FINISHED FILE

ITU COUNCIL 2016

1 JUNE 20160930-1112

EIGHTH PLENARY MEETING

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>> MADAM CHAIR: Good morning, dear colleagues. Let's go ahead and start the council meeting for Wednesday, June the 1st. It's a sunny day. And I hope we all have sunny dispositions today.

I want to draw your attention to our new draft time management plan, document DT/2 Revision 9. You will see that for Wednesday the first of June we have 19 agenda items and 150 minutes.

What this means is that we can spend approximately seven minutes on each agenda item if we are to get through our work today and we really need to get through our work today. So I urge you to embrace the spirit of number 15.3 of our rules of procedure of council and make every effort to restrict the number and length of interventions on any one subject.

I would also like to propose that interventions not exceed two minutes and focus on concrete proposals and urge that we have short presentation of documents so that we can indeed finish our work today. Thank you all very much. I appreciate your cooperation.

We have a very special guest today and I would like to invite the Secretary-General to give a short introduction. Secretary-General, the floor is yours.

>> SECRETARY-GENERAL: Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, can morning. I see that we have some ambassadors here as well so welcome. So 2015 was milestone year for our work. We witnessed some momentous events. We celebrated the union's 150th anniversary. Transforming our work the 2030 agenda for sustainable development, together with the party's climate change agreement and review and outcomes of other key UN summits and conferences. The world summit on the Information Society review. They have laid as a ground for renewed global contract for life free of fair and want, reduced poverty, greater social inclusion for everyone everywhere and improved protection for our planet.

Indeed ITU has been working with unwavering commitment to connect the world's people since 1865. Collaborating closely with our member states, private sector, Civil Society and our viewing system as populous. Why? Because information and communication technologies or ICT's have an important or distinct rule to play in transforming our work. The crucial rule that ICT's can play help achieve, accelerate and ingrate all three pillars of economic development, social inclusion and environmental protection is already in our DNA. This is why we are particularly pleased that the vital rule of ICT's as a catalyst for development is specifically acknowledged in 2030 agenda. The spirit of information and communication technology and a global interconnectedness has greater potential to accelerate human progress to breach the digital divide and develop knowledge societies.

Together with the reference to ICT in four targets corresponding indicators and as key in the means of implementation, MOI, a tool across all of the SDGs, it's up to us to ensure that ICTs are a part of all of our development policies and plans. Let us work together to make this aspiration goal a reality especially on the critical issue of global telecommunications and broadband infrastructure and crucial if we are to provide a platform for success in the SDGs by 2030.

The digital revolution under way can and must be harnessed to create a development revolution. We can do this together through stronger partnerships and development policy making that the fuller integration and leverages ICTs and broadband. Ladies and gentlemen it's my pleasure to welcome my colleague our special guest speaker today Dr. David Nabarro, the united Secretary-General special advisor. We manage to have him here today as we discuss this and he just arrived this morning from Asia, from China, pardon me, and he's leaving us very soon after his remarks because he has another engagement. So we are very pleased with your participation. Since December, 2015, he

has been working with member states and other relevant stakeholders to governize action implementation of the 2013 agenda. So David, now we give you floor.

>> DR. NABARRO: Can I stand?>> MADAM CHAIR: Absolutely. >> DR. NABARRO: Thank you. (No sound) I would like to

start by introducing myself and explaining why I wanted to come here to the ITU council and why I actually kind of did a really weird journey yesterday to make certain I could get here on time this morning. I wouldn't have missed this appointment for anything.

I'm David Nabarro, as you know. I work with ban key moon as his special advisor on the 2030 agenda for sustainable development and climate change. I actually started out in life working as a medical doctor in Asia, in Africa, Latin America. And very early on in my medical career which is more than 40 years ago I saw that kids and their mothers got sick primarily because of the conditions under which they were living and I became convinced that if you want to do good for people in our world you've got to focus on their social and economic development as well as focusing on their health problems.

And so ever since then I've been looking for ways of combining work on individuals supporting them with work for sustainable development and then gradually increasing the focus on the development of our environment and our planet. So when the Secretary-General took me off my last job working on the Ebola outbreak, I was delighted to be given this role with the sustainable government goals. So I start now by respecting the chair of the council, by respecting all of you are councilor, the Secretary-General, all the staff of ITU and everybody else who is here today as I briefly tell you why for me ITU is a centre of all the sustainable development goals and we count on you to help insure that you can do your part to making sure these goals are fulfilled everywhere.

So what is the big deal about the sustainable development goals? Well they were negotiated by countries over a period of two and a half years, and by September last year they were agreed. And there are 17 of them. And of course there's negotiated. No advertising agency would come out with 17 goals, would they? They would come out with 5 or 6 or 10. I encourage all of you to learn them. You can recite them at night before you go to sleep. And gradually we will find they are very interesting combination of the things that are necessary for all human beings and for our planet. In fact they bring together the needs of the people, the needs of the planet, the needs for sustainable economic growth, need for peace and also partnership, the five P's, as the necessary

elements for the future of our world. And they have been agreed by world leaders which means they represent a political manifesto of the world leaders that applies to all nations but also to all actors for development and for the future of the world.

Our Secretary-General in the UN says that they cut across the charter of the United Nations because they cover peace and security, Human Rights and justice and sustainable development. And he is encouraging all parts of the UN to see the sustainable development goals and the broader 2030 agenda for sustainable development which binds them together as the guiding instruments for everything that we do in our work.

