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The Fourth Regular Meeting of the Assembly of CITEL
was held February 20-23, 2006, in San José, Costa Rica, at a time of
particular importance for the Region.
It was an honor and veritable challenge for Costa
Rica to host this Meeting of the Assembly, as it meant assuming the
chairmanship of COM/CITEL in the 2006-2010 term, a time when
tremendous change in telecommunications in anticipated, stemming not
only from technological evolution, but also from the evolution of
markets and services worldwide.
The development of telecommunications in the Region
has again begun, with greater vigor and vitality. CITEL, as a regional
forum, plays the lead part in this sector and, through its Permanent
Consultative Committees (PCCs), carries out its technical and
scientific activities and, through COM/CITEL, its strategic and
political activities, seeking to build consensus and agreement among
its Member States, Associate Members, and the private and industrial
sectors.
Based on a decision taken at the most recent
meeting of COM/CITEL (Buenos Aires, Argentina, December 2005), at its
Fourth Regular Meeting, the Assembly of CITEL adopted strategic
guidelines that constitute the challenge that CITEL’s Member States
have set for themselves for the coming term, establishing the
following goals:
Goal 1: The governing bodies and the PCCs
will bear in mind in their work plans that the results of their
actions should maintain, expand, and strengthen cooperation with the
member states of CITEL, the associate members of the permanent
consultative committees, and the private sector in general in the
region. The aim is to achieve harmonious development of
telecommunications in the region.
Goal 2: The governing bodies and the PCCs
will focus their efforts on resolving problems related to the digital
divide between member states; to this end, they will take into account
the goals set forth in the Declaration of Principles and Plan of
Action agreed to in WSIS (World Summit on the Information Society)
Phase I, as well as the Tunis Commitment and Tunis Agenda for the
Information Society, adopted in WSIS Phase II.
Goal 3: Give priority to the tasks of the
second phase of the Agenda for Connectivity in the Americas, in
accordance with the program adopted by the coordination body formed
for this purpose by COM/CITEL, and bearing in mind the priorities
identified in the mandates of the Summits of the Americas, the
documents of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the
OAS, and the subregional plans, as well as the objectives of national
policies.
Goal 4: Maintain CITEL’s leadership in the
region in all aspects of telecommunications, including information and
communications technologies.
Goal 5: Strengthen CITEL by increasing the
participation of member states and associate members and strengthening
cooperative relations with international, regional, and subregional
telecommunication organizations and other telecommunication sector-related
entities.
Goal 6: Promote training and technology
transfer in the areas of greatest interest, especially for developing
countries, so as to achieve harmonious development of human resources
through the ITU Centre of Excellence for the Americas and CITEL’s
regional training centers.
Goal 7: Strengthen mechanisms of preparation
for international telecommunication meetings, in order to present
common, consensus-based proposals, with the aim of strengthening the
region’s position in the world.
Goal 8: Strengthen, update, and prioritize
the work of the permanent consultative committees (PCCs), taking into
account decisions from the OAS General Assembly and the Summits of the
Americas, while recognizing the WSIS outcomes and work being
undertaken in the ITU and other relevant organizations.
We note in particular that on February 20, the
following special sessions of the Meeting of the Assembly were held,
based on the theme “An Agenda for the Future”:
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A Dialogue of Ministers and Senior
Telecommunication Officials of the Americas, in which the views of
governments regarding the future of telecommunications were made
known;
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A second session: “Overview of Regional
Telecommunications,” to gain awareness of the vision of
telecommunications of the different subregional groups (Andean,
CARICOM, Central America, MERCOSUR and Chile, and North America);
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A third and final session, “Perspectives of the
Telecommunication Private Sector,” to discuss the perspectives of
manufacturers and network infrastructure providers, with
participation by representatives of major industrial firms.
The results of that first day were of tremendous
value to the delegates participating in the Fourth Regular Meeting of
the Assembly and contributed to decision-making in connection with
different items on the Meeting’s agenda, which charted CITEL’s course
for the next four years.
In the coming years, CITEL, as a forum for
discussion and agreement, will play a fundamental part in the topics
defined at the Third Meeting of the Assembly, such as: connectivity in
the Americas, the Information Society, and telecommunication
development, topics that will retain their pertinence in the future.
Accordingly, we consider that CITEL should seek to
ensure that the importance of connectivity is reflected in the
countries’ macroeconomic and social policies and allocations of
economic resources, while seeking to ensure participation by different
sectors so that the fundamental components - infrastructure,
utilization and content - are established in a consistent manner,
thereby providing opportunities for the region’s citizens to take
advantage of the benefits of the new Information Society.
Costa Rica has enthusiastically assumed the
chairmanship of COM/CITEL, certain that the teamwork carried out
through will enable us to fulfill our obligation to play a lead part
in charting the course for telecommunications in the Region.
Pablo Cob Saborío Executive
President
Costa Rican Electricity Institute
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