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Elections got under way on 23 October 2014, with the conference electing Houlin Zhao as the next Secretary-General, with 152 votes out of 152 countries present and voting. The required majority was 77. Mr Zhao was sole candidate for the post.
"I feel deeply moved that you have unanimously and enthusiastically elected me as the new Secretary-General of ITU, entrusting me the honour of leading our beloved organization for the next four years. I sincerely thank all of you for your confidence in me," said Mr Zhao speaking after his election.
Mr Zhao expressed his profound gratitude to the Government of China for putting forward his candidature. In particular, he thanked Vice-Minister Liu Lihua of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the Chinese delegation to PP-14, all Chinese friends who had worked hard to promote his candidature over the last two years, all delegates of ITU Member States, experts and friends of ITU Sector Members, and ITU staff "for their invaluable support and encouragement" since the announcement of his candidature two years ago. "Last but not the least, I would like to thank my dear wife Aihua Jiang, who has always assisted me in serving ITU and is now here in this room together with my son Peng to support me in person," said Mr Zhao to a round of applause.
He paid tribute to ITU Secretary-General, Dr Hamadoun I. Touré in these words: "He has done his utmost to lead ITU with many achievements. Over the last eight years, he and I have enjoyed working together in an excellent relationship. He is a great son of Africa and my life friend and brother. I wish him and his family all the best in the future."
Turning to his other colleagues in the current management team, Mr Zhao said "It has been a very enriching experience to work with them," citing Malcolm Johnson, François Rancy, and Brahima Sanou.
Looking ahead to ITU's 150th anniversary in 2015, Mr Zhao said "Over the last 150 years, ITU has demonstrated its ability to lead telecommunications and ICT development in the world." He noted that in the last two years support to ITU by its members has continued to grow, with very high expectations of its role from friends and partners worldwide. He called on the ITU membership to work together for a common goal: Better telecommunications and information and communication technologies for a better life for all.
Congratulatory remarks
The Chinese delegation expressed "profound gratitude to all delegations and friends for their support and trust" and went on to pay tribute to Dr Touré. "In the past eight years Dr Touré has been making unremitting efforts to advance the global ICT sector. He also made significant achievements in realizing a connected world, improving the role of ICT as enabler of economic and social development, thus laying the foundation for the future work of the new management team."
Turning to Mr Zhao, the Chinese delegation said that with the support of all parties, the Secretary-General Elect would "lead the new management team of ITU in making concerted efforts to keep abreast of the times, better serve the membership and make positive contributions, enabling ITU to play a greater role in the global ICT sector." For its part, China would work with the Member States to support Mr Zhao and the work of ITU for the common goal of "promoting the development of the global ICT sector and building a truly inclusive information society".
Paying tribute to his successor, Dr Touré said "I will be handing over the flag of the Union to my very good friend, Houlin, on 31 December". Commending the membership for having made the "right choice," Dr Touré added "Never before has a Secretary-General been so well prepared for the job than Mr Zhao. I promised a professional handover to my successor, but I can safely say that we have been doing this handover for the past eight years. Never before have I had a colleague in this type of position, where we had 100 per cent agreement on all issues."
He added that he would be leaving ITU with great hopes for its future. "I personally believe in him and I believe the organization will be in very good hands. This is a great moment in the history of this Union." Dr Touré then thanked his colleagues in the current management team: Mr Rancy, Mr Johnson, and Mr Sanou. "They made my life easy," Dr Touré said of his colleagues, calling Mr Zhao's election a testimony of the trust the membership has in the existing ITU management team.
Delegations from all regions of the world were unanimous in expressing their full confidence and trust in Mr Zhao's leadership. From the Americas to Western Europe; and from Eastern Europe and Northern Asia to Africa and to Asia and Australasia; each delegation that took the floor expressed overwhelming support and immense satisfaction, stating that they looked forward to working with ITU's top management in the coming four years to take the Union to even greater heights.
Policy statements in brief
Senegal: Amadou Lamine Dial, Marketing Director, Telecommunication and Posts Regulatory Authority, stated that ICT should not serve as a battleground between countries, but as a means to combat poverty and exclusion encapsulated in ITU's Connect 2020 vision for the future.
Pakistan: Anusha Rahman Ahmad Khan, Minister, Ministry of Information Technology, said the overall priority should be to provide universal, affordable and equitable access to the cyber ecosystem, and recalled the importance of spectrum allocation to achieve that goal, as well as the role of ICT in empowering women.
Cambodia: Channmeta Kan, Secretary of State, Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, recalled the detection and mobilization role of ICT in dealing with the Ebola crisis, and reaffirmed Cambodia's support for ITU's Connect 2020 vision for the future.
Grenada: Alvin Da Breo, Minister, Ministry of Information Communications Technology, recalled Grenada's commitment to ICT as a means of ensuring socio-economic development and an open society.
Bolivia: Roque Roy Mendez Soleto, Vice Minister of Telecommunications, Ministry of Telecommunications, Public Works, Services and Housing, said universal access to ICT is a human right under Bolivia's constitution and that social inclusion was a central pillar of its ICT development strategy.
United States of America: Daniel Sepulveda, Ambassador, Department of State, said that forums such as PP-14 are vitally important to the future of communications and to building a fully inclusive information society, and that "these three weeks will test our ability to work together".