He's particularly keen that we weave together work on climate change, work on humanitarian action, work on Human Rights and work on gender equity within our efforts for the sustainability development goals.

He wants to see us have the sustainable development goals in all the work we do. Now I'm pleased that you here in the ITU have actually been developing a mapping tool to link your activities with the SDGs. And I'm delighted that the WSIS framework, your vital platform, is being used by you to enable ITU to engage in advancing the SDGs.

Let me just give you five underlying principals about the SDGs that have been given a lot of attention among your representatives in New York. And which perhaps will be the most important feature of this new agenda moving forward. Firstly, it's a universal agenda. Between 2000 and 2015 the world was pursuing the millennial development goals. But these new goals that your leaders agreed to in September actually apply to every nation. Just think what that means. It means actually that every country is a developing country. And that it's no longer useful to divide the world into developing and developed countries, and say there's some that know how to do it and there are others that need to be told. No, every country is a developing country. Indeed on issues like climate change some of the more advanced countries have got much more to do than some of the poorer countries. This is a universal agenda, very strong point made by member states starting in 2012. We are all developing.

Number two, it's an indivisible agenda. So instead of people saying we are going to deal with hunger and food or we are going to deal with education or water and sanitation and being very focused in their areas of concern, member states have asked us in the UN to work in an interconnected way in what we call a horizontal way, recognizing that every single aspect of sustainability development is inter linked to the other aspect. Very tricky because all you're governments are

actually divided into sectorial ministries and some of you come from sectorial ministries and it's very tricky to think how we are going to be able to build across between the sectors and deal with things in an indivisible and interconnected way. But that's what increasingly governments are perceiving as necessary within this new way of thinking and working, interconnected. Thirdly, you have to respond to this interconnected agenda in ways that are prepared to integrate how different sectors work. And we are seeing increasingly that that's actually happening.

For example, ITU you hosted a meeting with WHO last week bringing together people from ministries of health and ministries of information technology, and that kind of joint working is increasingly going to be necessary, particularly at the local level. Fourth principal in the sustained development goals is leaving no one behind and that just means that everybody counts. Just a week ago several of us were in Istanbul with Secretary-General, your director general was there at the first ever world humanitarian summit. The focus was how to make sure that people were caught up in conflict and war somehow can be embraced and brought into development and not neglected because they're invisible or inconvenient.

Lastly I want to stress there is an additional factor in relation to these goals and that is they cannot be realized without everybody being connected. At the moment, 40% of the world is not connected; you know that statistic better than I do. But it's increasingly clear that connectedness is key and unless we can get everyone connected in a functional way, there will be a continuing digital divide that will leave the poor, people in rural areas and a disproportionate number of people with disabilities stranded on the wrong side. Therefore, I'd like to finish my section on the principals by just saying as you leave at the end of this part of your meeting, recognize that the new development agenda is universal, indivisible, must leave no one behind and has to address the digital divide, otherwise we won't succeed.

Some of you might say does this really matter? Doesn't the UN come out with these kinds of agreements all the time? Why is somebody from New York talking to us here in ITU at our council about a new development agenda? Answer, it does matter because there's no other plan for the future of the world's people and the planet except for that plan that was negotiated and then agreed by our collective leadership in September last year. We don't have a plan B for the future. We don't have an alternative just as we don't have a spare planet, we don't have a spare plan for the future. That's why it's vital that we stick to this agenda and see it as our guiding force and try to

ensure that we are working across all the goals. What is my specific request of ITU? Last remarks now. Number one; please help us to make sure that everyone everywhere in the world understands about the agenda for sustainable development and the SDGs. You through IT systems have the best means to enable people to understand the importance of this information. You include over 700 private sector members and academic institutions. I would like 2 billion of the world's population to know that there really is a plan for the future and to be involved in it. I would like a thousand people a day to become activists for this agenda and promoting it. And the Secretary-General is asking that we get as many people as possible knowing about it. How will we do this? Through the kind of instruments and techniques and mechanisms that are under your control given the three pillars of ITU. And to help with this we need a core group of organizations and networks taking it forward. I went to the GSMA congress in Barcelona earlier this year and I'm delighted that the mobile telephone industry has decided to unite around the sustainable development goals and to see them as a key element of their business model. And I would like to encourage all of you to help ensure that there is a data revolution for sustainable development that will enable IT systems to be used to track progress on these goals whether through household data, through individual engagement or through big data the kind that you are very good at doing and you've been working with an outfit called the global pulse set up by the Secretary-General which has shown the value of IT systems and data in tracking what is happening.

Just some last comments then as we move forward. What could you help us with? Number one, using your expertise, your understanding of how the world works to help us all to think and work horizontally across sectors and across disciplines and avoid getting stuck in professional or sectorial silos. Technology cuts across each and every sustainable development goal. You have the instruments and the mindset that enable us to think horizontally. Number two, you can help us to be universal partly because you are a global institution and partly because you combine these three elements of regulation standard setting and development. You can apply your expertise as a council to the world, to the world as a whole, and insure that we take the SDGs the proper emphasis they need. Thirdly your technologies reaching to homes and communities in so many places that otherwise have no contact with everybody else; you can help make sure that no one is left behind. The mobile telephone industries had a massive influence on improves access to people caught up in humanitarian disasters, for example.

