Page 17 - Sphere No.10 (Dec 2003)

D emonstrating its commitment to
nurturing talent in the Telecoms
industry, H3G was the lead
sponsor of the Youth Forum at ITU
Telecom World 2003, contributing
500,000 Swiss francs (approximately
US$380,000) to enable more than 300
university students from 189 member
states to participate.
The Youth Forum focused on three
main themes: Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) as an
enabler of economic and social develop-
ment; the policy and regulatory aspects
of ICTs, and; strategies for investment
and financing. The Youth Fellows also
took part in a workshop on designing
a business plan.
Speaking at the opening session, Agnes
Nardi, MD of Hutchison Telecom (HK)
and H3G HK, told delegates 3 is commit-
ted to educating the public, particularly
young people, on the immense potential
of ICTs.
“The young generation represents
a critically important pool of human cap-
ital to the ICT sector,” she said. “They
will shape the future of the industry.”
The massive adoption of ICTs into
every aspect of daily life and the econo-
my had connected people around the
world, linked businesses at all times with
their customers, employees, partners and
suppliers, and supercharged the world’s
trading activities.
“In the public domain, ICTs also great-
ly improve access to health care, educa-
tion, and public administration, fostering
social and political progress,” she added.
“We are fortunate to live in the era of an
Information Economy with the free flow
of an unprecedented amount of new
knowledge and information.”
Ms Nardi said it was essential to tap
into the energy, creativity and trend-set-
ting vision of the younger generation.
“We are particularly enthusiastic about
nurturing a pool of global talent
who will advance the mobile frontier and
contribute to our efforts to build a bet-
ter, united and harmonised world
through continuous innovation in the
exciting world of information and com-
munication technology.”
Following up on their experience, the
Youth Fellows drafted a declaration of
their vision of the information society for
consideration at the first phase of the
World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS) held in Geneva on 10-12
December 2003.The declaration calls for
a Youth Action Plan to address key areas
such as education, access to infrastruc-
ture, local action, regulation, and finance
and investment.
S PHERE
122315
COLLECT CALL
Hutchison
donated
US$380,000
towards the
Youth Forum
In conclusion, Novari noted how, his-
torically, “some things that at first have
seemed small and irrelevant have changed
the world by growing in an exponential
way. The tendency in interpreting these
phenomena has been to underestimate the
important groundwork established in the
initial start-up phase and to over-empha-
sise the phase of slow growth as the prod-
uct reaches maturity,” he said.
To illustrate the point, Novari offered
a quote from a leading newspaper:
A large part of the enthusiasm towards this
new technology seems to be spent, and the
launch of the service, originally planned for the
autumn, is continually slipping … the econo-
my has fallen into a deep recession, the plans
for the number of users has decreased and the
need for massive investment has frightened
many initial investors.
Surprisingly, this excerpt is not about the
current 3G landscape but was published in
the Financial Times in 1992, referring
to the launch of GSM, or 2G, which today
has 1.3 billion users.
Novari believes that 3G is in the initial
phase with potential for exponential growth
while GSM has entered the slow-growth
maturity phase.
“We can think of the future as something
for which you wait or as something which
you move towards. Those who invest with
determination in 3G believe that the future
is something that you move towards.
I believe that in five years the winning com-
panies will have doubled their value.”