 Thank you very much indeed for joining us and bearing with us and welcome to the Global Innovation Forum and we're now going to go into our first session, which is achieve your national development priorities through digital transformation. It's going to be moderated by Miss Doreen Bogdan, who is the director of the telecommunication Development Bureau at ITU. So Doreen, the floor is yours. Thank you. Thank you so much, Max. Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon, good evening, good morning. Before we dive into the panel, maybe I could lay out a few house rules. The sessions will be brought to you live on on swap card. Use the chat to comment. There's a Q&A box and you can of course connect with each other directly. We encourage you to use the hashtag, hashtag rediscover innovation to join the conversation. And if you wish to listen to one of the other UN languages, you can simply click on on the link at the bottom of your screen. And with that, I really want to welcome you all. It's a great pleasure for me to moderate this first session, which will take us on an inspiring journey. We will hear the experiences of a number of countries on their aspirations for the digital transformation of society. This new normal brought about by COVID-19 requires different actions than in the past and what we're going to hear during this next session is about how these countries have adapted their approaches highlighting their challenges, as well as opportunities. I would like to recognize our panel today. We have five panelists with us. We also have two video interventions. I'm delighted that we have today her Excellency Senator, the Honorable Allison West, the Minister of Public Administration and Digital Transformation of Trinidad and Tobago. We also have her Excellency Lee Lincoln, the Minister of Post and Telecommunications of Cameroon. We have his Excellency, Dr. Carol Solibar, who is the Deputy State Secretary for Info Communications of the Hungarian Ministry for Innovation and Technology. He will address us through a video message. We also have his Excellency, Dr. Ali Al-Shidhani, the Undersecretary of the Ministry for Communications and Information Technology of the Sultanate of Oman. We have his Excellency Gregorio Honasan, the Secretary for the Department of Information and Communication Technology, who will also join us through a video message. We have Madame Claude Borna, who is the Managing Director and Chief Innovation Officer of City Development Agency in Benin. And finally, we have Mr. Cesar Contreras Gonzalez, the Director General and Coordinator of Technological Development of the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation of Mexico. We have a fabulous lineup of participants and we will basically have a first round of questions and then come back for a second round. I do hope at the end we can have some some interactions based on the input we may receive from the audience. And so with that I'm going to hand over to our first panelists from Trinidad and Tobago. In pursuit of the diversification of the economy of Trinidad and Tobago, your government has been investing in key sectors such as food, tourism and technology. We understand that one of the key strategies is to really leverage ICTs to boost these key sectors that have strong potential for employment. And with this context it would be great to hear from you about the digital transformation efforts taking place in Trinidad and Tobago. Senator the Honourable Allison West, over to you please. If we could try to do three minutes for the first round and then as I said we'll come back. Senator please over to you. Good morning Madam Chair, morning colleagues and all. Trinidad and Tobago is a small island state of 1.3 million people. COVID as with many other places in the world put us into a bit of a tailspin. I realize also that although we have been incurring a lot of ICT spend to transform the public service in the past, we have not done it efficiently. We have not done it effectively. So for example, we weren't able to easily identify who are vulnerable people were during COVID who needed the help. We weren't able to easily access health records at the special health facilities that were set up to deal with the COVID patients. We weren't easily able to switch to a distance learning platform, and some people had challenges working from home. So what it did is that it worked the government up to realize that we needed to transform how we treated with our digital transformation to heighten the profile as is evident from the renaming of my ministry. We changed the government structure so that there was an overarching body ensuring interoperability ensuring connectivity between ministries exchange of information prioritizing the digital spend. So this is what we have been have done, and we are continuing to do. We have two key mandates over the next couple of years. One is to introduce an identity, which will allow us to more easily identify who are vulnerable citizens are what their needs are so that we can efficiently help them and service them. Two, to digitalize a public service which is, which we recognize is not just a conversion of records to a digital platform, but using the digital platform to transform how we treat with our citizens to make the service more citizen centric. And so it is made up of a slew of programs which includes change management, it includes educating a public service servants, transforming processes, looking at our legislation so it's quite a tall task ahead of us, but we are very excited to embark on this road because we see so much potential. COVID-19 has a negative and a positive first in the digital space, negative in that there are so many countries competing for limited resources, but it's a positive because as this forum that demonstrates because we're all on this journey together. It gives us the opportunity to share ideas, learn from each other and try to avoid the mistakes that some of us have made in the past and maybe are still making. So as I said, this is a very exciting time for us, we are looking forward to moving to making a quantum leap into the digital space and I look forward to our discussion this morning, thank you. Thank you for sharing that quantum leap I love that and also for for highlighting that important focus that you have also on your your citizen centric services. Look forward up we'll come back to you. I want to hear more. Thank you. Thank you so much. We will now turn to our next distinguished panelist her excellency joining us from from Cameroon. Cameroon is known for its Silicon Mountain, which offers a nurturing environment for digital innovation similar to Silicon Valley. ITU was recently a partner of the African telecommunication unions innovation challenge. And there