New ITU chief to focus on connecting developing countries

Houlin Zhao, the newly elected secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union, said Thursday that the organization would work with its members to resolve urgent issues and challenges facing women, children and underdeveloped economies.

He said the ITU would help countries off the grid to get connected for sustainability, and support small and medium enterprises from those regions to innovate, share ideas, establish partnerships and attract investments globally.

“It does not matter if you are a small or big country. We are all equal,” Zhao said in a news conference in Busan, on the sidelines of the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference.

“We will keep a close contact with the real world, empower women and young people through technology and protect children from (hazardous) online access.”

As the ITU head, Zhao added that he would seek to help the global telecommunications industry, which faces tough competition as the public increasingly wants lower service prices, while the industry faces challenges in upgrading its infrastructure.

Internet governance will also be managed with a number of parties in the public, private and academic sectors given that it is a difficult issue to tackle for one single agency or company.

“Internet governance has been debated for the last decade because it is difficult to understand. But one thing should be clear. No single U.N. agency or a single company can manage Internet governance,” he said.

“We need everyone’s consent through public dialogue. We need a U.N. agency and some companies to take care of some part of Internet governance. The ITU will play its role and work with members.”

Zhao is the first Chinese national to take the helm of ITU, which has 193 members working with more than 700 private companies and 80 academic institutions. The incumbent ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Toure’s term will end this year.

Born in 1950 in Jiangsu, China, Zhao graduated from Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications. He started his career at the ITU as a senior staff member in 1986, and was elected as ITU deputy secretary-general in 2006.

South Korea’s Lee Chae-sub, a KAIST researcher, will be competing with candidates of Turkey and Tunisia for the post of director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization on Friday.

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldcorp.com)