The ITU 150th Anniversary was celebrated in Papua New Guinea (PNG) on May 17th the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day. PNG has been a member state of ITU since 1975.
To mark the anniversary, a celebration dinner function was organized in our capital city, Port Moresby, where representatives of various ICT stakeholders attended including government officials, ICT operators, service providers and development partners. It was a privilege to also have at the dinner, Mr Ashish Narayan, Programme Coordinator of the ITU Regional Office for Asia-Pacific, who represented ITU.
The theme for the dinner function was to highlight ICT development in PNG since 1975 and demonstrate also ITU’s involvement in our successful transition from monopolistic and legacy telecom environment to a modern and competitive communication environment. Key activities included the viewing of a short historical video on the progress of telecommunications/ICT by ITU; the ITU Secretary-General Mr Houlin Zhao’s speech on ITU’s 150th Anniversary; a keynote address by the Secretary of the PNG Department of Communication and Information, and the announcement and signing of special projects as outlined below that will be developed in PNG in collaboration with ITU and other partners;
• First PNG IXP
• Launch of UAS Internet Connectivity Project for Schools
• ITU Satellite Connectivity Project for Pacific Islands
One other important part of the dinner function was the presentation of a token of appreciation to ITU for its invaluable contribution to ICT development in PNG. Mr. Narayan, representing the ITU, was presented with a special PNG wall frame made out of copper and a traditional PNG hand bag bearing the ITU 150th anniversary logo.
The commemorative activities were very well covered and publicised by the local print and electronic media and hailed as a great success.
