ITU, A UN Body, Praises UAE Ties

(UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 15th Oct, 2019) NEW DELHI, 15th October, 2019 (WAM) – The UAE’s enduring support for the International Telecommunications Union, ITU, was generously acknowledged here today at the second National Corporate Social Responsibility school Leadership Summit and Awards for 2019.

Dr. Malcolm Johnson, Deputy Secretary-General of the ITU, a Geneva-based United Nations body, described the UAE as a "friend of ITU" and recalled that the organization’s conferences are regularly held in Dubai, graciously hosted by the emirate.

The praise for UAE by the UN official was occasioned by the presence and active participation of the UAE Ambassador to India, Dr. Ahmed Al Banna, and UAE embassy officials at the Summit. Dr. Johnson is visiting India to shepherd South Asia’s biggest digital technology conference, the Indian mobile Congress, which opened here yesterday.

The UAE Ambassador, along with the Deputy Secretary-General of the ITU, handed over more than a score of awards to Indian entities which had performed commendably in discharging Corporate Social Responsibility and to schools in India’s northern states which had excelled in multiple ways.

After handing out the awards, Dr. Al Banna gave the audience an overview of UAE-India relations, especially what he called "new tracks in the relationship" under the joint guidance of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The audience repeatedly broke into applause when Dr. Al Banna listed the new highlights of the bilateral relationship. A leading Indian academic, Professor R K Khandlal, who was Vice Chancellor of the Uttar Pradesh Technical University, interrupted Dr. Al Banna to laud the Ambassador’s contribution in enabling the vision of the two leaders.

Dr. Al Banna enlightened the audience that the UAE was the first country to set up a dedicated ministry for Artificial Intelligence. Last year, His Highness Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, launched a new e-learning tool to assist more than 50 million children across the Arab world, he recalled.

Bharat Bhatia, President of the ITU-APT Foundation of India, an open industry forum for the discussion of telecommunication issues in the Asia Pacific, fondly recalled the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Dubai last year. Highlighting the UN body’s strong ties with the UAE, it was mentioned that it was the twentieth time that the conference, the highest policy-making body of the ITU, had convened in Dubai.