ITU/92-25 16 December 1992 First Director of Telecommunications Development Bureau elected The first Director of the Telecommunications Development Bureau (BDT) - ITU's development arm, was elected today by the ITU Additional Plenipotentiary Conference (APP 92) by 73 votes against 64 at the fourth ballot. The newly elected Director, Mr. A. Ph. Djiwatampu of Indonesia, will take up his duties at a date to be decided in the coming days by the Conference. Speaking on behalf of his delegation after the results of the election were made known, Ambassador Mr S. Brotodiningrat, Permanent Representative of Indonesia to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva, said that the support given to his country's candidate was an invaluable source of encouragement for the action which Mr. Djiwatampu will be called upon to take for the successful development of telecommunications in ITU Member countries and was an honour bestowed upon his country which had always advocated strengthening of ITU development activities. "Now that Mr. Dijwatampu is Director of the BDT", he said, "he will be at the service of the entire membership". Mr Djiwatampu thanked the Conference for having elected him as the first BDT Director and indicated that his first priority would be to accelerate telecommunications development in all developing countries but with a particular emphasis on least developed countries. "It is very important to avoid widening the gap between countries", he said. "If this fails", he continued, "not only economic and other national development in the developing countries will be inhibited, but also global standardization efforts and global spectrum efficiency will be more difficult to obtain if not impossible." "I am open to any innovative idea which will be of benefit to all Members of the ITU", he added, "and particularly those which need most ITU assistance." He also underlined the commonality of views among a cross-section of countries. "In my discussions with delegations from both the developing and developed countries, I observed that we had the same common objectives: inject BDT resources, whether from the regular budget or from donors, directly at the service of beneficiary countries." The main thrust of Mr. Djiwatampu's programme of action is aimed among other things at: - attracting and gaining trust from private sector to invest and contribute in development projects in developing countries, inducing the private sector to participate in Regional and World Telecommunication Development Conferences, Development Seminars and Information Meetings - allocating an adequate percentage of the total project funds for ITU coordination efforts enhancing cooperation with other multilateral agencies such as UNDP, and Regional Telecommunication Development Organizations - assisting in mobilizing internal resources for national telecommunication development giving priority to Human Resource Development - developing national telecommunication network plans including master plans and their implementation and create awareness among the government authorities of developing countries of the importance of telecommunications in national development. Prior to his election, Mr. Djiwatampu was Deputy Director General for Post and Telecommunication Standards of the Directorate General of Posts and Telecommunications, Department of Tourism, Posts and Telecommunications, after serving as Deputy Director General for Telecommunications since 20 August 1988. From March 1989 until February 1992 he served as a Member of the Board of Commissioners of PT INDOSAT, a government owned company for international public telecommunication services. He was elected Chairman of the 45th session of the Administrative Council of ITU on 30 June 1989 until 27 May 1991 after serving as its Vice-Chairman, and Chairman of the Technical Cooperation Committee. From May 1980 until August 1988 he has served as Director for Telecommunication Conventions and Legal Regulations at the same Department, after serving as Head of the Satellite Planning Division of PERUMTEL (presently PT TELEKOM), the domestic public telecommunication company, from 1977 until 1980. From 1978 until 1980 he was Governor and Alternate Governor respectively of the Board of Governors of INTELSAT representing the South East Asia Group (Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand). From 1975 until 1977, he was appointed as Program Manager of the first series of the PALAPA Domestic Satellite Communication System. After graduating from the Institute of Technology of Bandung as a telecommunication engineer in 1963, he joined the Telecommunication Laboratories of PN Postel which later became PN Telekomunikasi and LPPI Postel (R&D Institute for Post and Telecommunication) and held several positions a.o. as Head of the Electronic and Testing Laboratory until 1973. Mr. Djiwatampu is a Senior Member of the IEEE and a Member of the BKL-PII (electronical branch of the Indonesian Engineers Association). The BDT was set up by the Nice Plenipotentiary Conference and became operational on 1 January 1990. However, it was decided to elect its Director at a later stage entrusting, in the interim period, the directorship of the Bureau to the Secretary-General.