Jeon Seon-min, senior researcher of the International Cooperation Research Division at KISDI, was elected chairman of the Preparatory Group of the 2021 World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-21), scheduled to be held in Ethiopia in 2021, at the Asia-Pacific TeleCommunity (APT) meeting held on July 24.

The WTDC-21 is a general meeting dealing with major agendas and development strategies, such as global programs in the telecommunication development sector, broadband, and reduction of the information gap over the next four years (2022-2025), attended by government representatives and members of the related organizations from 193 ITU member countries. The Asia-Pacific WTDC-21 Preparatory Meeting plans to elect a chairman and form a working group of the Preparatory Group at the APT meeting held on July 24 and take follow-up action for the next year in order to submit a joint proposal for the Asia-Pacific region to the WTDC-21.

Senior Researcher Jeon Seon-min also served as the member of the “rapporteur” group of the ITU-D last year, as vice-chairman of the Legal Documents Subcommittee of the APT Management Committee, and as vice-chairman of the Policy Regulation Forum. The researcher contributed to the adoption of ICT initiatives for the Asia Pacific region as the WG2 vice-chairman of the WTDC-17 Preparatory Group. Through the WG 1 chairmanship, the researcher plans to lead the discussion to determine the key research tasks that should be dealt with as major issues in the ICT development sector over the next four years (2022-2025).

The next Asia-Pacific regional preparatory meeting is scheduled to be held online in November of this year, and regional joint proposals will be drawn up through three additional meetings in 2021.