And you can do more and you can make sure that becomes part of our daily work. You do as I've said set the standards. As we take this work forward we need standards that make sense to everybody in our world so that everybody has a right to communicate. That lovely expression that I believe is at the centre of your work. And lastly because of your extraordinary governance structure in this council where you bring in as members private sector, Civil Society, academics, other institutions and governments, you can show the modern approach to multi stakeholder governance that will be needed. Every time I get a chance to, I love to meet your Secretary-General because for him that way of working is instinctive. He understands it, because this is what his council and his organization represent.

So please look at what ITU is already doing, build on what you're already doing, put ICT at the centre of all aspects of development, make sure that you become the transforming force that enables the sustainable development goals to happen, show the rest of the world how these things need to be governed in a true multi stakeholder way and bring them up to modern states so they are truly ICT organizations. And lastly please only sustainability development goals in everything that you do, participate in them as fully as you can within your limits and authority and responsibility. Madam Chair, thank you for the chance to speak with you today and I look forward to further discussion. If we can't have a full conversation today I'm Nabarro@UN.org and I trying to reply to every e-mail. So don't hesitate. Thank you, very much.

(Applause) >> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you, very much, Dr. Nabarro, for your

inspiring words. Let me open the floor for five minutes for councilors to ask any questions or give any observations they have to Dr. Nabarro before he has to go to his next event. Kenya, please.

>> Thank you, chair and good morning colleagues. Kenya expresses the appreciation to Dr. Nabarro for sharing his wisdom on the 2030 agenda for sustainable development and his encouragement for us to keep the forecast. This is a critical matter that agreed on the 2030 agenda and 17 sustainable development goals. It is now common knowledge that ICTs have a very significant role and holds the alignment between the WSIS process and the 2030 agenda for sustainability development. In the Geneva 20003 agenda we must exercise effort and continued collaboration as stakeholders. We aim to promote the interest of people alongside that of mother planet. It calls for peace, prosperity, all woven together in partnerships. We are called upon to exact synergy to realize this agenda which we all agree

is beneficial for humanity. It's incumbent on us on how we can narrow the divides. We must increase the use of ICTs whether we are also building the confidence of our people in need of the rights of individuals protected as they interact with ICTs we are establishing a firm ethical foundation in the use of ICTs, overall to what extent are ICTs promoting the good for human kind. The participation of more than 150 countries in 2016 WSIS forum is a testimony to the high regard that nations have for the 2030 agenda. Others join to deliberate on how we can support the implementation of the SDGs. Their normality of the role of ICTs is clear and we should continue to invest in it that will generate positive change. As our active participation for the agenda in 2030, United Nations general assembly open working group, Kenya remains committed to the use of ICTs and exploiting its potential. Let us all continue to dialogue and bring ICTs to our people. Thank you, chair.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you, very much, Kenya. We have time for two more requests for the floor. Please limit your remarks to one minute. Rwanda.

>> Thank you, chair and thanks to Dr. Nabarro for the insightful speech that he just shared with us. Mine is a quick question which often rises in the circles of people in the ICT sector and maybe since you're here you can shed light on it. Just out of curiosity, why given the importance of ICT we never got to see a dedicated one of the event being around ICT. We understand it's cross cutting but nonetheless since you're here maybe you can share insights to how to process works to the conclusion that we saw.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you Rwanda. Dr. Nabarro? >> DR. NABARRO: Thank you, very much indeed. First I would

like to pay tribute to Kenya and in particular to the role of the permanent representative of Kenya in New York, because as colleague just said in his remarks, he served as a co facilitator and I don't think that these goals and the agenda of the 2030 sustainable development would have emerged quite in the way they did had it not been for the leadership of people like PR. And so thank you, very much for bringing that up. And thanks for mentioning the important contribution of WSIS to this. I was checking up that there was this really important resolution in December last year, A-70125 reaffirming the common desire for the WSIS to contribute fully to the 2030 agenda.

And I think that that's a very important interface that needs to be built on. To the colleague from Rwanda, you see as a member of the secretariat, I have to give you the correct answer which is that this was negotiation between the member states and for reasons that the member states will have

decided, they couldn't come out with a specific goal on ICT. And I must say from my perspective it is a vital cross cutting issue for all the goals and there is a very interesting sentence in the 2030 agenda which I'm sure you've read the spread of information of communications technology and global interconnectedness has great potential to accelerate human progress, the bridge to digital divide and to develop knowledge society as does science and technology innovation across areas as diverse as medicine and energy. And there are four direct references to this and the targets four-D, five-D, nine-C and 17-8 in the means of implementation. But I'm afraid I'm not answering your question and I suspect it may be that there is more work to be done to explain the central role of connectedness and also of information technology in advancing development and I encourage you all to do that. So it's a rather weak answer and I hope that you will see that so that when you're a bureaucrat you have to accept what the politicians decide. (Laughter)

Thank you, very much. >> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you Dr. Nabarro, India, please. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. India thanks Dr. Nabarro for the

UN visit of SDGs -- sorry. As he mentioned ICT article -- there's no plan B for the planet except SDGs. This puts more responsibility on the council to accomplish ITU objectives of Information Society to build a sustainability society in ICT access. Thank you, Dr. Nabarro. And we thank for his leadership. Thank you.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you, very much, India. I can give Venezuela just have a minute. Thank you, Venezuela.

