The government has sought support from the member countries of the Commonwealth Telecommunication Organisation (CTO) for contesting the upcoming council election of International Telecommunication Union (ITU) scheduled in November in South Korea.
Ahead of the election, Bangladesh started campaign a couple of months back and hosted the 54th forum meeting of CTO that concluded in a city hotel yesterday.
“We talked with the representatives from the CTO member countries for the ITU council membership election. We have also received some positive response,” Sunil Kanti Bose, chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), told a concluding press conference of the CTO forum.
He said the forum meeting was held to boost campaign for the ITU council membership election, and so far Bangladesh is successful about it.
The election for ITU council membership is scheduled in November when 13 council members will be elected from Asia and Pacific.
A total of 17 countries including Bangladesh have filed their candidature from Asia and Pacific, and the last date of declaring candidature is 15 September, the BTRC chairman said.
In 2010, Bangladesh was elected for the same post with neighboring countries India, but Pakistan and Sri Lanka lost in the race.
All these countries have also declared their candidacies.
Not only Bangladesh, Nigeria and other African countries are also campaigning for them, Sunil added.
The telecom regulator also said the CTO forum was the biggest telecom event so far hosted by Bangladesh.
“It will improve our reputation and make us more familiar in the telecom arena.” Bangladesh received a number of directives including how to improve the cyber security and next generation technological, the BTRC chair said.
Asked if there was any initiative from Bangladesh to resolve disputes with some CTO countries about launching satellite, Sunil said there is no such discussion yet.
“We are approaching towards a different strategy to resolve the satellite disputes,” he said.
In reply to a question, he stated that the government should release the long-term evaluation spectrum immediately for better internet service for people.
“As a forum member we support all our fellow member countries for ITU council election,” CTO Secretary
General Tim Unwin said in reply to a question.
He admitted that Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in telecom and ICT area.
“We will be happy to lend any kind of support to Bangladesh to take it to the next level.”
In the three-day-long CTO forum, there were nine panel discussions, 21 presentations and one workshop which were all attended by telecom and financial experts from commonwealth countries.
The speakers discussed the availability and affordability of broadband, next generation mobile technologies, cloud computing and cloud-based outsourcing, mobile financial system etc.
A two-day CTO council meeting is to be held on September 11 and 12 when the member countries will elect the next CTO chairman.
Earlier in the morning, there were three sessions that focused empowering women through ICT and accessibility for people with disabilities and integrating ICT into education.
