MALAYSIA ELECTED TO ITU COUNCIL FOR FOURTH TERM

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 12 (Bernama) -- Malaysia, for the fourth consecutive term
was elected to the International Telecommunication Union council at an election
held in conjunction with the 18th ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Guadalajara,
Mexico on Monday.

Malaysia's representative to the union's Radio Regulations Board (RRB) Dr
Ali R. Ebadi was elected to the board for the second consecutive term.

The ITU said in a statement that there were 21 candidates eyeing for the 12
seats on the RRB and 65 candidate countries for the 48 seats on the ITU Council.

Malaysia, which has been elected to the council since 1998, garnered 127
votes from 161 votes cast and came out fourth in the 13-seat Region E, which is
under the Asia-Australasia grouping for the 2011-2014 term.

There were 17 countries contesting for the ITU council seat for the Region E
grouping and Indonesia garnered the top post with 135 votes, followed by China
(134), Japan (133), Malaysia (127), South Korea (125), Bangladesh (123),
Thailand (121), Australia (119), India (119), United Arab Emirates (114), Kuwait
(108), Saudi Arabia (105) and the Philippines (97).

Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Lebanon and Syria lost in the contest.



Dr Ali, the board advisor to Measat Satellite System Pte Ltd, who won in the
last election in 2006 and was the chairman of RRB last year, received 93 votes
from the 160 votes cast for the 2011-2014 term.

Ali came second after Yasuhiko Ito of Japan who garnered 120 votes while the
third slot for the Asia and Australasia or Region E seat was won by PK Garg from
India who garnered 78 votes.

There were seven contestants eyeing for the post for the Region E including
Nasser bin Hammad (United Arab Emirates), Alireza Darsivishi (Iran), Mian
Muhammad Javed (Pakistan) and Nader Shah Arian (Afghanistan).

Malaysian Information Communication and Culture Minister Dr Rais
Yatim was in Guadalajara from Oct 4 until Thursday to attend the conference and
campaigning for Malaysia's candidacy for the two positions.

The ITU conference, which started on Oct 4 and ends on Oct 22, also saw the
re-election of Dr Hamadoun I. Touré of Mali as ITU's Secretary-General and Zhou
Houlin of China as his deputy.



The ITU Council, established in 1947 under the name Administrative Council,
has 48 members representing 192 countries.

It is divided into five regions, namely the Americas or known as the Region
A with nine seats allocated in the council, Western Europe (Region B with eight
seats), Eastern Europe and Northern Asia (Region C with five seats), Africa
(Region D with 13 seats), Asia and Australasia (Region E with 13 seats).

Among the roles of the council is to consider broad telecommunications
policy issues as well as policies and strategies to fully respond to today's
dynamic, rapidly changing telecommunications environment.

It also prepares a report on the policy and strategic planning of the ITU,
while its Plenipotentiary is the quadrennial global conference that decides the
strategy for the ITU, the UN agency for ICT responsible for allocating global
radio spectrum, creating the technical standards that fuel all ICT networks, and
developing and implementing strategies to bridge global digital divide.

-- BERNAMA