The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade announced on Thursday in Budapest that the United Nations specialised agency for information and communication technologies, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) will hold its telecommunications world conference (Telecom World) in the Hungarian capital this autumn.

Besides the current political, economic and security changes in the world, the rapidly changing technological environment has an important role as well, Minister Péter Szijjártó said to the accredited ambassadors and foreign diplomats in Budapest. This is particularly true in the field of info-communications, he added.

All countries have to create their own adaptation strategies in order to benefit from the changes instead of suffering losses. Hungary has been on a development path since 2010 in the wake of which it is able to profit from the changes and has become one of the winners of this process of change, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade added.

At the event, Péter Szijjártó and ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao  signed the  agreement on  the implementation, organisation and funding of the ITU Telecom World 2015 conference to be held in Budapest between 12-15 October this year.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade reminded that Hungary aspires to shape these technological changes instead of merely following them. As an example, he mentioned the work of Tivadar Puskás and János Neumann as a basis enabling the development of telephony and computer technology.

Consequently, there is a legitimate expectation that Hungarian professionals become active participants of the process of technological change in the world, especially in the field of info-communications and digital technology.

He indicated that in the light of the creativity of Hungarians, which is well-known internationally, it is a particular honour for Hungary to host this autumn’s world conference, when ITU will celebrate its 150th anniversary. Approximately 5.000-6.000 participants are expected to attend the event. The forum offers a major opportunity for Hungarian professionals and enterprises to show their achievements in this field and their expertise to the world, as well as to involve further resources in the development.

He said that the telecommunications conference mainly focuses on the topics of digital city and digital home technologies. However, 5G solutions and grasping the opportunities presented by Big Data will be also on the agenda.

He mentioned that Hungary considers multilateral diplomacy important and places more emphasis on it than before, being a significant resource also in bilateral relations, as well as in improving the performance of the Hungarian economy. This is also the reason why Hungary is hosting more and more major international events year to year. Info- and telecommunications are an important area of the country’s development. The development goals of these areas are set by the National Info-communications Strategy. The major objective of the strategy is to establish “a digital Hungary”, he said, adding that out of the strategic partnership agreements of the government concluded with companies 11 agreements were signed with information and communication enterprises. Hungary's goal is to belong to forefront of the information communication and telecommunications areas in the EU.

Houlin Zhao emphasised that the 150-year-old ITU which has 193 member states plans to involve small and medium businesses in its work with greater intensity, and is willing to give more attention to innovation and to supporting developments in different areas of info-communication.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)