Morocco elected to top position of world telecom body

Morocco's Ahmed Toumi, was elected Thursday first director general of the International Telecommunications via Satellite Organization (ITSO).

Toumi, a telecom expert, was elected by 70 votes for and 47 against, while three members abstained.

The election was made in Washington at the 26th general assembly of Intelsat, which set up ITSO last year. Intelsat, set up in 1965, musters 144 member countries.

Toumi ran for the post against candidates from France, Switzerland, India, Costa Rica, Namibia, Ghana, Cameroon and Benin.

Toumi is director of studies and planning at the Moroccan secretariat of state in charge of information and communication technologies. He is graduate of French telecom schools of Paris and Toulouse.

He is one of the architects of the liberalization of the Moroccan telecom sector, which led to an unmatched development in the Arab world.

Morocco counted 1.5 million phone (fixed and mobile) subscribers in 1998, on the eve of the sector's liberalization. The figure jumped to 5 million in March 2001. Subscribers to digital cellular services number 3.5 million.

The sector is poised to more progress.