BUSAN ― Ministerial level officials from some 50 member states of the International Telecommunications Union adopted a declaration on Sunday aimed at overcoming global inequality through the development of information and communication technology.

The ITU Secretariat said that under the theme of “The Future Role of ICT ― Sustainable Development with Inclusive ICTs,” officials held a meeting in the city to outline global agenda and criteria for the 19th ITU Plenipotentiary Conference, which will kick off here Monday.

The so-called Busan Declaration is in part a follow-up of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, a blueprint adopted in 2000 for the world economy to reduce global poverty rates by half, stop the spread of HIV/AIDS disease and provide universal education by 2015.

ITU government and corporate officials will further collaborate over the next three weeks to share a vision and shape an ICT roadmap to bridge the digital divide by discussing a wide range of issues, from the adoption of fifth-generation mobile communications to the Internet of Things.

“We hope that ICT technology development will spur growth and job creation, and that the Internet of Things will have positive socioeconomic effects worldwide,” South Korea’s Science, ICT and Future Planning Minister Choi Yang-hee said at the ministerial meeting.

Under the vision of “Connect 2020,” by which the ITU expects the number of devices connected to the Internet to reach 25 billion, some 3,000 government and corporate officials from 170 countries will also share ideas on expanding the ICT infrastructure for underdeveloped economies and frequency allocations for airplane location tracking.

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldcorp.com)