Thailand to host Connect Asia-Pacific Summit, ITU Telecom World 2013

BANGKOK, May 2 (TNA) - Thailand will host the Connect Asia-Pacific Summit and the ITU Telecom World 2013 in November. Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra thanked the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for selecting Thailand to host the Connect Asia-Pacific Summit and the ITU Telecom World 2013, when ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Toure paid a courtesy call on her at Bangkok's Government House on Friday. The prime minister expressed her confidence that the Connect Asia-Pacific Summit and the ITU Telecom World 2013 will become an important brainstorming stage for regional and global leaders, as well as ICT ministers and executives to exchange their views, experiences and knowledge on human resources, finance and techniques to reduce the existing disparity in ICT infrastructure development in the region and in the world and to introduce activities facilitating the regional and global ICT society in the future. In response, the visiting ITU secretary-general expressed his thankfulness for the Thai government's establishment of the ITU headquarters for Asia and the Pacific in Thailand and praised the Kingdom for its vital roles and participation in the ITU management and development, including representing ITU members in Asia and cooperating with ITU activities in the region, covering the host of the ITU Telecom World 2013 in November. Meanwhile, the Thai prime minister and the ITU chief agreed on the importance of providing sufficient ICT access to girls, women and operators of small and medium-sized enterprises or SMEs, considered major forces to help drive forward national and regional economies and development plans, through their improved quality of life resulting from their access to needed information in various areas, namely public health and education, covering that provided on the Internet. (TNA)