Page 8 - DIVA_1_2012

Dr Hamadcoun I. Toure", Secretary-General of the

International Telecommunication Union (ITU)

Q: Mr Secretary-General, you that knowledge of science consisted of at home, in your office or in the enter-
have a very nice statue on your being able to explain things in a very tainment industry without ICT tools.
desk. 'What is it? simple manner. I believe that this has You could not imagine hospitals or
been the trigger. In addition, we have schools without ICTs. Therefore, these
This is the latest Emmy Award that been lucky that we are able to make tools have become important for all of
the ITU received from the U.S. Na- more use of the information and com- us. We have focused over the last years
tional Academy of Television Arts munication technologies (ICTs) tools on the importance of broadband take-
and Sciences at the 2012 Consumer that we are promoting ourselves. We up for every country. I would like to
Electronics Show on 12 January 2012 are using them internally to improve see that every nation all over the world
in Las Vegas for the "Standardiza- the work of the ITU, to achieve more has a national broadband plan that will
tion of Loudness Metering for Use in transparency, more efficiency in the not only develop the infrastructure but
Broadcast Audio". This is the second also develop the content, so that the
Emmy Award that we have received for applications are endorsed. ICTs are
technologies we have put in place, and linked to job-creation today. It's the
was received by the ITU Radio Com- only industry which is creating new
munication Bureau for having standar- jobs, and this is the reason why it's so
dized a sound system. It was a major important for many countries.
achievement.
We have also been able to combine
Three years ago we received an Emmy public and private sector interests in
Award for the H-Technology 264, the ITU. We are the oldest organization
which is a decoding system for video. in the UN family, dating back to 1865,
When you look, for instance, at an iPad, but we are also the only one that has
this is the technology that gives you 700 private companies working hand in
high resolution on the screen. hand with the 193 Member States. This
is a fantastic combination.
We are very proud of the work being
done here at the ITU and which is reco- work we are doing and more energy Q: You are the only one linking
gnized worldwide. It has taken years to saving. We are creating a paper-less private/public partnerships?
develop collaboration with companies environment using ICTs; we are using
and research laboratories, who may all these tools to manage the organiza- Other organizations are also doing
even be our competitors. tion -- even a new accounting system. it, but it has been at the root of the
This has brought so much transparency ITU since the beginning, and there-
Q: Under your helmsmanship, do to the work of the ITU that our mem- fore there is no opposition between
you feel that the ITU has grown bers have placed trust in me and they the public and the private sector.
and that its importance in the in- are putting their money into the orga- There is a good understanding of each
ternational community has been nization. We have a balanced budget other's roles. The public sector plays
reinforced? for the fourth year in a row without as- the role of putting the right legal fra-
king for additional contributions from mework in place, and the private sector
The organization has made some very Member States. This has increased the invests in the infrastructure and the
good progress over the past few years. credibility of the ITU. services. Of course, they are making
I was able to bring the technical mes- profits -- but there is nothing wrong
sage to the level of politicians and or- But most importantly, the ICTs with with that! The two are really comple-
dinary people, so that they know the which we are dealing have been at the mentary and it works very well. This is
work that is being carried out on these centre of everything that we are dealing the reason why we have the growth that
important issues. Einstein used to say with today. You could not imagine life we see today.

6 International