Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has approved a proposal of filing nomination paper for participating in the next council election of International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to retain the country’s membership.
The approval came to the Ministry of Post, Telecommunication and Information Technology (MoPTIT) this week. It would go through the foreign ministry to file the nomination paper within a short time.
MoPTIT will arrange campaign and other necessary arrangements along with the foreign ministry, sources said.
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.
MoPTIT is going to arrange a meeting today which will direct the process of nomination paper filing and election campaign.
Earlier before the national election held on January 5, the interim government minister Rashed Khan Menon initiated the file for the election.
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 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 position with 123 votes, where 17 candidates competed for the 13-seat Asian Group of ITU council.
That was the first time Bangladesh contested in the 46-member ITU council election.
But from different corner the voice also raised that the country hasn’t found anything extra from ITU as an elected council member.