>> Thank you, very much, Madam Chair. We would also like to thank Mr. Nabarro for his excellence presentation, the importance of advancing ICTs to achieve the United Nations sustainability development agenda for 2030. We take this into account in our future development. Thank you.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you, very much, Venezuela. Secretary-General?

>> Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to offer my colleague some background. The president of Rwanda, we had our broad band commission in September last year. He promoted to have 18 goals to be focused on ICT. And because the president is nominated by African union as champion for ICT smart Africa, and he highly promoted that ICT is very critical for Africa. So if he promoted that one but then he was told again this May when I was -- and he confirmed that why is it not possible? Because when he mentioned that I said too late. No, sorry. I heard from prime minister also. Therefore there's perception somewhere that developing country does not see ICT as governing

rule. They put water, energy, food as priorities, not the ICT. But here you see these two leaders from developing countries; they really wish to push ICT as to be recognized.

I think that your participating to our council is also very good demonstration that you yourself consider ICT as absolutely important so that no matter what you have, you try to come to us. I think your participation will help to us promote ICT in all those contacts you might have and we really appreciate it very much your remarks. So ladies and gentlemen, Madam Chair.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you, very much, Secretary-General. Dr. Nabarro?

>> DR. NABARRO: Well, it's just really great to be here. And to feel your willingness to be part of this. While I was talking I could see most of you and you were clearly with me as I was sharing my remarks. It made sense to you. And I would just like to leave you with one observation which is that I don't personally believe that the agenda for sustainable development will be achieved by 2030 without everybody everywhere being connected in an effective manner. And that's why you are so important. And if there's anything I can do to support you in your quest, please don't hesitate to let me know. And I will work continuously with the director general to try to make it happen. Madam Chair, thank you and thank you for the councilors for this opportunity.

(Applause)>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you, very much, Dr. Nabarro. And we

thank you for coming to address us and for your tireless work as the special advisor.

(Standing by)>> MADAM CHAIR: Let us return now to our agenda. We are on

document C16/57, collaboration with the UN system. This is a document for noting and I invite the secretariat Mr. Fowly (phonetic) to present this document.

>> MR. FOWLY: Chair, on behalf of the Secretary-General it's my pleasure to introduce document C16/57. This document provides an overview of the activities within the ITU as the specialized agency of the United Nations for communication technology. In the past this document has been provided as an information document. However, it was felt that given the number of high level activities within the UN system last year which ITU was actively involved we thought it appropriate to bring this document to your attention.

As noted already today it was a landmark year last year. Particularly because the increasingly important role of science, technology and innovation generally, and information and communication technology specifically was acknowledged in the following negotiated outcome documents where ITU

participated. Number one the sustainability development agenda which we already heard a number of times this morning notes that ICTs hold great promise for human progress in sights for specific targets, education, gender quality, infrastructure and as a means of implementation. Two, the world summit on the Information Society ten year review by the UN general assembly. Three, the climate change accord. Four, the findings for development agenda which provided landmark language on science technology innovation and ICTs and named ITUs one of the founding members of the task team for the technology facilitation mechanism. Council is requested to take note of the report. I would be pleased to take questions now or during the coffee break. Thank you, Madam Chair.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you for your brief introduction. Are there any questions on the report before we note it?

I see USA, you have the floor. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. This is just to thank Gary Fowly

for his work and the United States notes it and appreciates it. Thank you.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you, very much, U.S. I see no more requests for the floor so we will note to report with thanks.

So let's move to the next agenda item. And this is the council working group report on the headquarters premises. And I'd like to invite the Deputy Secretary-General to present the draft decision in document DT/6. Deputy Secretary-General.

>> DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL: Thank you, very much, Madam Chair. Good morning, everybody. On behalf of the Secretary-General I'm pleased to introduce DT/6 a draft decision on the headquarter premises. In the preparation of this document the secretary general has consulted a number of member states and the chairman of the council working group who in turn has also consulted with a number of member states that were involved actively in the discussions on this important issue. In accordance with the conclusions of last week's council consideration of the council working group headquarters report, the draft discussion is based on the recommendations of the council working group and the statements made during its consideration including the secretary general's request for flexibility in taking forward these recommendations.

We very much hope that the council can approve this draft decision so that we can start down the road to hopefully deliver an ITU new building by 2023. We would like to thank again the chairman of the council working group for his tremendous work, all those that participated in that group, and especially the host country for offering the necessary funding. Thank you, Madam Chair.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you for your work on this important

issue. I now invite comments on the draft decision in Document 6, are there any comments?

Seems you've done your work very, very well. Saudi Arabia. >> Thank you, I'd like to thank Mr. Malcolm Johnson for the

efforts he's undertaken to prepare this draft decision. I have a question for clarification. Why do we say that it's a decision here and not a resolution given that it's based on previous resolutions? Thank you.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you, Saudi Arabia. Mr. Johnson?>> MR. JOHNSON: Thank you, Madam Chair and thank you Saudi

Arabia for that very good question. Last week the conclusion of the discussion on the council working group was that secretariat was asked to develop a decision. And we checked with a legal advisor. I asked what was the difference between a decision and a resolution. And I think he will confirm that he wasn't able to identify any difference. Since the council had asked to us develop a decision, that's why we are calling it a decision. Thank you, Madam Chair.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you. Suggest the council to adopt the decision in document DT/6. Congratulations. I look forward to seeing that building and occupying that building by 2023. Secretary-General, you have the floor.

