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The APT at WRC-23

20 November - 15 December 2023, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

The World Radiocommunication Conference 2023 (WRC-23) was held from 20 November to 15 December 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Over 3,900 delegates from 163 Member States of ITU attended WRC-23. The Members of the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity constituted a significant portion of the delegation of WRC-23. Similar to the previous WRCs, the APT’s preparation for WRC-23 was extensive and substantial looking into the interest of the Asia-Pacific region.  In 2023, the APT organized two APT preparatory meetings for WRC-23 each of which were attended by over 800 delegates. APT Members endorsed 320 APT Common Proposals (ACPs) which were submitted to WRC-23 on various agenda items of WRC-23. In addition to that the APT provided a significant number of regional experts for different office bearers positions of WRC-23. Dr. Kyu Jin Wee (Republic of Korea), Chair of the APG-23, was elected as one of the Vice-Chairmen of WRC-23. Dr. Hiroyuki Atarashi (Japan) chaired the Committee 5 of the Conference which dealt with the agenda items related to fixed, mobile, terrestrial, maritime, aeronautical and other related agenda items. It was an honor for the APT as a region to chair this very important Committee of the Conference. In addition to that Ms. Cheng Fenhong (People’s Republic of China) served as the Chairman of WG 5C that dealt with Agenda 7 of the Conference. APT Members provided a number of experts as Vice-Charmen of various committees and Chairmen of various Sub WG of the Conferences that dealt with different agenda items of the conference.

The proceeding of WRC-23 was very complex and tedious due to the conflict of interests among the regional organizations for different agenda items. It took a lot of efforts and hard works for over 4 weeks to come to a conclusion on those complex issues. In order to coordinate various issues among APT Members, APT Secretariat organized a series of APT Coordination Meetings during the Conference. APT Agenda Item Coordinators were nominated to dispatch necessary information and conduct necessary coordination with other regional organizations. In order to efficiently organize the coordination activities of the APT during the conference, APT Secretariat developed APT web-portal for the Coordination Activities for WRC-23 for the first time. The web-portal served as a tool to dispatch necessary information and accelerate the coordination work among APT Members.

The outcomes of WRC-23 were a testament to the unwavering spirit of cooperation and compromise among all the Members of ITU. APT Members contributed significantly to this effort and spirit of cooperation despite many difficulties at the national level. 320 ACPs that were submitted to the Conference were accepted in most of the cases with original or negotiated form taking into account the views of other regional organizations. The APT proposed 5 new agenda items for WRC-27 of which 3 were included in the agenda of WRC-27. The interests of APT Members and the objectives of 320 ACPs were correctly reflected in the outcomes of WRC-23.

Prior to WRC-23, the Radiocommunication Assembly 2023 (RA-23) was held from 13 to 17 November 2023 at the same venue as WRC-23. The APT had been preparing for RA-23 along with the preparation for WRC-23. The APT submitted two important ACPs: a new resolution on gender and a revision of ITU-R Resolution 2-8 in relation to the work of CPM. Both of the ACPs were well accepted as the outcomes of RA-23. APT’s view was well considered in the revision of ITU-R Resolution 65 and Resolution 1-8.  The APT was very much honored that RA-23 was chaired by Ms. Carol Wilson (Australia). Further, as outcome of RA-23, Dr. Kyu Jin Wee (Republic of Korea) was elected as the Chairman of ITU-R Study Group 5 for the Study Cycle 2024-2027. 

The APT’s preparation for WRC-27 will start by the middle of 2024.