ITU Telecom World 2006 will be held from Dec. 4 to 8, 2006, in Hong Kong, according to the Hong Kong government website on Saturday.

Organized by the ITU (International Telecommunication Union), a United Nations special agency for coordinating global telecom networks and services, ITU Telecom World is the most prominent global telecommunications event held every three to four years.

It will be the first time the event will have been held outside Geneva, where the ITU is based.

Hong Kong previously hosted two ITU regional events, ITU Telecom Asia 2000 and ITU Telecom Asia 2002.

The event comprises two parts, an exhibition and a forum. The exhibition enables industry players to showcase their latest equipment, services or technologies, while the forum provides a platform for participants to debate critical issues on policies and regulation, key technologies, business applications and environment.

It is estimated that the ITU Telecom World 2006 will attract an estimated 100,000 overseas visitors, generating about 1.2 billion HK dollars of direct economic benefit to Hong Kong.

Source: Xinhua