AG/RES. 1843 (XXXII-O/02)

ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE INTER-AMERICAN TELECOMMUNICATION COMMISSION DURING 2001 

(Adopted at the fourth plenary session held on June 4, 2002) 

            THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, 

            HAVING SEEN the Annual Report of the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL) to the General Assembly (CP/doc.3549/02); 

TAKING INTO ACCOUNT: 

That the Declaration of Quebec City and the statement on connectivity of the Third Summit of the Americas, held in April 2001 in Quebec City, Canada, assign a critical role to the OAS in the implementation of the Plan of Action; and 

That the Heads of State and Government of the Americas, gathered at the Summit of the Americas held in Quebec City, recognized that an extraordinary technological revolution is now under way and that the region is entering a new economy and society defined by its vastly enhanced capacity to have access to knowledge and to improve the dissemination of information;  

CONSIDERING: 

That in addressing its mandates, during 2001, the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission: 

            a.         Developed a draft Agenda for Connectivity in the Americas and the Quito Action Plan as part of a conceptual frame of reference to provide general guidelines for facilitating the respective processes of assessment, design, implementation, evaluation, and integration of national Agendas for Connectivity; 

            b.         Prepared and distributed to the Members and Associate Members a “Reference Book on Tele-education in the Americas”;

            c.         Initiated the preparation of a “Reference Book on Telemedicine in the Americas”; 

            d.         Published and distributed to its membership the inaugural edition of the CITEL magazine, CITEL XXI; 

            e.         Initiated a program to address the issue of fraud in the use of mobile communications, which includes the coordination of this project with other telecommunication organizations throughout the world; and 

            f.          Expanded the frequency range of its spectrum usage database allocations, available on the CITEL Web page in both English and Spanish, up to 400 GHz, including data from the ITU, 31 countries of the Americas, the common European allocations, and the allocations of Korea, Japan, and Thailand; and 

CONSIDERING ALSO: 

            That CITEL is involved in an intensive process of developing common inter-American proposals for the 2002 World Telecommunication Development Conference, the 2002 ITU Plenipotentiary Conference, and the 2003 World Radiocommunication Conference, for the purpose of ensuring that the region of the Americas has a strong voice in the global forum of the International Telecommunication Union; 

            That the implementation of the Mutual Recognition Agreement on Conformity Assessment (MRA) is now under way in the Americas, with six countries either having signed the MRA or actively working to make modifications to their national regulations in order to position themselves to sign it.  Furthermore, CITEL has established an agreement with the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Telecommunications Working Group for joint coordinated implementation of the MRAs; and 

            That CITEL has signed cooperative agreements with three telecommunication organizations and has concluded negotiations on such an agreement with the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT), 

RESOLVES: 

            1.         To express appreciation to the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission for its ongoing efforts to facilitate and promote the continuing development of telecommunications in the Hemisphere. 

            2.         To take note of the significant activities accomplished and initiated by the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission during 2001. 

            3.         To request CITEL to present a follow-up report to the General Assembly at its thirty-third regular session.