Egypt, represented by the National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA), will host the Arab and African preparatory meetings of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly 2016 (WTSA 16). The Africa Region Preparatory Meeting will be held on September 4-6, and the Arab States Preparatory Meeting will take place on September 7-8 in Cairo. This year, the WTSA will take place in Yasmine Hammamet, Tunisia from October 25 to November 3. Regional preparatory meetings are organized by the regional telecommunication organizations in coordination with ITU. The meetings aim to unify points of views on key topics in various regional areas in order to ensure the success of the conference and avoid differences in views and attitudes. The significance of those meetings lies in providing a platform to discuss and identify issues of interest to the region and agreeing on how to present those issues jointly at the conference. Those preparatory meetings are the last meetings before the WTSA 16. The meetings aim to reach final agreement on the united Arab and African contributions, unify the Arab and African positions and submit the key proposals that will be included in the work of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) during the coming period. ITU-T gives due consideration to the interests of developing countries. Egypt permanently participates in the ITU activities, holds a leading position at the Union and actively takes part in all the WTSA meetings. It participated in WTSA meetings in 2004, 2008 and 2012, and became a member in ITU-T several study groups. Egypt also contributed to the preparation, discussion and approval of many of the resolutions that take into account the interests of the developing countries, including Egypt. Egypt's role is growing significantly in the ITU-T sector, whether from its written contributions or discussions in ITU-T Study Groups (SG). It also held numerous management positions during WTSA 2012 and beyond. Being one of the oldest members in the ITU, Egypt has 16 sector members from the private sector in the Union. It is also a founding member of the "Partners to Connect the World" initiative and it chairs the ITU Council Working Group on International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs). Egypt is an active participant in the ITU Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU-D) activities and has succeeded in establishing the first regional subgroup in SG2. This, in turn, further enhances the regional presence of ITU and increases its involvement with developing countries in Africa and the Arab World. Based in Geneva, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is the leading United Nations agency for information and communication technologies with 191 member states and more than 700 sector members and associates. ITU role is to enable the global growth and sustained development of ICT. In addition, ITU organizes international telecom events like WSIS and Telecom Africa.
