Telecommunications is definitely a building block of the modern age.
However, as we look forward to the new millennium, telecommunications is fast becoming a prerequisite for the well-being of our people. In the days to come, you will have a unique opportunity to shape the destiny of communications in our Hemisphere. But, in so doing you will also have a chance to increase the odds that the transformation, we have been experiencing, over the past decade or two, will culminate in the successful integration of the Americas. The transformation, I am speaking of, was nowhere more apparent than just two years ago at the Summit of the Americas. What is more, the Plan of Action produced by the Summit focused on matters of direct interest to each of our member states.