Ahead of this year’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) meeting, scheduled for September 26-October 14 in Bucharest, Romania, USCIB issued priorities for the organization’s Plenipotentiary Conference 2022 (PP-22).

USCIB’s priorities target ITU Member States and Sector Members as they seek to reexamine the ITU’s general policies, adopt the four-year strategic and financial plans and elect the senior management team of the Union, including USCIB’s endorsed candidate Doreen Bogdan-Martin for ITU Secretary General.

According to USCIB Vice President for ICT Policy Barbara Wanner, who will be in Bucharest for the deliberations, decisions, such as the election for the new ITU Secretary General, taken at PP-22 have the potential to significantly impact global business on both the technical and policy fronts. USCIB was one of the first business organizations to join the U.S. government in strongly endorsing the candidacy of Bogdan-Martin to become the new ITU Secretary General.

“By virtue of her current leadership of the ITU Development Bureau, we believe that Ms. Bogdan-Martin possesses both substantive knowledge and leadership skills that would make her a superb ITU Secretary General,” said Wanner.

USCIB extensive list of priorities for the ITU also included a position on the ITU’s role with respect to international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet and the management of Internet resources, including domain names and addresses. Aligning with the U.S. Government and others, USCIB opposes the ITU assuming a role in managing, coordinating, overseeing, or otherwise regulating the use of the Internet on grounds that this is beyond the ITU’s authority and expertise.

USCIB also provided comments on several newer issues, such as a proposal to strengthen the role of ITU with regard to transparency, confidence-building and measures in outer space activities and regulation of AI. Concerning the AI proposals, in particular, USCIB is wary of efforts to expand the ITU work program to include AI and other emerging technologies on the grounds that, if not properly scoped, the policy outcomes could stifle innovation and not be technology neutral.

Click here to read USCIB’s Priorities document for the ITU PP-22.