>> SECRETARY-GENERAL: Thank you, very much, Madam Chair. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation to all engaged with this important topic from the very beginning. And again the chair of this council working group around headquarters and the member group for their very, very important work up to now. And of course last week expressed some opinions for some flexibility so I also like to take this opportunity to express my personal consent to all those and with the cooperation of the secretary. And we finally look at very good result of this without the full discussions, that is great. I would like to show that you we will follow this decision, very important decision. And secretary will make sure that there's nothing hiding and we will not start any concrete construction work without your final approval of the options we present to you for the green light. So we will do our best. We will keep all procedures and studies transparent. And we hope we will reach the goal by 2023, hopefully we will see a new building. Anyhow, I would like to thank you all for your cooperation and support to this important topic. Thank you.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you, very much, Secretary-General. Saudi Arabia, please.

>> We would like to thank the host country now that we have approved this decision we would like to thank the host country for their hospitality and for the credit they have extended to

us. We would also like to warmly thank Switzerland for their support to the ITU. Thank you.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you, Saudi Arabia. UAE, please. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. And I would like to wish you a

very good morning. We would also like to join Saudi Arabia in thanking Switzerland for hosting the ITU and having done so for many years.

With regards to ICT discovery, the museum, we would like to thank the Secretary-General and the Deputy Secretary-General with regards to the work done in regards to this museum. We note that item six asks to invite member states and other members to sponsor aspects of this project including ICT to discovery. We did not address this museum in our agenda beforehand; however we would be interested in you including the statement of the Secretary-General in the summary records of our meeting in the minutes, thank you -- in the agenda of this meeting. Thank you.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you, very much. We can include his statement in the summary record of this meeting. Switzerland, please.

>> Thank you, Madam Chair. Very briefly, please allow me also on behalf of Switzerland as the host country to warmly thank the secretariat for all the work that they have done on this issue. I would also like to thank the chair of the working group who enabled the working group to come up with excellent results. Switzerland welcomes this decision which has been taken today by the council. We believe it to be a smart solution. It is a solution which is commensurate to the urgency of this issue. And we also believe that it is a solution which is in the complete trust of the ITU. Thank you Madam Chair.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you, very much, Switzerland. I would now like the turn to Document 107 revision one on the establishment of an advisory board which is foreseen in two of the decision we just made. So I invite Peter Ranson to present Document 107 revision one. Thank you.

>> PETER RANSON: Good morning dear counselors, ladies and gentlemen and my colleagues.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Sorry for interrupting you. Russia would like the floor. Russia, please.

>> Thank you, Madam Chair. We would also like to thank the Secretary-General and the Deputy Secretary-General and the chair of the working group, too. We would also like to thank Switzerland for providing us with the opportunity to construct a new building, and for the fact that they are ensuring that the necessary financial resources are available. In our intervention we already made this proposal but we would like it

to be included in the summary records or the minutes of our meeting. And that's the proposal we agreed on in English, therefore I'm going to read it out in English.

>> Counsel agrees that the detailed requirements specification will include options for either maintaining the current room or name the new main conference room as Popov room.

>> We discussed this proposal with a number of countries and also with the secretariat. There were no objections. What are being proposed now are two options. It's possible that one of them might be preferable but we are not insisting on either one of them specifically. Thank you, very much.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you, very much, Russia. So we will include that statement in the summary record of the meeting. Mr. Ranson, you can continue on Document 107 revision one.

>> PETER RANSON: Thank you, Madam Chair and with apologies for Russia on starting too early. On behalf of the Secretary-General I'm more than pleased now to introduce Document 107 rev one which is a proposal for the governance structure of the ITU premises project recommended by council working group and which distinguished council has now adopted. Council working group requested for such a document to be put before the council in the final meeting of the council working group. The governance structure -- implementation of the project. It follows models similar to other UN construction projects adopted models including in particular the model which was adopted in WHO this week for their project of a similar size to our new construction project. There are two bodies outside the project; one is the advisory board of member states advising Secretary-General, the other is a coordination committee concerning members of the secretariat and members of the host country. And this coordination committee performs liaison with the organs of the host country. Document 107 was revised last night and is now revision one. The only revision in that document was changes to the figure on page three intended to help clarify as a result of feedback from distinguished councilors. The council is invited to consider this document and approve it and also to consider nominating representatives that will serve on this advisory board. Thank you, very much.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you, very much, Mr. Ranson. Are there any comments or questions concerning Document 107 revision one? Germany, please.

>> Thank you, very much, Madam Chair, and good morning. While in principal we approve this document, we consider this structure to be appropriate in particular taking into account that a similar structure is used in other Geneva based UN

organizations. We have one remark without being willing to introduce a micro-management but for your own management board inside your organization we doubt whether it's a good idea to have the contracts committee in this management board. There is a conflict of interest because this committee is finally deciding upon all tenders which are going to be established within this project.

If you want to have advice on deadlines for such tender exercises, you should rather nominate somebody from procurement, and then you have less a conflict of interest. But this is your business, not ours.

Now, with regard to the advisory board we see it's purely advisory, we see two important tasks for this board among others together with all the other entities that are proposed in this document. First is to ensure that the budget envelope is respected and second to ensure the timely termination of the project at the moment planned for 2023.

