Your Excellencies, Madam Chair and Vice-chairs, Secretary-General, Deputy Secretary-General and Directors of the Bureaus of ITU, distinguished guests, ladies and gentleman. I am honored to attend the WTPF-21 and would like to express my sincere appreciation to the distinguished experts who have prepared this forum.  

The establishment of the WTPF was agreed upon at the Kyoto Plenipotentiary Conference in 1994, and the topics for discussions have always been relevant and timely. The theme of this forum, “Policies for mobilizing new and emerging telecommunications/ICTs for sustainable development”, is again, very timely and important. We agree with the notion that the use of ICT, including emerging technologies, is essential for achieving the SDGs. 

Japan considers the following three points to be particularly important. 

The first is “Connectivity”. Under the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of connectivity has been reaffirmed. In order to support the needs of developing countries that are emerging from COVID-19, Japan, in cooperation with the ITU, launched the Connect2Recover project in October last year to strengthen the digital infrastructure in those countries.  

The second point is “Inclusive Access”. In the spirit of leaving no one behind, and in order to ensure that emerging technologies do not promote fragmentation but benefit everyone, Japan is actively contributing to the standardization of such technologies and to related ITU activities. 

The last point is “Capacity Building”. In addition to inclusive access, we need to focus on improving people’s skills. Japan is currently considering organizing policy and technical training courses for high-level government officials to support the early deployment of emerging technologies in other countries.  

Japan would like to continue our contribution to the achievement of the SDGs. We also look forward to working together in the spirit of cooperation and collaboration to successfully complete the work of the forum. 

Thank you very much for your kind attention.