Hong Kong, China to Host ITU Telecom Asia 2002

Geneva, 3 May 2001 — ITU Telecom Asia 2002 will be held in Hong Kong, China, from 2 to 7 December next year. The event will be hosted by the Government of the People’s Republic of China and will take place in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC), which is ideally located and offers advanced exhibition and forum facilities.

A signing ceremony was held at the ITU’s headquarters in Geneva today, with His Excellency Mr Zonghuai Qiao, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of the People’s Republic of China to the Office of the United Nations in Geneva and other international organizations in Switzerland and Yoshio Utsumi, ITU’s Secretary-General.

The Ambassador said "China is delighted to be hosting this prestigious event for the second time, which will help advance telecommunications development in all the countries of the Asia Pacific region and shape their future." Mr Utsumi said that he was very pleased that the ITU was once again going to be organizing an event in China, and that he was confident that Asia 2002 would be a great success for the region’s people. "The ITU’s unique position as a partnership of governments, regulators and industry enables it to bring together all the strategic players in the world of telecommunications and Hong Kong as a business hub for the region promises to be an excellent venue for the ITU Telecom event" Utsumi said.

At the same ceremony, Mr A S K Wong, the Director-General of Telecommunications, representing the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), signed the Memorandum of Administrative Arrangements for the event. At the signing, Mr Wong said "We welcome the ITU’s acceptance of the invitation from the PRC to hold ITU Telecom Asia 2002 in Hong Kong and look forward to welcoming all participants to the event next December."

The Secretary-General made his decision to accept the offer from the PRC to host the event following the first meeting of the newly constituted ITU Telecom Board which took place in Hong Kong during the spectacularly successful Asia 2000 event in December last year. The Board met and had lengthy discussions about the potential host country for the event before evaluating the offers which had been received by the ITU. After taking into account the particular considerations of infrastructure, accommodation, transport and conference and exhibition facilities, the Board recommended that Hong Kong, China, be selected as the host country for Asia 2002.

In announcing his final decision, Mr Utsumi said "The majority of the Board and exhibitors have enthusiastically supported China’s candidature to host the Asia 2002 event, and I am delighted to announce that the event will take place in Hong Kong, China."

Hong Kong, with outstanding communications and transport infrastructure and the HKCEC, with its exceptional location and superb conference and exhibition facilities, will be the ideal venue for the region’s most important telecoms meeting in the year 2002.

The previous ITU Telecom event for the Asia-Pacific region, Asia 2000, was held in Hong Kong from 4 to 9 December 2000. It was the ITU’s biggest ever regional ITU Telecom event to date, and attracted over 50,000 participants, 500 exhibitors, 679 VIPs and 810 journalists. Exhibition space comprised 27,896 m², including upper floors. A total of 1,193 participants attended the Forum sessions.

The Asia 2002 event will be the 25^th Telecom event since World Telecom was first held in Geneva in 1971. The regional events, which include Telecoms for the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Africa regions, were introduced in 1985 in order to address the more specific concerns of the individual regions. Since then these events have grown in size and prestige and have become the most respected and authoritative in the world.

Events prior to Asia 2000 took place in Singapore in 1985, 1989, 1993 and 1997.

For further information on ITU Telecom and the Asia 2002 event please contact:

Piers Letcher
Press and Public Relations Officer, ITU Telecom
Tel: +41 22 730 6602 / Fax: +41 22 730 6444
E-mail: piers.letcher@itu.int 

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