As he settles down to his duties as Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) having assumed office this September 17, Mr. Shola Taylor, has promised to ensure the organisation plays a greater role of coordinating the views of Commonwealth member countries at international meetings, with special attention to be given to treaty meetings convened by the ITU.
This follows the new CTO’s Secretary-General’s meeting with the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Mr. Houlin Zhao, in Geneva on October 5, 2015.
According to a statement issued by the CTO at its headquarters in London, the meeting between the two organisations was the first of a series of meetings, which Mr. Taylor has planned with international organisations since assuming office on September 17, 2015.
“Coordinating the views of Commonwealth countries and agreeing on common objectives in advance of key international ICT decision-making meetings is an area where the CTO can do a lot more. Deliberations at conferences convened by the ITU, such as the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC), the World Telecommunications Standardisation Assembly (WTSA), the World Telecommunications Development Conference (WTDC), or the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) can be made more effective with prior consultations among Commonwealth countries,” Mr. Taylor stated.
Continuing, he commented further: “Meeting with Secretary-General Zhao was an opportunity to share first-hand with the ITU my vision for the CTO. And we are starting immediately, with a Commonwealth pre-WRC-15 meeting to take place in London on 7 – 9 October 2015, and which will be honoured by the presence of Festus Daudu, Chair-designate of WRC-15,” Mr. Taylor explained.
Welcoming Mr Taylor’s commitment to supporting global consensus efforts on ICTs, Mr. Zhao said he looked forward to both organisations working even more closely in the future.
“The CTO has been a very engaged and active partner of ITU for many years, and we are delighted to have the opportunity to further strengthen this bond. The Commonwealth is an important and very diverse global group of countries, and we welcome the opportunity of ITU helping its members realise their connectivity goals in collaboration with the CTO and the Commonwealth Secretariat, as will be reported to the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta in just a few weeks. Our relationship with the CTO will be a cornerstone of those efforts,” Mr. Zhao commented.