was a remarkable winner from Cameroon a young woman with a solution called farm guard. So we're really excited. Excellency to have you joining us today. And we look forward to hearing more about how Cameroon is helping to develop its ecosystem and to to nurture such talents. Excellency over to you please. Thank you, madam moderator and director of telecommunications block man Bureau for giving me the floor. Your excellencies distinguished personalities, ladies and gentlemen. We are again at our annual rendezvous to share experiences of the individual journeys that our countries have traveled in the last 12 months with him a globalized and interconnected world. This year's meeting, which is currently holding via video conferencing for the first time is an indication of the incredible mutation that the world has undergone in recent times imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to the ability of our global industry to find solutions to most of our problems. Yeah, we are geographically dispersed across the globe, but united across this common digital platform to address some of the challenges that we must overcome together. In order to build an interconnected and inclusive world where no one is left behind. Yes, indeed. No one should be left behind. Let's be a slogan that has informed our industry commitment and strategies in the last few years. This slogan has never been so critical as it is today. COVID-19 has taught us that the world is truly a global village where in a virus that started in one locality can quickly cover the entire globe causing on top loss of lives and livelihoods. The virus made no difference between rich and poor nations, as well as between cities and remote villages. Telecommunications and I cities became the live wire that kept our economies growing in the dark of a pandemic and the most reliable social link that kept us together in a world where social distancing became a prescription. You must ensure that no one is left behind within the industry in general, and at the BDT in particular, so that together with effort from each country, we can leverage connectivity to defeat this unseen enemy and to better prepare ourselves for future challenges, business models where the winner takes it all and no longer sustainable. Madam moderator, ladies and gentlemen, received warm greetings from His Excellency Mr. Paul Bia, the head of state, who has engaged our country on the trajectory of building one of the furthest growing and most diversified ICT markets in the sub region. We have embarked on a project of densifying our national and international connectivity with the commissioning of 400 C-cabers, 20,000 kilometers of optic fiber, metro network links, satellite links and data centers with the help of our international partners. We are currently revising our legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks so as to better adapt our country to ongoing market challenges brought about by convergence. I can stop there and thank you. Thank you, Excellency and indeed we are all united across common digital platforms as you rightly noted and thank you for stressing that no one should be left behind and as you said that slogan has never been so critical than it is today. Thank you for that message and look forward to coming back to you to hear more. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now turn to a video address joining us from Hungary we have an address from His Excellency, Dr. Kerali Solymar, if we could hear his intervention please. Excellency's distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. It is my pleasure to give this video address for the ITU Global Innovation Forum. My name is Karel Valassoyman, I am the Deputy State Secretary for Digitalization of the Hungarian Ministry for Innovation and Technology. Ever since Hungary hosted ITU Falcon World in 2015 in Budapest, Hungary and ITU started to have a common history of collaboration in driving roads for digital ecosystem and innovation. This effort has led to many joint opportunities at the VCs, the Regional Development Forum for Europe and last year in 2019 and the ITU Falcon World back in Budapest, where we co-organized the first version of the Global Innovation Forum as a global ecosystem track. This year is particularly special, the world is facing a global pandemic which has a major impact on our economies. The coronavirus pandemic is a humanitarian crisis but also catalyst for changes on scale. ITU and Hungary continue to work together on the 2020 ITU Innovation Challenges and train mentors for this occasion. In Hungary there is a strong focus on the development of a bio-functioning digital ecosystem. We do our best to highlight the role of innovation and entrepreneurship. One of the goals of the ITU's Connect 2030 agenda is to ensure that by 2023 ITU member states have innovation policies fostering ICT-centric innovation. In this regard, let me tell you some words about the Hungarian best practices and the so-called input program. Several years ago Hungary recognized that it is of utmost importance to build entrepreneurship and innovation policies into the country's existing ICT policies and strategies. One of these initiatives which we are very proud of is the input program, the Hungarian government's program designed to develop an ICT startup ecosystem in rural areas that could easily grow global later. Input has a unique and comprehensive service portfolio that could support ITR owners all along their way from developing an idea to entering international markets. The uniqueness of input lies in its approach and methodology. Input is building on personal presence, individual guidance and training. Input program reacts to the needs and challenges of the here and now on the local level. This program was also recognized by the ITU as a regional best practice and contributed to our collaboration. We think ITU's innovation program is much aligned with our objective of connecting ecosystems so that innovators can find access to resources across various countries. This is essential to unlock opportunities for economies, make it small or big. We have proposed winning programs in Europe in the past and will continue to offer such practice sharing also in the future. Our ministry is happy to partner with ITU and other member states to accelerate the achievement of sustainable development goals. I am honored to make this video intervention and I am sorry that I could not attend the session live. