May 2005 marked two important anniversaries for the International Telecommuni-cations Union (ITU). It was 140 years since ITU began helping the world communicate. From the birth of the telegraph, through radio and television broadcasting to satellite communications and the internet, the work of ITU has helped harness the power of science and technology to fulfil a basic human need for communication.

However, 20 years ago, the ITU noted that not all people were sharing in the social and economic benefits that telecommunications create. In 1985 ITU released the landmark Maitland Report, known as the ‘Missing Link’, which was the first to clearly identify the digital divide. Since its publication, ITU has been working in earnest to bring the benefits of ICT to all humanity.

Malta wholeheartedly supports the ITU declaration of principles and plan of action which embraced the idea of universal and affordable access to Information and Communication technologies (ICTs), that was endorsed at the first ITU World Summit in Geneva in 2003. Malta looks forward to actively participating in the forthcoming ITU summit in Tunisia in November 2005 to assist in furthering the main objective of connecting different people across geographic, knowledge and information divides.

We are on track to further our regional and global potential as an electronic hub (or e-hub) in the emerging Euro-Mediterranean area. This will facilitate the goal of fostering closer relations between Europe and its neighbours across the Mediterranean as envisaged in the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, and the EU’s Neighbourhood Policy.

Today’s high-tech knowledge-based communication tools must be deployed to strengthen human interaction and the promotion of dialogue between different cultures. This is a goal Malta is firmly committed to achieving and it looks forward to working with its partners in the ITU to create the necessary synergies so that the vision of a global village becomes a reality.

In Malta we are currently implementing a strategic agenda that will turn our country into a centre of ICT excellence over the next few years. Establishing Malta as an ICT Centre of Excellence will enable us to attract investment from the major international firms in this business, a prerequisite to promoting further ICT development across the Mediterranean.

In terms of ICT development, Malta has benefited from the political foresight demonstrated by the government when we were singled out by the ITU as the role model for development with major infrastructural investments within the domestic sector, enhancing our objectives to establish ourselves as an attractive hub for inward and outward economic activity. Sound communication infrastructures are vital to the attraction of foreign investments, and we are committed to improve the ones in existence, while embarking on other modern concepts to keep on a par with the fast-developing technological demands.

I believe that ICTs should serve as crucial tools for achieving economic progress. This should be attained at all social levels, thus ensuring that through communicating, people of different nations become closer. Governments, social partners, and the private sector are all key players who are working jointly to achieve such an environment. This is also happening in Malta.

As members of a European single market encompassing over 450 million citizens, we have to play leading roles in the provision of such services. This enhances our competitiveness as a nation while ensuring that domestic consumers are provided with the best quality of service and competitive tariffs throughout the sector.

I would also like to urge leaders to focus on the strategic role which ICTs can play in reducing poverty and creating opportunities for a long-term development.

In this context, I am very satisfied to say that the theme chosen by the government for this year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which will take place in Malta in November, has been that of bridging the digital divide which exists in our world. I think that this is an excellent example whereby we are practicing what we preach by making the most of such an opportunity to take concrete steps towards making ICT truly available for all.

So far, the ITU has proved that it is capable of meeting its challenges. However, there is no doubt that the unprecedented transformation the world is undergoing will pose further far-reaching challenges to the ITU in the future.

Censu Galea is Competitiveness and Communications Minister