APT Preparation for World Telecommunication Development Conference-2006

The fourth World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-06), the highest policy-making Conference at the International Telecommunication Union on telecom development, will take place in Doha, Qatar from 7 to 15th March 2006 at the invitation of the government of Qatar. The conference, to be held for the first time in the Arab States Region, is organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and will be hosted by Qtel, the largest public telecommunication provider in Qatar.

WTDC-06 will bring together ITU’s 189 Member States and nearly 290 development Sector Members, four months after the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society, in a forum to consider projects and programmes related to information and communication technology (ITC) development. It will also provide guidance for the activities of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) for the following four years by establishing ICT development priorities, strategies and plans to bridge the digital divide and create an equitable and inclusive Information Society.

"The WTDC provides an important opportunity for ITU to further its commitment to bringing the benefits of information and communication technologies to all of the world," said Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary-General of ITU. ‘WTDC will be the first global ICT event held after the World Summit on the Information Society and will no doubt give ICT leaders an opportunity to consider practical ways to achieve the WSIS goal of connecting the world by 2015".

ITU will hold five or six regional preparatory meetings leading to WTDC-06. The ITU Regional Preparatory Meeting (RPM) for Asia and the Pacific will be held 8-10 June in Hanoi, Vietnam.

In the previous Development Conferences, the APT has assisted its members in their preparations for the WTDC. For the Doha WTDC, APT has already established a reflector which will assist the members in the preparatory process. APT will cooperate with the ITU for the RPM.After the RPM, members of the APT will work through the e-mail reflector and will also utilise any opportunity for a face to face discussion in the APT meetings scheduled for the year 2005.The common proposals and other relevant output will be submitted to the Conference.

The APT Preparatory meeting for the WTDC was held from 18 to 19 January 2006. Click here for details

Click here for the PRELIMINARY APT COMMON PROPOSAL (PACP)

The APT members are requested to utilise the refelctor system established for the preparation for the WTDC. Please send e-mail to aptict@aptsec.org if you wish to join the reflector.