[WSIS CS-Plenary] Mali's Hamadoun Toure, new Secretary-General of the ITU

[Dr. Francis MUGUET]

Dear friends

( un msg en français suit )

Since this excellent piece of news has not been seemingly posted
on the plenary list.
Congratulatiions to first African Secretary-General of the ITU,
who, coincidence or fate, belongs to the same country
as Adama Samassékou to whom WSIS Civil Society owes so much.

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http://allafrica.com/stories/200611130952.html

An African, Mali's Hamadoun Toure, Friday became the new
Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
after polling 95 votes over Germany's Mr. Mathias Kurth, who got 60
votes for the exalted position.

Member states of the ITU elected Mr Touré of Mali as Secretary-General
for a four-year term. The election took place in Antalya, Turkey during
the 17th ITU Plenipotentiary Conference. Mr Touré won the position with
95 votes with 155 countries present and voting, and thus the required
majority for election was 78 votes.

The majority emerged in the third round of voting, with Mr Mathias Kurth
of Germany receiving 60 votes.

The election showed the deft diplomacy of Toure who had come to the ITU
conference last year in Abuja with one message from the Malian
government: "To support the country to run for the highest position at
the ITU." Every country-delegate present pledged to support Mali, and by
implication, Toure. But that development effectively killed the spirit
of every person who would have been eyeing that position and vouchsafed
it for Toure. Last weekend, he triumphed.

Addressing the Conference after the results of the vote, Mr Touré told
the 1500 delegates from around the world that he would work with
transparency, objectivity and vigour to realize the two main objectives
that were central to his campaign: to eliminate the digital divide and
to ensure that cyberspace would become more secure. He said, "The
Millennium Development Goals that were endorsed by all the world's
leaders as well as the WSIS resolutions are the ingredients we need to
get down to work."

Mr Hamadoun Touré holds a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from
the Technical Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications of
Leningrad and Doctor of Philosophy Degree (PhD) from the University of
Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics of Moscow. After six
years at the Office des Postes et Télécommunications du Mali (OPT) Mali,
he joined Intelsat as Group Director & Regional Director in 1985 until
he became Director-General, Africa, of ICO Global Communications in
1996. Elected Director of ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau in
1998, he was elected for a second term in 2002.

In the election, Houlin Zhao of China was elected Deputy
Secretary-General in the first round with 93 votes. Carlos Sánchez of
Spain obtained 34 votes while T. Ayhan Beydoan of Turkey received 28.
John Ray Kwabena Tandoh of Ghana had announced the withdrawal of his
candidature prior to the start of the election.

Thanking the members and, in particular, the People's Republic of China,
for placing their confidence in him, Houlin Zhao remarked that the post
of Deputy Secretary-General holds a strategic importance in the Union.
He said that he would do his best to assist the Secretary-General elect
and the three Directors as well as the membership to make ITU a more
dynamic organization that would contribute to the emerging global
Information Society. As outgoing Director of TSB, he said he was
confident that "ITU-T will meet the future challenges of ICT
standardization this century."

Graduated from Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China
in 1975, Mr Zhao received a Master degree of Science in telematics,
University of Essex (United Kingdom) in 1985. From 1975 to 1986, he held
various engineering positions at Ministry of Posts and
Telecommunications, China. In 1986, he joined ITU as a staff member of
the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB) until his election as
Director of the TSB in 1998. He was re-elected in his position at the
2002 Marrakesh Plenipotentiary Conference.

Outgoing Secretary-General Yoshio Utsumi leaves behind him a more
efficient and effective organization, offering a wider portfolio of more
relevant services that led to a 19 per cent increase in private sector
membership and a recommitment of the private sector to the work of ITU.
His tenure was characterized by efficiency measures that led to savings
equivalent to CHF 75 million out of a total budget of CHF 335 million on
average per biennium as well as the introduction of operational
planning, results-based budgeting and time-tracking across the
organization, resulting in a substantial overhaul of the organization.
Along with cost recovery, these measures created new sources of revenue
that led to a reduction in the contributions to be paid by members,
despite growing demands and cost increases.

 From a strategic perspective, Mr Utsumi successfully refocused ITU as a
policy-oriented organization by introducing new issues to ensure its
continuing relevance, with the successful organization of the World
Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) which provides a common
understanding and vision as well as a clear roadmap to building the
Information Society by 2015. He also strengthened the role of ITU in the
coordination of policy issues among Member States. Through this process,
ITU has asserted its leading role in the broader domain of the
Information Society.



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Francis F. MUGUET Ph.D

MDPI Foundation Open Access Journals
Associate Publisher
http://www.mdpi.org   http://www.mdpi.net
muguet at mdpi.org       muguet at mdpi.net

ENSTA   Paris, France
KNIS lab.  Director
"Knowledge Networks & Information Society" (KNIS)
muguet at ensta.fr   http://www.ensta.fr/~muguet

World Summit On the Information Society (WSIS)
Civil Society Working Groups
Scientific Information :  http://www.wsis-si.org  chair
Patents & Copyrights   :  http://www.wsis-pct.org co-chair
Financing Mechanismns  :  http://www.wsis-finance.org web

UNMSP project : http://www.unmsp.org
WTIS initiative: http://www.wtis.org
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