Mr. Chairman,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to thank the WTO for
inviting the ITU to open this Special Session on Telecommunications today.
I would also like to convey Mr. Yoshio
Utsumi’s apologies , for not being able to be here with you today to make these
opening remarks.
Trade underlies economic growth and
wealth. Without a vibrant and active trading community, societies become stagnant or fall
backwards in their socio-economic development.
Trading activities have become, over
time, heavily reliant on communication services. In the early days, trading routes across
political and geographical borders provided the basis for international trade. . Today,
telecommunication networks are instead the nervous system upon which most global trade
flows every day.
The term “Electronic
commerce” is in some ways a misnomer. It is not really about commercial activities
over electric wires.
Technically, a more precise term would
be “Tele-communications commerce”. Of course, it is not a very catchy term nor I
would use it in a TV add, but one has to recognize that it does reflects more clearly and
precisely what is that we are talking about. That is, trade related transactions over
telecommunications networks.
For this reason, while addressing
issues related to electronic commerce, one should keep in mind that the power of
electronic commerce lies on the power of the Internet. And the Internet is powerless
without an adequate telecommunication infrastructure and services.
In this world of interdependence and
convergence, accumulated evidence shows, however, that telecommunication markets tend to
grow slowly unless they are placed under competitive pressure.
Yet, in a networked market—such as
telecommunications—competition is unlikely to flourish unless it is supported and
encouraged by the presence of a well endowed and capable industry-specific regulator.
Certainly, competition laws and
competition agencies are an alternative to be considered in the coming years.
In most developing nations, however,
the scarcity of competition legislation and competition authorities makes it very
difficult, at this stage, to consider solutions to the challenges laid down by
liberalization, other than the setting up of an independent, professional regulator,
capable of promoting competition in a transparent and fair manner.
The goals and objectives of
telecommunication regulators are, on the other hand, by no means easy to achieve.
Not even in countries where regulators
have gained extensive experience in dealing with competitive markets, has effective
competition progressed as fast as initially expected. The slow evolution of effective
competition in the United States and the United Kingdom are a point in case.
This has led to an increasing awareness
that the most challenging aspects of telecommunications reform is not the opening of
markets to competition or the privatization of stated owned operators, but the setting up
of a well staffed and capable regulatory agency.
With this, I am trying to indicate that
this is the first, but probably not the last meeting of this nature.
We will probably meet again, sometime
in the not so distant future, to review progress and to address new and emerging needs in
this area.
Telecommunication regulators are set to
remain a key to the solution of the trade and development puzzle in the years to come. |
