The 1st ITU Interregional Coordination Meeting for the ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference 2021 (WTDC-21) was held on March 11, 2021, using the Zoom platform.

The above-mentioned meeting was opened and the Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau Doreen Bogdan-Martin addressed the participants with a welcoming speech.

The Minister of Innovation and Technology of Ethiopia Ahmedin Mohammed also made a welcome speech.

The purpose of the interregional meeting was to stimulate interregional discussions, defining common positions and agreeing on key issues before the meeting of WTDC-21.

The agenda of the above meeting included the following issues:

1. Adoption of the agenda;

2. Appointment of the Chairman and Vice-Chairmen;

3. Updating WTDC-21;

4. Updated information on the preparation of Regional Telecommunications Organizations;

5. Results of the Regional Preparatory Meeting;

- Regional preparatory meeting-EUR;

- Regional priorities for Europe;

- Regional Preparatory Meeting-ASP: TBD;

- Calendar of Regional Preparatory Meetings.

6. Report on the work of the TDAG Working Group on Resolutions, Declarations and Thematic Priorities of WTDC;

- Declarations;

- Thematic priorities (including SG issues);

- Revision of Resolutions.

7. Report on the work of TDAG Working Group on Strategic and Operational Plans;

8. Miscellaneous.

During the above meeting, the Chairman and Vice-Chairmen of the regular ITU interregional meetings for WTDC-21 were elected. The Minister of Innovation and Technology of Ethiopia, Ahmedin Mohammed, was appointed chairman of these meetings.

At the same time, from the Regional Commonwealth in the field of Communications, the Deputy Head of the FSUE NIIR Laboratory Arseniy Yuryevich Plossky, who is also the Deputy Chairman of the Advisory Group for the Development of Telecommunications, was approved as the Deputy Chairman of the ITU interregional meetings for WTDC-21.

At the beginning of the ITU meeting, a report was presented by the Technical Advisor to the Minister of Communications and Information Technologies of Ethiopia, Mesfin Belachev.

This report provided information on the following options for holding the next ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference:

1) Full-time (November 7-19, 2021, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia);

2) Hybrid (combining the face-to-face format with the virtual one);

3) Virtual (full transition to a virtual format);

4) Postponement of the date of WTDC-21 to 2022.

The ITU event was attended by over 330 representatives of regional and international telecommunication organizations.

At the 1st ITU Interregional Coordination Meeting for WTDC-21, representatives of the following regional organizations made a presentation:

- African Telecommunication Union (ATU);

- the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL);

- Asia Pacific Telecommunication Community (APT);

- Regional Commonwealth in the Field of Communications (RCC);

- European Conference of Post and Telecommunication Administrations (CEPT);

- Arab Group (ArabGroup).

The RCC position on the preparation for WTDC-21 was presented by the Chairman of the Working Group on the work with ITU at the RCC Commission for the Coordination of International Cooperation, Vladimir Markovich Minkin.

In addition, the participants of this meeting heard 18 documents of the draft General Proposals prepared by the Regional Commonwealth in the field of communications. The meeting participants expressed their gratitude to the RCC representatives for their active work related to the preparation for WTDC-21.

At the close of the 1st ITU Interregional Coordination Meeting for WTDC-21, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau Doreen Bogdan-Martin and Chairman of the meeting Dr. Ahmedin Mohammed summed up the meeting and thanked all participants for their constructive and fruitful work.