International Amateur Radio Union Region 3 (IARU-R3) and the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT) have concluded a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) aimed at establishing collaboration between the two bodies in areas of mutual interest. IARU Region 3 Chairman Gopal Madhavan, VU2GMN, and APT Secretary-General Toshiyuki Yamada signed the MOU on their respective organizations’ behalf. Headquartered in Thailand, APT is one of the six regional telecommunication organizations involved in spectrum-allocation policy, as well as in fostering development of telecommunication services and information infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific Region. As do CEPT in Europe and CITEL in the Americas, APT’s 38 member administrations hold a series of meetings in advance of a World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) to develop a regional perspective on the conference agenda items. WRC-2015 will be held in Geneva next fall.

IARU Region 3 has been sending a representative and submitting information documents to APT meetings for a number of years. The new MOU formalizes the working relationship between the two regional entities and ensures that the IARU, through its Region 3 organization, will be able to make its positions known to APT.

APT was founded in 1979 on the joint initiatives of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). It is the central intergovernmental organization for information and communications technology in the Asia-Pacific Region. It operates in conjunction with telecom service providers, manufacturers of communications equipment, and research and development organizations active in the field of communication, information and innovation technologies.