Official Visit of ITU Secretary-General, Mr. Houlin Zhao, to Minsk, Republic of Belarus, 18-20 April 2016

Official visit of the ITU Secretary-General, Mr. Houlin Zhao, to Minsk, Republic of Belarus from 18 to 20 April 2016 was aimed at participation in the 23^rd International Specialized Forum on Telecommunications, Information and Banking Technologies "TIBO-2016", which was held in Minsk from 18 to 22 April 2016, and meeting with the President of the Republic of Belarus H.E. Mr. Alexander Lukashenko.​

At the official opening of TIBO-2016, attended by several senior Government officials, Mr. Zhao delivered a greeting on behalf of the ITU. In his speech Mr. Zhao praised the Republic of Belarus for reaching 36^th position in ICT development ranking, noted that Belarus has already met many of Connect 2020 targets and encouraged Belarus to participate more actively in ITU activities.

In addition to the meeting with H.E. Mr. Alexander Lukashenko, President of the Republic of Belarus, which was one of objectives of the official visit, Mr. Zhao had a number of meetings with senior Government officials of the Republic of Belarus.  the Within the framework of the visit, Mr. Zhao had a number of meetings with senior Government officials of the Republic of Belarus.

At the meeting with H.E. Mr. Sergei Popkov, Minister of Communication and Informatization of the Republic of Belarus,  Mr. Zhao appreciated the success of the Repbulic of Belarus in the ICT development and suggested the experience of the Republic of Belarus to be shared with other countries. Also, Mr. Zhao highlighted the ITU attention to the cooperation with the SMEs and invited the Republic of Belarus to more actively cooperate with the ITU, involving its SMEs. Also, Mr. Zhao invited universities of the Republic of Belarus to join ITU as Academia members.

At the meeting with H.E. Mr. Anatoly Kalinin, First Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus, Mr. Zhao invited the Repulic of Belarus to more actively cooperate with the ITU at the global level and invited the Republic of Belarus to promote their success in the ICT development during the ITU Telecom 2016 with a national pavilion.