The World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-06), which took place from 7 to 15 March in Doha, Qatar, gathered 969 participants, including 820 government delegates from 132 countries, 71 Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Ambassadors, 93 representatives from the private sector, and 38 representatives from regional and international organizations. The purpose of the Conference was to agree on development priorities in view of the high-level recognition of the Digital Divide created by the rapid but uneven expansion of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Another objective of the Conference was to promote international cooperation and partnerships that can sustain and strengthen telecommunication infrastructure and institutions in developing countries.

The Conference adopted the Doha Declaration and the Doha Action Plan. The Doha Declaration stresses the need to quicken the “pace towards the creation of a truly global Information Society in order to bring opportunities to countries, and to create conditions aimed at deriving maximum benefit from the implementation of new services and applications in order to accelerate overall development”. The Doha Action Plan sets out the road map for the next four years to implement global objectives in order to harness the power of ICTs for development. The Action Plan is based on a mutually reinforcing strategy for telecommunication development to be implemented at the global, regional, and national levels. It builds on the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) outcomes, and is in tune with the WSIS action lines, specifically those that fall within ITU’s core competencies, such as development of infrastructure, regulatory framework, capacity building, e-applications and radio spectrum management.

For more information, visit the World Telecommunication Development Conference (Doha, 2006) web site.