The Conference of Plenipotentiaries, the supreme decision-making body of the International Telecommunication Union (UI) has been holding its work in Bucharest, Romania since September 26, 2022, which will end on October 14, 2022. Held every four years, this conference is an important event at which ITU Member States decide on the future role of the organization and thereby determine its ability to influence and guide the evolution of information and communication technologies (ICT) around the world.
The Conference, determines the general principles of the Union; adopts a strategic plan and a financial plan for a period of four years and elects the members of the organization’s management team as well as the Member States of the Council and the members of the Radio Regulations Committee.
The most anticipated event during ITUPP Bucharest 2022 is undoubtedly the renewal of the governing body, the Secretary General in office being at the end of his term of office, as is the Deputy Secretary General and the Director of the TSB.
Mali is present in Bucharest with a delegation composed of members of the cabinet of the Ministry of Digital Economy
American Doreen Bogdan-Martin elected to the position of ITU Secretary General
The election of the Secretary General took place on Thursday, September 29, 2022. The two candidates are: the American Doreen Bogdan Martin and the Russian Rashid Ismaelov.
At the end of the vote, the representatives of the voting Member States elected Doreen Bogdan-Martin of the United States with 139 votes out of 172 votes cast for only 25 votes for the Russian Federation candidate.
Thus, Doreen Bogdan-Martin will be the first woman to head the ITU, which was created in 1865 and became a specialized agency of the United Nations in 1947.
Immediately after her election, the new Secretary-General in her address to the Member States set herself a goal, significant connectivity.
The elected Secretary-General pledged to “continue to ensure that this institution is innovative and increasingly relevant to our Member States, by positioning us all better to adopt the digital environment and make progress in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and by connecting the unconnected”.
Doreen Bogdan, an experienced woman
Ms. Bogdan-Martin held leadership positions in the field of international telecommunications policy for more than two decades. Throughout her career, she has negotiated innovative and visionary partnerships with the private sector, civil society and other United Nations agencies to accelerate digital inclusion and connectivity.
As chief architect of ITU’s development work in recent years, Bogdan-Martin stressed the need for digital transformation to achieve economic prosperity, job creation, skills development, gender equality and socio-economic inclusion, as well as building circular economies, reducing climate impact and saving lives. Her current term as Director of the ITU Telecommunications Development Office ends on December 31, 2022.
Bogdan-Martin will begin his four-year term as ITU Secretary General on January 1, 2023.
Lithuanian Tomas Lamanauskas elected ITU Deputy Secretary General
The election continued with the election dedicated to the position of Deputy Secretary-General. The three candidates in the running were Chaesub Lee of the Republic of Korea, Gisa Fuatai Purcell of the Samoa Islands and Tomas Lamanauskas of Lithuania.
At the end of the vote in the first round, Tomas Lamanauskas, the Lithuanian was elected Deputy Secretary General of the ITU with 105 votes, the required majority being 89 votes out of the 179 Member States present that voted. The candidate of the Republic of Korea escaped with 59 votes and Gisa Fuatai Purcell of Samoa received 12 votes.
Speaking after his election, the new Deputy Secretary-General is committed to fostering broad partnerships for connectivity; increasing ITU and industry’s zero net emissions and climate sustainability ambitions; and integrating results-based management into all ITU processes.
The Deputy Secretary General, like the other four elected representatives of the ITU, will hold a four-year term from January 1, 2023.
The conference continues with the elections on September 30, 2022 for Director of the Radiocommunications Office, Director of the Telecommunications Standardization Office and Director of the Telecommunications Development Office.
The vote for ITU senior management will be followed by elections for the Committee of the Rules of Radiocommunications composed of 12 members and for the places allocated to Member States at the regional level to the ITU Council of 48 seats, which governs the ITU between the Conferences of Four-year Plenipotentiaries.