​​​​​Address by the Acting Chairman, Mr​ Fabio Bigi

ITU Council 2019: Closing ceremony

20 June 2019, Geneva, Switzerland

Dear Excellences, Friends and Colleagues (I include with this also the top management of the ITU, Houlin Zhao, SG, Malcolm Johnson, DSG, Doreen Bogdan Martin, Director of BDT, Mario Maniewicz, Director of BR and  Chaesub Lee, Director of TSB).

​​​It has been a great pleasure and honour to chair this session of the Council, following PP-18 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. As stated in my opening remarks we were delegated some tasks by the very successful PP-18 and we were able to complete various points, such as:

• ​Define the ToR and the meeting schedule for the experts group on ITRs​
  
• Define the theme and the process of the WTPF-21 and agree on the dates and venue
• Approve the Biennial Budget 2020-2021
• Decide on the venue of future conferences (WTSA-20 in Hyderabad, WTDC-21 in Addis Ababa, PP-22 in Bucharest) and I take this opportunity to sincerely thank India, Ethiopia and Romania for their invitations which indicate their confidence in the activities of the Union.
• Decide on the venue of an extraordinary session of the Council in order to finalize the project for the new ITU Headquarters
• Establish the new membership of IMAC
• Extend the mandate of Corte dei Conti up to the end of 2021, thus allowing sufficient time to launch the procedure for the selection of new external auditors
• Agree on the work of the Council Working Groups and Experts Group, in some cases with revised ToR.

This list is not exhaustive as you can see from the documentation of the Council reporting on all their important decisions taken.

These great results were possible thanks to the prevailing spirit of international cooperation aimed at improving worldwide communications that has animated our debates and decisions.

For these positive results, let me thank, my Vice-Chair Mr Saif BIN GHELAITA with whom I have shared all my ways of working and experience, the Chair of the Standing Committee on Administration and Management, Ms Stella EREBOR (in Italian Stella means “star") and she is aware that I have highly appreciated the way she has conducted the debates.

I addition, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all Councilors for their contributions, support and fruitful debates.

Furthermore, my friends that I nominated to Chair several Groups have really provided the way forward (Stephen (WTPF), Kishore (CWG-Internet), Mario (CWG-Internet), Kwame (ITRs), Chrystiane (Audit and Building), Santiago (Dec 563), Saif (GCA), Vladimir (Res. WSIS), Vyacheslav (Merging R1336 and R1344).

In my thanks, I must not forget Beatrice and her team, who have thoroughly assisted me in my function, Arnaud, for his legal expertise, my assistant Louise and all ITU staff who have helped our work and who are the most valuable asset of the Union. Not forgetting the interpreters for their friendly and willing cooperation, enabling our debates to be followed in 6 languages.

Dear friends, let us continue to work together for a better worldwide communications scenario.​​