Bangladesh has decided to participate in the next council election of International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to retain membership.
The next plenipotentiary conference of ITU to be held from October 20 to November 7 next year in Busan, South Korea will elect the council for a four-year term.
Bangladesh is currently a member of ITU Council which expires in 2014.
A meeting chaired by post and telecommunication minister Rashed Khan Menon at the ministry office in Dhaka yesterday made the decision, said official sources.
“We have primarily decided to compete in the next election of ITU,” Abu Bakar Siddique, secretary of post and telecommunication ministry, told the Dhaka Tribune.
“However, it will be finalised after January 5 election,” he added.
According to the government sources, if Bangladesh can retain its membership in the ITU Council, the country will be able to exert influences to help developing countries get favours in global telecommunication policies and priorities.
In 1973, Bangladesh became a member of ITU.
The ITU Council acts as the Union’s governing body in the interval between plenipotentiary conferences and regulates telecommunication policies at the both national and international levels.
ITU Plenipotentiary Conference is the top policy-making body of ITU, which is held every four years and sets the ITU’s general policies.
It also adopts four-year strategic and financial plans, and elects council members. The conference determines the ITU’s position on issues such as convergence, telephone tariffs, internet, universal service and electronic commerce.
The present Council was elected at the October 2010 conference in Guadalajara, the capital of Mexican state of Jalisco.
In that election Bangladesh had secured sixth positionwith 123 votes, where 17 candidates competed for the 13-seat Asian Group of ITU Council.
That was the first time Bangladeshcontested in the 46-member ITU Council election.
