Korean candidate likely to win ITU-T directorship

Lee Chae-sub, a KAIST researcher and policy adviser for South Korea’s Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, is expected to win in the election for the directorship of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization on Friday.

The ITU Telecommunication Standardization, or ITU-T ― one of the three bureaus of the U.N.’s specialized agency ITU along with ITU-R and ITU-D ― is in charge of setting technology standards in global ICT industries, such as those for Internet protocol television, information security and radio frequency identification.

Lee’s chances of winning the election appeared to be high since he received the backing of many ITU member nations and the newly elected secretary-general of the organization. 

“Lee, who has the expertise and rich experience in ICT standardization, is one of the most suitable candidates for the post,” said Zhao Houlin, new secretary-general, the ITU’s in a reception speech on Thursday.

Zhao was elected to the post after receiving 152 approval votes among 156 member states, surpassing the required majority vote of 77, in elections at the 19th ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Busan.

The former ITU chief Hamadoun Tour is also said to have expressed his support for the South Korean candidate.

In Friday’s election, Lee will compete with Ahmet Erdinc Cavusoglu of Turkey and Bilel Jamoussi of Tunisia.

If none of the three candidates receives a majority of votes, there will be a run-off vote on Monday.

The Korean candidate started working for the ITU-T since 1987 and assumed leading roles at the bureau, including the vice chairman of the ITU-T SG13, which works on standardization and development of next-generation networks, and the chairman of Working Party 2 under the SG13.

During the 27 years at the ITU, he closely worked with former high-ranking executives at the organization and also contributed to establishing telecommunications policies in developing nations including Lebanon and Serbia.

The director of the ITU-T supervises and coordinates overall work taking place at the bureau and takes final decisions on international ICT standards.

In a previous interview with The Korea Herald, Lee said if elected he would put first priority on beefing up “the competitiveness of the bureau, and narrowing the digital divide between developing and advanced nations.”

Industry watchers expect that his election could help South Korea increase its presence within the ITU and the world’s ICT sector as the nation will likely play a key role in the standardization works for ICT.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)