Every four years, ITU brings together the brilliant minds of the world and gives them the chance to decide what is the best way to make technology work for the benefit of all humankind, said Sabin Sărmaș, President of the IT&C Commission of the Chamber of Deputies and President of the ITU-PP 2022 Conference in Bucharest.

Read the full speech below:

“Mr. Secretary General of ITU, Houlin Zhao, Mr. Deputy Secretary General, Malcom Johnson, distinguished Elected Officials, your excellencies, distinguished representatives of member states, distinguished guests, dear friends.

Thank you all for the appointment, I am extremely honoured to have the chance to chair this great event.

I would also like to thank the Romanian Government for entrusting me with this important role and the Romanian Parliament for all the support given in my preparation process.

Last, but definitely not least, I want to congratulate all the institutions involved in the organization of this wonderful event, especially to the colleagues from ANCOM (the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communication of Romania), for dedicating their time, efforts and resources. You did an outstanding job!

We are here in Romania, at a one of kind event, a once-in-a-lifetime experience, under our flag which carries the message “Connect and unite”.

What a wonderful message!

What is our greatest dream?

I’ll give you a clue. It is the same dream our Union had since 1865!

• The dream that enabled ITU to bring a TV in every home
• The dream that made radio one of the most trusted sources for news, entertainment, and information
• The dream that connected the unconnected by bringing the internet to over 3 billion people in the most remote areas of the globe.

Our greatest dream is to have a better world!

This is what connects us, this is what unites us. This is a main value for us, the members of the Union, to employ the power of technology for a better world, for us and for the future generations.

Today, the power of technology is impressive. It connects people worldwide in ways we never imagined decades ago. Just remember that during the pandemic, technology was the only way we could keep in touch with each other.

I want to tell you a story. In 2014 people from all over the world started pouring buckets of iced water on their heads. But they didn’t stop there. They filmed themselves, shared the videos on the Internet and asked their friends to do the same. It was called the Ice Bucket Challenge. The movement meant to raise awareness and funds for people suffering from a horrible disease, called ALS. Each year (50.000) fifty thousand individuals are diagnosed with this disease.

Do you know someone suffering from ALS?  Except, of course, the genius Stephen Hawking, who spent 55 years in a wheelchair?

I know someone.  He is friend of mine, one of the humblest, kindest and positive people I ever meet. He used to play guitar in a rock band, but now he can hardly move. Still, he is the same wonderful person, as most people suffering from ALS are.

So, how did the ice bucket challenge help?

220 million dollars were raised that year, all over the world to fight this disease.

The power of technology brought out the best in us, the power of technology made those videos viral, the power of technology saved lives.

Now imagine the ice bucket challenge done without internet. I would take a piece of paper, a pen and start writing “Dear Mr. Houlin Zhao, Secretary General of ITU, I challenge you to pour a bucket of iced water on your head. Please find in the envelope a photo of mine, looking like a wet dog, because I accepted Mr.’s Kavouss Arasteh challenge.

Not working …

Without the power of technology such wonderful achievement would have been impossible.

WannaCry ransomware attack

Now, there is another side of technology, a not so bright one.

In May 2017, the doctors from a UK hospital were doing what they do best, saving peoples’ life. It was a regular day. Nothing seemed to announce the disaster that was about to happen.

In only a few hours hundreds of computers were crashed.

A virus spreading across the internet, paralyzed the activity of the hospital. It was the famous WannaCry ransomware attack.

That day, the lives of hundreds of patients in critical condition were under threat.

While people were desperately unplugging their computers, on the other side of the world, a 23-year-old brilliant young man, blocked the virus in less than three hours, while casually enjoying his lunch.

It was the same power of technology, but this time in the hands of criminals that threatened the lives of our loved ones and spread panic around the world.

The sun that nurtures the Amazon Rainforest is the same sun that melts the glaciers of Antarctica, because of human mistakes.

The technology that makes this world a better place is the same technology that can destroy us, if being misused.

Humanity needs you, its most knowledgeable people, to decide how to use technology for the common good, to offer access to technology to everyone while keeping them safe.

So, every four years, ITU brings together the brilliant minds of the world and gives them the chance to decide what is the best way to make technology work for the benefit of all humankind.

This, is our chance!

And we should all be aware that there are moments in our lives, moments like these, when we can change the course of humanity. In only three weeks, our work can have such an impact, that the world will know irreversible development.

Let’s use these weeks as a unique opportunity to make this world a better place!

Let us unite and forget about personal egos and be guided by the same values and principles that will empower us to reach this goal:

• Openness – it was openness that made our preparation process a success.
• Collaboration – we can only reach consensus trough close collaboration
• Efficiency – we must use our time wisely because it’s limited. I’ve heard it a few times, more or less seriously, about reaching consensus through exhaustion. This is not an Ironman contest, it is the ITU plenipotentiary conference. We should avoid late night working session and enjoying the weekends.

We have brilliant delegates, and great support from the secretariat. We have highly professional chairs and vice-chairs. Is like having Barcelona and Real Madrid in the same event, but I promise you no El Clasico at PP, we are one united team.

Verry soon, the official negotiations will begin. Don’t negotiate only thinking about winning. Negotiate bearing in mind a better future of the humanity and we will make history!  May we all have a successful PP!”