Bangladesh wins ITU election

USANEWS: Bangladesh has been elected to the prestigious Council of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for the term 2010-2014, held on 11 October in Guadalajara, Mexico during ITU Plenipotentiary Conference.

Bangladesh secured sixth position among the 17 candidates competing for 13 seats in Asian Group of the ITU council. Bangladesh with 123 votes has secured higher votes than giant telecommunication players from Asia including Thailand, Australia, India, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Philippines. The other candidates who were elected from the Asian Region are Indonesia, China, Japan, Malaysia and Republic of Korea. This is the first time that Bangladesh has contested for a seat on the 46-member ITU Council, the principal global body regulating telecommunication policies at the national and international levels.

Securing a seat on the ITU Council would afford Bangladesh the opportunity to influence global telecommunication policies and priorities in favor of developing countries with limited resources to advance their ICT programmes. It would also be a milestone achievement in accelerating the realization of the present Government’s ‘Digital Bangladesh’ programme on using ICT as a tool for poverty alleviation towards‘Vision 2021’.

Bangladesh’s victory at the ITU elections was the results of intense campaigning and diplomatic lobbying and the joint efforts of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Post and Telecommunication.

This election to the ITU Council add one more diplomatic feather in Bangladesh’s international membership credentials during the last two years, having won challenging elections in more than 20 international bodies, a number unmatched so far in the country’s diplomatic history.