Further, Madam Chair, we would announce here that Germany is strongly interested to be a member of this advisory board. Thank you, very much, Madam Chair.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you, very much, Germany. Seeing no further requests -- Saudi Arabia.

>> Thank you, very much, Madam Chair. I would like to thank the secretariat for preparing this report. The first point that I would like to raise is that it was said that this was talking about a building for premises for the ITU. But when we say in another part of the document we say a single building. In my view we should really clarify are we talking of one building or buildings? One single building as it was noted in the document? I would just like clarification on that point because one must understand what is happening in this document. We must understand what we are addressing to replace the Varembe building with one building. We can see that in the background paragraph which is the first paragraph we are talking about one single building here, the replacement of Varembe. So we must clarify in this document that we are building one single building and not buildings in the plural. And what caught my attention in the structure is the number of boards. We have too many here. We have the ITU council, we have the administry board and this really complicates things. Could we give it another name over having confusion of too many boards? Thank you, very much, Madam Chair.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank very much, Saudi Arabia. Section one of the background of Document 107 revision one in English refers to a single building that also accommodates the necessary functionality of the tower. But I'll ask Mr. Ranson if he would like to provide further clarifications. Thank you.

>> MR. RANSON: Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm delighted to clarify the document. At the moment ITU has three headquarters buildings. The proposal here referring to the English in section one is to build one single building. That building will accommodate what is now present in both the Varembe building and the existing tower building so ITU's total site will go from three buildings into two buildings, Montbrillant and the new building. And the project discussed here ends with the opening of that new building connected to Montbrillant so we end up with two buildings. I hope that's a clarification that's acceptable. Thank you, Saudi Arabia.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you, very much. Any other questions or comments? Would you like to pick up the matter of the nomenclature and number of advisory committees slash boards? Thank you.

>> MR. RANSON: I'm sorry? Could you... right, yes, okay. I understand. So if the point as I understand it is that this organ can be renamed advisory committee, there's also the question of membership of that committee. I'm not sure if I've answered the question that was asked there.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Saudi Arabia, is that -- could you please clarify? Thank you.

>> I don't need to clarify. In the future as we have so many councils and boards to clarify things, let's name them something different. But if you agree to keep these names I don't mind it. You can keep them if you want.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you, very much. Seeing no further requests for the floor I now invite the council to approve the document and to consider nominating representatives to the advisory board. So approved. Thank you, very much.

We move now to the report of the drafting group on the terms of reference for the expert's group on ITRs. I invite the chairman of the drafting group to report on the outcome.

>> Thank you, dear Madam Chair, fellow counselors. I was given the difficult responsibility to chair the group with the term of reference. The group met twice on Friday evening and Monday at lunch break. The group agreed on the term reference and the second meeting on the draft resolution. As you can see the combined text Document 8. I thank you for the speed and cooperation and consensus. I will also especially thank the U.S. and Russia for working on the combining texts from the two proposals which made a difficult task of the group slightly easier. The argument reached is a compromise, and I hope that your plenary will endorse this package without being into details. In the draft resolution we have taken careful account of any cost implication and tried to keep costs at a minimum. And the same that Madam Chair that you will agree on this

document once approved to send to the committee for further examination of financial implication. Furthermore, during this council instruction should be made for the chair of the group while the six chairmen will be designated if you agree. I conclude, thanks again all the participants for their support and my secretary for the assistance provided. Thank you and I hope it will pass without discussion. Thank you. (Laughter)

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you, and we all owe you a debt of thanks for taking chairmanship. Thank you to all the administrations who worked together to produce the results that we find in document DT/8. You advised us wisely that this is a delicate compromise that we should adopt without further discussion so I invite council to approve the draft resolution and its annex in document DT/8.

So approved. Congratulations. (Applause) We will send this document to the ADM committee for

consideration of the financial implications of this decision. And I now invite the Secretary-General to speak to us about the matter of chairmanship of this group. Thank you, Secretary-General.

>> SECRETARY-GENERAL: Thank you, Madam Chair. Let me first offer my sincere appreciations and thanks to the counselors for all the important work we present to you this morning and you approve. For this chairmanship, when we have this kind of plan earlier this year to see this council work on this issue, we started to think about the possible (?) for the chair of this important group. There was proposal that we look for someone perhaps from those areas or regions so we started with A and we found this candidate, this former chairman of PPT from Mexico, Mr. Fernando, because we had problems in December 2012. He was aware of the preparation for that conference; he would have a good idea to manage this important work.

We contacted him and unfortunately we did not get clear answer from him before the council. And then we noted that there's some problems because he's no longer with administration, he's with some agencies, private sector. And then we talked to administrations to see for this some kind of assistance to see if we can make him be available to us.

Up to that time before we started our council meeting and we got clear answer that unfortunately will not be available. So then in that same period I also conducted another region so another chairman this time is Dr. Ming from Korea. And because 2014 he was the chairman for PP and if he understands the issue, understands the sensibility and we tried to see if he could help us. So I conveyed a message to the ambassador of Korea and tried to reach him. And they have some kind of

internal discussions. Then by the time when we had our meeting started, 25th of May, I got clear message from Korea from Dr. Ming himself that he cannot make it. So these two possible candidates, one chairman of the conference before and one chairman after both not available. So immediately I tried to find some other candidate. We then noted that Fernando was a great expert for the terms mandate. So I contact him and see if he's willing to help us. But I told him I don't have anyone, can you he? And he said he's willing to help and we need administration support. Then in almost the same moment, Friday, last week, he called to me that Italy will support him. Then we got all message from Mexico that Mr. (?) is available now. So that is the situation. (Laughter)

And then I still have some kind of concerns because he wants the chair of our council, he was here very shortly and he left and it's not good for us. So I talked with Mexico delegation and they confirmed to me that this time he's serious and he will be available to us. I really appreciate very much your willingness to help us. And he's absolutely a great candidate because look at work he coordinated. Since we already have this discussion with Mexico, we may have already internal arrangement already of long-term arrangement already fixed so, you know, not easy for them to continue this. Even this morning Fabio asked me what is the situation. That is the situation.

