Lee Chae-sub, a KAIST researcher and policy adviser for South Korea’s Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, won in the election for the directorship of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization on Friday.

The ITU Telecommunication Standardization, or ITU-T -- one of the three bureaus of the U.N.’s specialized agency ITU along with ITU-R and ITU-D -- is in charge of setting technology standards in global ICT industries, such as those for Internet protocol television (IPTV), information security and radio frequency identification (RFID).

“I will do my best to deliver excellent services as I collaborate with the existing management team, and the new secretary-general and deputy secretary-general and other directors,” Lee said in his acceptance speech.

As he previously said in media interviews, Lee is expected to make efforts to beef up the competitiveness of the bureau and help narrow the digital divide between developing and advanced nations.

Industry watchers forecast that his election could help South Korea increase its presence within the ITU and the world’s ICT sector as the nation will likely play a key role in the standardization works for ICT.

“Koreans well know the significance of the director role. We believe he will closely collaborate with the secretary-general, deputy secretary-general and other directors,” said South Korean ICT minister Choi Yang-hee, adding that Lee’s election will bring great opportunities to Korea.

On Thursday, China‘s Zhao Houlin was elected as the secretary-general after receiving 152 approval votes among 156 member states, surpassing the required majority vote of 77, in elections at the 19th ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Busan.

The ITU member states also elected Malcolm Johnson from Britain as the organization‘s new deputy secretary-general after several run-off votes held as no candidate running for the post had secured a majority on Friday.

The new ITU-T director started working for the ITU-T since 1987 and assumed leading roles at the bureau, including vice chairman of the ITU-T SG13, which works on standardization and development of next-generation networks. He was also chairman of Working Party 2 under the SG13.

During his 27 years at the ITU, he closely worked with former high-ranking executives at the organization and also contributed to establishing telecommunications policies in developing nations including Lebanon and Serbia.

The director of the ITU-T supervises and coordinates the bureau’s functions and makes the final decision on international ICT standards. 

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)