Today, the Minister of Communication and Information Technology presented his speech at the ITU Telecom World 2017 in Busan, Republic or Korea, in presence of communication ministers of ITU member countries.
According to Communication Ministry’s Public Relations department, the ITU Telecom World’s Exhibition was also inaugurated yesterday and it will conclude its activities by tomorrow.
The complete text of the Minister’s speech can be read here:
In the Name of God, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful
We are witnessing that the world's attention is focusing on new applications, new services, and new opportunities. In particular, shaping smart services and industries is becoming a hot topic of interest for entrepreneurs, operators, and users as well. In many aspects, the future of our planet, our environment, and our life-styles depend on the utilization of ICTs to ensure that developments are sustainable. It is in this light that multiple technologies and concepts, such as Internet-of-Things, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data Analytics, Future Networks, among other things have become hot buzz words in our daily lives. Today I want to focus on one case in which we have been able to demonstrate the effectiveness of some of these technologies and concepts in solving a very serious problem in my country, and share with you its impact on other pressing issues as well.
My country, like many other countries is suffering from prolonged and severe drought. We either have to abandon the affected areas and engage in very costly and often unsuccessful efforts to relocate large populations, or find a solution which would enable us to better manage our water consumption and improve efficiencies. In my country, more than 90 percent of our water resources are used for agriculture. Many people in remote and rural areas depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, and an effective solution is very much in need. We have used IoT and AI to introduce automated and smart irrigation, and initial implementations have shown that we can reduce water consumption by as much as 50 percent. I am happy to tell you that the reduction in the cost of electricity for pumping water is used to provide financing for this project. In other words, the private sector is providing the necessary finances and other means (including technical solutions and tools) for this project, and in return, is paid back by the savings in electricity bills for a period of two years. As a result, we are reducing the electricity consumption, which in turn reduces the fuel for generating electricity, and at the same time creates new jobs for our young engineers and technicians for implementing and maintaining such projects.
This is only one example of utilizing the power of ICTs to solve serious problems affecting our societies. There are other examples in other sectors with similar positive impacts. In implementing such projects and concepts, however, one should realize from the very onset that such project needs the active involvement of multiple players and stakeholders. Let me finish by saying that our experiences indicate that a multi-stakeholder approach is as important as the choice of technologies and technical solution, and at times, may be even more.
I welcome your views on our way forward, and thank you for your attention.