Bangladesh has retained its executive membership of the International Telecommunications Union in the elections held in Bushan, South Korea on Monday.
Bangladesh has secured the seventh position by getting a total of 115 votes in the poll, State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak told the Dhaka Tribune.
The numbers of the ITU member states are 193 and of them 167 voted for electing a 48-member council for the next four years.
Bangladesh, which won its executive membership to the 46-member ITU Executive Council in 2010 for a four-year term, is currently one of the 13 members representing the ITU’s Executive Council for Asia and Australia regions. In the last poll, Bangladesh secured the sixth position, getting 123 votes.
The Asian and Australian regions have a total of 13 membership posts sanctioned for representing in the ITU Executive Council. A total of 18 countries have contested against the 13 membership posts in this year's election.
India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, China, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Iran, Philippines, United Arab Emirate, Kuwait, Bahrain and Lebanon are the 17 other countries, which fought for the seats. Malaysia, Iran, Sri Lanka, Bahrain and Lebanon failed to secure any position in the election.
Two-time Deputy Secretary General Houlin Zhao of China has been elected the next ITU Secretary General. He will take office on January 1, 2015 for a term of four years.
Zhao won the position with polling 152 votes among 156 cast in the election. Malcolm Johnson of the United Kingdom has been elected Deputy Secretary-General of ITU by bagging 104 votes.
A delegation comprising of more than 50 people from government and private sectors have gone to the South Korean city ahead of the election. State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak is leading the delegation.
Among them are all the members of the parliamentary standing committee on telecommunication, secretary of telecommunication division, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission chairman and vice chairman, sources said.