ICPE participated at the Meeting of Telecommunication Development Advisory Group (TDAG) of the ITU-D Sector

The 18^th Meeting of TDAG was held from the 11-13 December 2013 at the ITU Headquarters in Geneva, with participation of more than 120 delegates from the ITU Member States, ITU-D Sector Members and other international organizations. It was the last preparatory meeting before World Telecommunication Conference (WTDC 2014), which will take place in UAE from 31^st March to 11^th April 2014. In this TDAG meeting was analyzed the Hyderabad Action Plan (HAP) adopted in WTDC 2010 held in Hyderabad (India), which defined the mandate for the activities of the ITU Development Sector (ITU-D) during the 2011-2014 period. Generally, ITU-D activities are aimed at fostering the broad availability and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as catalyst to attain the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as assisting countries to meet the outcomes and targets of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Among different resolutions and regional reports, it was presented/discussed very important objectives: International Co-operation, ICT Infrastructure Development, Cybersecurity & ICT Application Deployment, Enabling Environment Enhancement, Human capacity building and digital inclusion as well as Special assistance, emergency telecommunications and climate change. It was also presented the Performance Report for 2012 as well as mid-year Performance Report for 2013 with details relating to the implementation of the ITU-D operational plan.

Source: ITU photos on Flickr

Source: ITU photos on Flickr

On behalf of ICPE this Meeting attended Mr. Nenad Stankovic, ICPE Representative in Vienna. Mr. Stankovic also realized official visits to ITU (International Telecommunication Union), UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development), ITC (International Trade Center) and ILO (International Labour Organization).

During his visit to ITU, Mr. Stankovic met Dr. Hamadoun I. Toure, Secretary-General of ITU, Mr. Houlin Zhao, Deputy Secretary-General of ITU, Mr. Malcolm Johnson, Director of ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau and Mr. Brahima Sanou, Director of ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau. In discussion with those ITU high-level officials, he presented ICPE Programmes/activities, informed about ICPE efforts to refresh some projects and underlined the high level of importance which ICPE is giving to the cooperation with international organizations in different technical-economic fields, including different kind of trainings, knowledge management, transfer of technology and human capacity buildings. After active and very successful discussions Dr. Toure, Mr. Zhao, Mr. Johnson and Mr. Sanou appreciated the meeting with Mr. Stankovic and re-confirmed interest for co-operation with ICPE. In addition, Mr. Stankovic met Mr. Jaroslaw Ponder, Coordinator for Europe Region and Mr. Bilel Jamoussi, Chief of the Study Groups Department of the TSB, with who was discussed concrete activities and modalities for mutual co-operation.

(From left) Mr. Nenad Stankovic and Mr. Jaroslaw Ponder

During his visit to UNCTAD, Mr. Stankovic met Mr. Guillermo Valles, Director of Division on Internal Trade in Goods and Services, and Commodities and Mr. Torbjörn Fredriksson, Chief of ICT Analysis Section, Science, Technology and ICT branch. In this very efficient and fruitful meeting it was discussed possibility for creating specific mutual programs and organizing trainings in area of the non-tariff measures (NTM) as the very important issue in the present trade world. It was agreed to intensify exchanging of information with aim to define the most appropriate proposal for co-operation.

Mr. Stankovic also had opportunity to met Mr. Rajesh Aggarwal, Chief of the Business and Trade Policy in ITC and Ms. Elena Boutrimova, Chief of the Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia in ITC as well as Mr. Markus Pilgrim, Manager of the Small Enterprise Programme in ILO. In all those meetings it was discussed possibility to develop projects and mutual activities, based on the real needs and expressed interest of the member states. It was agreed that dialog will be continued.