14th March 2016 Tonga was the first country in the Pacific that the Secretary General of the International Telecommunication (ITU) Mr. Houlin Zhao visited.
He said stated that he never got the chance to visit the Pacific countries except Australia.
“I am very much excited with my first official visit to the Pacific Island areas. I never got a chance to come to this region except Australia,” he said.
“I was looking for opportunities to come to the region because I have heard a lot of good development in the region particularly Tonga, because I met with the Honorable Deputy Prime Minister many times in the past and particularly the last two months, I met him four times.”
“So it’s very fortunate that today I have a chance to come to your beautiful country of Tonga and witness the development of ICT and Telecom.”
While in Tonga, Mr. Zhao met with the Prime Minister Hon ‘Akilisi Pohiva at the Prime Minister’s Office to discuss issues in regards to ICT and Telecom and to look at ways of how to further the cooperation between Tonga and ITU.
Mr. Zhao met with communication operators and was able to visit the Ha’amonga ‘a Maui last Thursday afternoon. He also met with the principal of Tonga High School and Tupou College to observe the use of PC’s in the computer labs and to talk with the principals of the challenges faced in regards to ICT.
On Friday morning, Mr. Zhao visited the Tonga Cable Limited and departed Tonga in the afternoon.
ITU is the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies (ICT) The ITU coordinates the shared global use of the radio spectrum, promoting international cooperation in assigning satellite orbits, works to improve telecommunication infrastructure in the developing world, thus providing a seamless global communications system that is robust, reliable and adaptable to the evolving needs of the word regarding Information and Communications.
ENDS
Issued by the Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change and Communications