Re-train Retaining Asia's Na Robert Blois, Deputy-Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union China. 16 May 200 Your Excellencies. Lad ies and Gentlemen I am privileged to be here this afternoon to address you on behalf of the International Telecommunication Union on the subject of re-training and retaining Asia's native talents I am particularly honored to speak to this august gathering in Beijing, at a momentous time, as the globalization trends seem to be unstoppabl To attract. train and retain the brightest and best is one of the monumental challenges in Asia. Some of the member economies present here have major programmes to conserve their homegrown technical talent for nstance by fund ing for schools and colleges, research grants and tax breaks while others make efforts to attract skilled and creative workers into their country Industry can sell you the best hard ware and the best software in the world but new technology for technology's sake is not enough. The gap is in brain ware": more skilled workers and more diverse skills. This certainly applies to the overall telecommunication sector in order to face the convergence of technologies and the revision of the notion of services At the same time, the focus is moving from engineering to operations business, services and markets. This will mean an enormous retraining effort to upgrade workers with new and updated skills The purpose of the International Telecommunications Union is in keep ing with facilitating peaceful relations international cooperation among peoples and economic and social development by means of efficient telecommunications services The ITU is the unique international organization where all telecommunication and broad casting issues are discussed and where1 Re-training and Retaining Asia’s Native Talents (Robert Blois, Deputy-Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union) Beijing-China, 16 May 2001 Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am privileged to be here this afternoon to address you on behalf of the International Telecommunication Union on the subject of re-training and retaining Asia’s native talents. I am particularly honored to speak to this august gathering in Beijing, at a momentous time, as the globalization trends seem to be unstoppable. To attract, train and retain the brightest and best is one of the monumental challenges in Asia. Some of the member economies present here have major programmes to conserve their homegrown technical talent for instance by funding for schools and colleges, research grants and tax breaks while others make efforts to attract skilled and creative workers into their country. Industry can sell you the best hardware and the best software in the world, but new technology for technology’s sake is not enough. The gap is in “brain ware”: more skilled workers and more diverse skills. This certainly applies to the overall telecommunication sector in order to face the convergence of technologies and the revision of the notion of services. At the same time, the focus is moving from engineering to operations, business, services and markets. This will mean an enormous retraining effort to upgrade workers with new and updated skills. The purpose of the International Telecommunications Union is in keeping with facilitating peaceful relations international cooperation among peoples and economic and social development by means of efficient telecommunications services. The ITU is the unique international organization where all telecommunication and broadcasting issues are discussed and where