Business Update

New Zealand participates in ITU World Youth Forum

Denise Dube of Otago University and Stephen Smith from the Auckland University of Technology were selected by the ITU to represent New Zealand following a nominations process managed by the Ministry of Economic Development.  An ITU fellowship scheme covered their travel and living costs for participating.

The youth forum was held as part of the ITU Telecom World 2009 event. It brought together university students aged between 18 and 23 from around the world to acquire first-hand knowledge of information and communication technologies and to discuss how that knowledge can be applied to their national and community development plans.

A highlight for Stephen was hearing about the different challenges countries face in the quest to become connected, and in particular, the focus shown by the majority of UN member states to ensuring children and schools have access to high-quality, high-speed Internet.  The forum agreed that all schools had to be brought up to speed, otherwise the next generation economy would fall behind. 

Denise remarked on the faith the organisers/ITU had in the students to make a difference. All the addresses were about what the participants had the potential to do, to become and to improve.  Each participant was given a challenge – to take a chance and see just how much could be accomplished.

Best wishes to Stephen and Denise for their future endeavours. We are sure they will be a positive force for change using information and communication technologies.

Related link

• ITU Youth Forum 2009