-08. It has also chaired many Working Groups at the World Radio-Communications Conference of 2003 and 2007 as well as chaired a working group at the last World Telecommunication Development conference (WTDC-10) and other council working groups.

UAE is currently chairman of Arab Spectrum Management Group and the Arab Group for PP10 Preparation.

The Plenipotentiary Conference this year will discuss on its three-week’s agenda a number of important issues such as "Children Online Protection", "review the amendments of the ITU constitution and convention", "providing ICT to people with special needs", "increase the resources of the Union", "human exposure to electromagnetic energy" and many more topics. Common Arab positions have been formulated to create joint Arab proposals regarding all the issues that will be discussed during the PP10.
 

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