Suriname: Lygia Smith, Deputy Director of Communication, Ministry of Transport, Communication and Tourism, said the major challenge is to increase access to broadband, and that ITU continues to play an important role in ICT development in the country and in the wider Caribbean region.
Sri Lanka: Theshantha Kumarasiri, First Secretary, Embassy of Sri Lanka, said the government remained committed and cherished ITU principles and thanked the organization for its continuing support.
Committee 6 (Administration and Management)
Committee 6 met for two short sessions because of the elections of ITU Secretary-General and Deputy Secretary-General. A new resolution on the monitoring mechanism of ITU programmes and projects was sent to the Editorial Committee (Committee 4). The discussions regarding the proposed amendments to Resolution 11 on ITU Telecom events continued and an ad-hoc group was set up. Other discussions focused on proposals on the strengthening of ITU regional presence (Resolution 25), the Strategic Plan 2016-2019, the linkage between strategic, financial and operational planning (Resolutions 71 and 72), the organization and planning of ITU Council, the plenipotentiary conference and other events-related resolutions (Resolutions 77, 111 and 153). Committee 6 also discussed "Availability of model host-country agreements in advance for conferences and assemblies of the Union held away from Geneva" (Resolution 144). Several drafting groups were set up.
Working Group of the Plenary
The second meeting of the Working Group of the Plenary (WGPL) discussed several proposals seeking to revise existing resolutions, or to add new ones, as highlighted below.
Resolution 130 (Rev. Guadalajara 2010) — Strengthening the role of ITU in building confidence and security in the use of information and communication technologies
Seven proposals have been submitted to the conference for consideration
USA/27R1-A3/4,
CUB/70/2,
RCC/73A1/16,
B/75/4,
ARB/79A2/13,
EUR/80A1/14 and
INS/82/2. These proposals were presented by the United States, Cuba, Uzbekistan, Brazil, Algeria, United Kingdom and Indonesia.
Several Member States supported the proposals to modify Resolution 130, mentioning that in the last four years, the global ICT landscape had changed, as had cyber threats and that there was therefore a need to adjust the resolution to address new and emerging challenges. Others supported the proposal from the United States, essentially calling for "No Change", arguing that during PP-10 much time had been spent negotiating the existing text, which is still considered appropriate.
After several interventions, the meeting agreed to set up an ad-hoc group, to be led by Brazil, to discuss further and reach consensus.
Resolution 174 (Rev. Guadalajara 2010) — ITU's role with regard to international public policy issues relating to the risk of illicit use of information and communication technologies
A total of seven proposals to revise this resolution have been submitted to the conference for consideration (CUB/70/3,
B/75/6 and
ARB/79A4/4). These proposals were presented by Cuba, Brazil and Algeria.
The discussions that followed focused on possible modifications to Resolution 174 in the light of the growing need to strike a balance between privacy and security. Consensus was not reached.
The meeting agreed to create an ad-hoc group, led by Algeria, to further discuss the matter in order to reach consensus.
Resolution 179 (Rev. Guadalajara 2010) — "ITU's role in child online protection"
Four proposals on Resolution 179 have been submitted to the conference for consideration (IAP/34R1-A1/3,
RCC/73A1/26,
ARB/79A3/6 and
EUR/80A1/11). These proposals were presented by Mexico, the United Kingdom, Belarus and Egypt. There was unanimous consensus on the need to keep and update the Child Online Protection resolution. There was therefore a need to consolidate the different texts into a single revised output.
As there was no controversy with proposals, the Chairman decided not to create an ad-hoc group but to request the United Kingdom to consolidate the inputs into a single text.
A new resolution on "Protecting telecommunication service users/consumers"
The proposal (contained in Document
IAP/34R1-A1/7) was presented by Mexico, on behalf of CITEL. The meeting agreed to go ahead with the resolution. In addition, CITEL requested some time to consolidate the text. The Chairman therefore requested Mexico to consolidate the text.
Proposals for a new resolution on youth and ICT
Three proposals to add a new resolution on the role of ICT to empower youth were also presented by Mexico, United Arab Emirates and Poland (IAP/34R1-A1/24,
ARB/79A4/2
and
EUR/80A1/22). In their presentations, they highlighted the importance of continuing the work in ITU to strengthen youth capabilities and to make youth more aware of the evolution of the ICT sector, and the opportunities that ICT provide to improve their education and expand access to the labour market. In their interventions, the three proponents invited all administrations to include young professionals in their delegations. Special mention was also made to the BYND 2015 Summit, organized by ITU and hosted by the President of Costa Rica in September 2013. The summit gathered more than 600 young people, aged between 18 and 25, and representing 68 countries, with thousands more participating through online and off-line crowdsourcing initiatives.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, China, Argentina and Mali took the floor to support the proposals submitted and to highlight the importance of defining a new mandate for ITU in this area. Based on these comments, the Chairman requested the delegation of Poland to consolidate all proposals received on youth and ICT into a single new draft resolution. The Chairman invited all interested parties to support Poland in this task, and requested the delegation to report back on the progress achieved on Tuesday 28 October.
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ITU PP14 NEWS CLIPS: ITU Secretary-General Election
ITU PP14 INTERVIEW: Philipp Metzger Director General, Federal Office of Communications, Switzerland
ENTREVISTA UIT PP14: Ing. Jorge A. Juraidini R. Director General, Telecomm, Mexico
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