So I would like to take this opportunity for my sincere thanks, I would like to propose Fernando the former chairman of PPT as the chairman for this important task. So if he would kindly agree. But of course we have vice chairmen that -- according to my understanding you wish to have vice chairman from all the regions so that we will expect our organizations to help us to nominate the candidate for vice chairman but that will not be done today. So for the chairmanship let me just make this proposal to you and we suggest Mr. Fernando from Mexico be the chairman for this group. Thank you.

(Applause) >> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you, very much, Secretary-General.

Saudi Arabia, please. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I ask for the floor this time to

ask a question about the mandate of this team -- of this group that we have accepted. I haven't tried, Madam, to make any comments because we worked very urgently and the document was prepared very fast and I couldn't make any comment. Remark number two, the report has to include all details. This team that we are discussing now has to be clear we have to -- I'm talking about and next number two -- number one, paragraph two of annex one says what follows: The report has to include some

items including the following. I'm a little bit scared of this expression. Anybody can raise any topic and include it and raise it. This is why this group will be participating in very long discussions. I would like things to be defined. I would like things to be clear. But whatever you decide, this is only a concern from myself. I'm sure that this group will not accept to raise any topics that do not concern them. Thank you.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you, Saudi Arabia. UAE, please. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I ask for the floor to thank

this group that has been working very hard to prepare the mandate of this group. Thank you to the chairmanship of Mr. Beejee (phonetic). Beejee (phonetic) is always reliable whenever we have a problem we can ask him to be a chair. He can deal with it. We would like to thank Mr. Fabio Beejee (phonetic). Thank you, very much, Madam.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you, very much, UAE. Canada, please. >> Thank you, Madam Chair and good morning to you and to all

colleagues. First of all we would like to express our appreciation and gratitude to Mr. Beejee (phonetic) to the excellent work he did guiding us to the consensus documents. We fully appreciate all his wisdom and insight and the ability to bring us all together. We would also like to express Madam Chair of course support for this document and also congratulate Mr. Fernando. We know him very well he did a superb job chairing the conference. I gather at some point we will be discussing some particular logistic issues associated with the timing of our meetings so I'll leave this in your hands for further discussion at the appropriate time. Thank you.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you, very much. Yes we will be discussing the logistical issues for the meetings and it's foreseen that they will be clustered with the council working group clusters. So once again let us thank Mr. Beejee (phonetic) for his able chairmanship and congratulate Mr. Burhon (phonetic) for taking on this task. I know he would have all of our support. Mexico, please.

>> Thank you, very much, Madam Chair. Good morning, everybody. We would like to thank the Secretary-General for his words. We would also like to thank him for the excellent work undertaken by Mr. Beejee (phonetic) in the drafting of these two documents which are very important. They really help to delineate what the work will be and what will be undertaken in the expert group. I also would like to comment that Mr. Fernando could not be here for a very important issue. He's just been designated as the director general of the investment promotion telecommunications in that country. This is a government organization. I would like to make that clear.

And this will depend on our secretariat. So he's at the stage this week looking at different budgetary issues in which his organization can help. What I can also comment is that for the moment in which he saw the possibility that he might be one of the possible candidates to chair this important group, he was very moved by this. It is something that we are really noted during his presidency of the plenipotentiary 2010. He did an excellent work and we congratulate him on that. We also received congratulations from some administrations for the work.

It is a very committed person to the aims of the union. The aims of the bring ICTs closer to people with the aim of really achieving and to use the necessary conditions so that ICTs and telecommunications are a catalyst for change in all of our countries. If you allow me, Madam Chair, I would like to say a few words on behalf of Mr. Burhon (phonetic) who has been closely following the discussions and on the meetings of this group on the terms of reference. Although it was 3:00 in the morning in Mexico he's waiting for us to give him the news. If you would allow me I'm going to read just a few ideas that he sent us.

I'm going to read them. It is an honor for me to have been named as chair of this expert group on the international telecommunication regulations. I'm going to revise a review which is going to be defined further on. This is a complex issue which has given important challenges due to the different implications for all member states of the union. And for other relevant players in the telecommunications sector. The outcomes of the last global World Telecommunication conference highlighted the concerns and questions which were relevant for the ITU members which we recognize it is not a simple task ahead of us. I have faith that it will bring about clear results and a clear way of the challenges that we have on this theme. I would like to take this opportunity to send you a very warm welcome and thank you for giving me this very important appointment. Thank you, very much, Madam Chair.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank very much, Mexico. Portugal, would you please limit your remarks to one minute. Thank you.

>> Good morning to all of you. And I will surely keep that in mind.

