Bamako 2002 Conference

SOMMET MONDIAL SUR LA SOCIETE DE L'INFORMATION

CONFERENCE REGIONALE AFRICAINE

(Bamako 28-30 mai 2002)

Cérémonie d'ouverture

Yoshio Utsumi
Secretary-General
International Telecommunication Union

Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a pleasure for me to join you in Bamako. Last week I took part in an ITU workshop in Korea and then spent a day in my home in Japan, where the World Cup of football is about to begin. For the first time ever, five African nations will be competing, including Cameroon and Senegal who contested the final of the African Cup of Nations held here in Mali a few months ago. They have traveled from Bamako to Korea and Japan, but I, unfortunately without seeing their games, have come here in the opposite direction!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are at a turning point in the history of Africa and of the world. A wave of change is sweeping through the world that has come to be known as the Information Society. The changes will be just as profound as those that produced the industrial society in the 19th century. Skills in information-handling are now required in most jobs in modern societies and access to information is seen as a route to wealth and power.

But in many countries of the world, including here in Africa, information poverty is still the reality. We must find a way to climb aboard this information wave or risk to fall even further behind in economic and social development.

The tools for change already exist.

· Wireless technologies and mobilephones are rapidly becoming the preferred means of communication and can be rolled out much more quickly than the old fixed-line model. Africa was the first region of the world where the number of mobilephones overtook fixed-line users.
· The Internet is now much more widespread in Africa, and Africa is becoming a creator of content, not just a consumer.
· The entry to the market of new African companies-like Econet, MTN, MSI or Orascom-promises a much more dynamic future for African telecommunications.
· Two-thirds of African countries now have a separate telecommunications regulator. There are many examples, ranging from Botswana to Cameroon, where more effective regulation has led to better and more affordable communications services.

Already, these tools are bringing success in the use of ICTs for development:

· For instance, Africans can now market their goods globally, through the Internet. The African International Shopping Mall in the Cyberspace, established with ITU assistance, offers African handicrafts, like wooden sculptures or musical instruments, for sale worldwide over the Internet.
· In Niger, the Bankilare Community Information Centre downloads information resources from the African Learning Channel and rebroadcasts this information over local radio.
· In Senegal, there are more than 9'000 entrepreneur-owned telecentres, which have created more than 20'000 jobs and have widened access to ICTs.

But these individual success stories must be transformed into successful national strategies that can bring affordable ICTs to all the world's inhabitants.

My generation grew up in an era where the goal of policy-makers was to bring a telephone into every village, and later into every home.

For today's generation, the goal is to make a mobilephone available to every person who wants one.

In the future, in the information society, each person may have hundreds of miniaturized computing devices and software agents that can communicate. They will report on all aspects of our personal and business life, and will provide us with constant updates on information items we have selected. These devices may be so small that, for instance they could be swallowed to provide health status reports from inside the body. Or they could be contained in the airbag of a car, to contact the emergency services automatically in the event of an accident.

This vision of the information society, which is based on pervasive ICTs, can only be realized if we break through today's barriers of access and affordability.

To give you an example: suppose I wear a monitoring device that sends information on my level of blood pressure to a computer in a hospital every five minutes to build a picture of my health. If I have to pay the price of a mobilephone call for each of those messages, then my blood pressure will most certainly go up!

Unless the cost of each call is close to zero, then this type of application would never be viable. Only when access to ICTs is ubiquitous and truly inexpensive will we see the true flowering of the information society.

How will the information society change our lives?
My fellow countryman, Professor Yoshio Tsukio identifies three broad changes that make the Information Society different from the Industrial Society:

· First, we will be free from the tyranny of distance. A company in the most remote part of Africa can compete with a similar company in the middle of New York, without disadvantage, if they have the same level of connectivity.
· Second, economies of scale will be much less important. The economics of the Information Society favour those organizations that can make decisions rapidly and can respond to changing market trends efficiently.
· Third, hierarchical structure, for instance in distribution chains or management structures, will also be less important. We can now buy our air tickets direct from the airline and our books direct from the publishers.

These changes are profound and will affect all aspects of our lives. As Professor Tsukio points out, the developed economies must decentralize, they must abandon the belief that "big is better" and they must do away with "middlemen" organizations.

On the other hand, the developing economies have the opportunity to leapfrog directly to the Information Society, without having first to make these transformations. This is why political leaders in Africa are now recognizing the potential power of ICTs. And the new Africa Initiative (NEPAD), for example, is calling for the accelerated deployment of ICTs as one of its main targets.

Creating the Information Society and addressing the problems of the Digital Divide will require a global political commitment at the highest level. That is why we are planning to hold a World Summit on the Information Society.

The Summit will be held in two phases: in Geneva in December 2003 and in Tunis in 2005.

The aim of the Summit is to adopt a declaration of principles and plan of action, to be implemented by Governments, international institutions, private firms and all sectors of civil society. For the Summit to be successful, it must be a true meeting of minds, bringing together all stakeholders.

Your meeting this week in Bamako is a first major step in the Summit process. It will allow the African region to identify its key concerns and those issues that it wants to see on the agenda of the Summit.

Our initial work on the framework for the Summit has suggested three broad themes:

· First, it will be necessary to elaborate a vision of the Information Society that will enable us to anticipate and embrace the positive benefits it will bring.

· Second, the Summit will need to focus on access and affordability. The Summit should draw up an action plan for converting the digital divide into a digital opportunity. This will involve focusing on the needs of users.

· Third, the Summit should look beyond technology and focus on applications. The real goal is not just to get more computers or more telephones, but rather to broaden access to information and to guarantee the right to communicate. The Summit should focus on how ICTs can be used to achieve the broader social and economic goals, such as the eradication of poverty, and achieving a more just, prosperous and peaceful world

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Africa is at a turning point. The transformation to the Information Society will be every bit as profound as was the movement from agrarian to industrial societies. In the past, such changes have led to winners and losers. Some countries have prospered, while others have fallen behind.

It can be different this time. By taking the right decisions, we must shape the direction of the Information Society and create a win-win situation for all. It will not be an easy task. But I am sure that we can work together to make the Summit usher in a world where ICTs benefit all the world's inhabitants.

Thank you.