Accra, Dec. 15, GNA - Major (rtd) John Ray Kwabena Tandoh, Acting Director General of the National Communications Authority is one of the candidates vying for the post of Deputy Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The position of Deputy Secretary General is one of the elective posts that would be filled at the Plenipotentiary Conference of the ITU scheduled for Antalya, Turkey in November 2006. An official statement from the Ministry of Communications said Government has given approval for Major J.R.K Tandoh to contest the elections during the Plenipotentiary Conference that will also elect a new Secretary General of the ITU and the Director for the Telecommunications Development Bureau (BDT).

The statement said Ghana "attaches great importance to the International Telecommunication Union and the challenges of applying Information and Communications for the socio-economic development in the light of the wide divide that exists between developing and developed worlds, between the urban and rural sectors of society, and between the haves and have nots."

Ghana has consistently worked to strengthen the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and with many other Member Countries, have supported a central role for the Union in the implementation of the Plan of Action of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Major Tandoh has a wide experience in the area of telecommunications and in international organisations.

He is currently Ghana's Councillor to the ITU and Head of the National Communications Authority and from 1999 to 2001 was Member of the ITU Radio Regulations Board (RRB), Geneva.

Maj. Tandoh was in the Army Signal Corps undergoing training courses at the School of Signals in Accra and at the Military College of Signals in Rawalpindi, Pakistan before assuming challenge of managing National Telecommunications in civil life.

He pursued a Master's course in Telecommunications Policy and Regulations at the University of Westminster, UK and Post-graduate Certificate in Strategic Telecommunication Planning and Management at the Graduate School of Telecommunications, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA.

He has also undertaken several courses offered by the United States Telecommunications Training Institute. Major Tandoh is credited with several academic and research publications relating to Electromagnetic Compatibility and also to Spectrum Management. 15 Dec. 05