Now I'm talking as Portugal but also as a European coordination for activities in ITU. We haven't discussed this but I'm sure that my European colleagues are happy that we are about to resolve Beejee (phonetic) given to us and he made magic again so thank you Fabio for delivering this piece of text. I would like to welcome the appointment of Mr. Burhon (phonetic) and we are looking forward to working with him.

Thank you, Madam Chair. >> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you so much. I would like to move on

the next item on the agenda, ITU's role as supervisory authority of the future international registration system for space assets. This is the item we ended our plenary with yesterday. I've prepared a draft decision for your consideration based on the proposal that I made yesterday and it's found in document DT/13.

And I'll read it. Noting that there were no objections of principal to the ITU becoming the supervisory authority, but that the council decision should not appear to preempt the plenipotentiary conference decision, the council decided to continue addressing the matter of ITU becoming supervisory authority noting that the final decision on the matter of whether or not ITU could become the supervisory authority would be taken at the next plenipotentiary conference.

Authorize the Secretary-General or his representative to continue to participate in the work of the preparatory commission and its working groups as an observer, and to continue to express interest in ITU becoming supervisory authority.

And finally, to instruct the Secretary-General to address the issues raised during council 2016. In particular the conditions and limitations that may be necessary should the ITU assume the role of supervisory authority. And any other matter that may need to be addressed in order for council to recommend a course of action to PP/18. So this is my proposal for a decision on the issue of ITU's role as supervisory authority. So I now open the floor for comment. Germany, please.

>> Thank you, very much, Madam Chair. Thank you all very much for having considered the remarks of yesterday's discussion in particular ours with regard to the objections which were not expressed. I'm not so sure whether there are no objections of principal or there are no objections at all, but this is not my issue. My issue is as you know English is not my mother language. One of the items in yesterday's discussion was that in fact a decision has to be taken at the next plenipotentiary conference. Yes or no. Because we cannot leave the other entity forever in uncertainty whether the ITU is willing or not. And I'm not so sure whether in your first bullet point this would be taken at the next plenipotentiary conference is really expressing this need for the decision whether it shall be taken or will be taken. It's an editorial. I leave to it the mother speaker. Thank you, very much, Madam Chair.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you Germany. UAE, please. >> Thank you, very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I did

ask a question yesterday and Mr. Rancy (phonetic) had answered swiftly to the question I had raised with regards to the PP resolutions of the past. And I had looked closely into the results of the last PP conference and the adopted recommendation by the conference was that the council continue to monitor to developments in this regard and that the secretariat continue to show its interest that the ITU -- for the ITU to present a report to the next PP conference.

In view of the constitution of the ITU that stipulates that the council of the ITU does work on behalf of the PP conference and the article ten of the constitution does stipulate that in the period between the two PP conferences the council has being the administrative body of the ITU and on behalf of the PP conference and with the prerogatives of the council, and therefore there might not be a clear decision or resolution taken by a previous PP conference in any case and since this is the general understanding that we have here in this meeting, we looked into the conclusions that you have come up with, Madam Chair, in the document DT/13 in this regard. And we believe that the conclusions are good, however, we request a modification in the last paragraph so that it would read as follows: Instruct the Secretary-General to address the issues raised during council 2016. In particular the conditions and limitations that may be necessary should the ITU assume the role of supervisory authority and any other matter that may need to be addressed in order for council and here comes the addition, Madam Chair, in order for council in 2017 to recommend a clear course of action to PP18. So the recommendation for -- that this recommendation be proposed to PP18, thank you for having been lengthy in my intervention.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank very much and thank you for adding the word clear in front of course of action. I would like to close the list. I have India, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Philippines and Senegal. And Nigeria. We may have to yield the floor to the ADM committee unless you're very, very brief in your comments. And I also have Bangladesh. Let us try. India, please.

>> Good morning. Thank you Madam Chair for your patience listening and the opportunity to share the views. We ask to be clear in our proposal what recommendation we are going to make. The text is not clear. We are making it clear that council should not appear to preempt the plenipotentiary so in that case that's what we request. If you permit I'll leave text for the last paragraph. Instead the Secretary-General to address the issues, now in particular the limitations I want to remove because to address the issues that may be necessary should ITU assume the role of authority and any other matter that may need

to be addressed in order for the council 2017 to make a decision and recommend a course of action to PP18. There's a clear recommendation to PP18 about what we decide to do so kindly include this text. That's what we really request for you. Thank you.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you India. Kenya, please. >> Thank you, very much, chairman. Briefly, UAE and in a

way India have both spoken for me. I particularly want to agree that if we adopt the good recommendations that have come from the UAE in terms of bullet point number three, then suddenly the bullet point one becomes obsolete at least. The words before the supervisory authority, I would wish we then take the words that were prosed by the secretariat document. I'm sorry we are turning into a drafting group but the solution maybe to have an informal team during coffee break to address these issues. But I support the views expressed by the UAE. Thank you.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you, Kenya. That's a wise suggestion. I propose that we break for coffee, give the meeting time to ADM when you return from coffee and I would be glad to meet with any and all administrations to work on this text and bring back a revision to the next plenary meeting. Would that be acceptable? Saudi Arabia.

>> Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm sorry for delaying you. In brief, we support what was said by both the UAE and Germany in addition to India. Thank you.

>> MADAM CHAIR: Thank you, very much. So seeing no objection to my proposal, I will meet with anyone who wishes to work on the text in room D at the top of the escalator during the coffee break. Thank you, very much.

(Session concluded at 1112)