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the leadership of ITU for offering a great opportunity to showcase Hungary's achievements so far in digital ecosystem development and for the continued partnership in this global effort. Thank you once again and stay safe. And our thanks go to Dr. Kareli for that important message. So now, ladies and gentlemen, we will turn to our next panelists, Undersecretary Dr. Al Shidhani joining us from Oman. So we know Oman has its 2040 agenda where you're trying to set out to develop a post oil economy. This requires of course the development of a strong digital ecosystem and strong innovation programs and initiatives. We're really looking forward to hearing about how you're going about that, your insights on this ambition and the steps that you're taking to reach this goal. Dr. Ali, over to you please. Thank you. Thank you Doreen and thank you distinguished speakers. It's my pleasure to speak in front of you today and share with you the Oman experience in digital transformation. Digital transformation is not new for Oman. Oman have taken several steps to cement digital transformation in the country, starting with the liberal liberalization of the telecom sector. And that enabled telecommunication companies to come to Oman and to provide telecom services that are fundamental for any digital transformation initiative, including fixed mobile and fiber services. In addition to that, back in 2006 Oman have established an IT information technology authority responsible to roll out E government services and to transform government services to exist in the virtual space. And that accelerated the level of services provided to citizens. In addition to all that, Oman have also established different entities such as a specific unit for broadband to lay down fiber across the country to ensure that connectivity reaches every city and every village. Recently Oman have also invested in startups by establishing venture capital companies that have spread a lot of positive vibes in the community and encouraged so many startups or so many people to start technology new initiatives and technology new companies in different sectors. Fast forward to today, where all these digital initiatives are now looked are being looked at under governance, a single governance, a one umbrella with the establishment of the Ministry of Transportation Communication and Information Technology. So all these initiatives are now better synergized and aligned and the different entities in Oman are working together to facilitate digital transformation to enable technology startups and to enrich innovation in the country. All these entities are also aligning with other entities and executing different strategies, such as Oman E government strategy, such as the broadband strategy and and the Oman national innovation strategy. And as you rightly said, Oman is now moving forward to execute Oman Vision 2040 and Oman Vision 2040 is a very ambitious vision for the country. In the post oil era where Oman will dive will looking seriously to diversify the income in the country away from traditional economies such as the oil and gas economy towards knowledge based economy in which technology innovation play pivotal role and for that and for such an ecosystem to be effective. There is, you know, coherence between technology governance technology infrastructure technology innovation and technology capabilities. And these are the four pillars. That we think will propel the country forward and will help the country to establish a digital economy, a digital economy that is based on the strength that we already have in the country in areas such as cybersecurity in the unique geographical location of the country in which the country is in the trade route of the world. And so we want to leverage that to develop the country into a digital trade hub in the region moving forward. So thank you very much for the opportunity to speak and looking forward to exchange more views and recommendations during the session. Terrific. Thank you so much, Dr. Allian and certainly look forward to coming coming back to you for for some of those important points that you have. You have noted thank you for that. We're now going to turn to Madame Claude born hush she's going to share with us her insights on how been in has responded to COVID-19 and what ecosystem builders like yourself have had to do to help their country navigate this new normal. Claude please the floor is yours. Thank you very much, Doreen and, and thank you to it you for giving us the opportunity to to share what we're doing and to, and to learn from from other countries. And so, semi city, which is the ecosystem that we're building in Benin is a is a flagship project of the government. And the goal is to improve education youth employment performances and also be the catalyst for a knowledge based economy which we just heard from from a man that they were on the same journey. So what we do at semi city is we bring together leading edge education programs research centers and incubators so that we can accelerate that innovation journey. So currently we have programs in computer science we have a school that has dedicated programs in design of mobile applications and online platform. We also have an incubator that was developed in collaboration we've we've pwc the consulting firm that can bring all their expertise their tools and their global networks to to support startups. And, and what we are mantra is really to promote innovation made in Africa and and develop local solutions. So, when when the crisis started, I remember it was back in March, when the first cases were announced in Benin. We immediately set up with our partners UNFPA and UNICEF. We decided that we would bring everyone together in a task force to to really develop local solutions that were adapted to our environment and our issues to fight the virus. The initiative was complementing the actions that were taken by the government, and it was really about driving innovative solutions locally and reinforcing as well the resilience of our local players. So I'm going to give you just a couple of examples of things that were developed. There was a startup called Xover that developed the contract tracing application. The beauty of it is today's application is actually being adapted to be used by UNFPA in other health programs, and they benefited from actually funding from UNFPA to be able to do that. Another program that was that was benefited from the task force was KIA Medicals. It's an online eHealth platform that provide tele-consultation and they developed a COVID-19 self-diagnostic system. And today they're working with the Ministry of Health on digitalizing the screening process for the test. And our solutions were also targeting the younger generations that, you know, at the start of the pandemic, they weren't really taking it seriously. So we came up with a campaign that was heavily related on social media and young influencers. WhatsApp group Facebook and other another platform to reach millions of young people. And there was also some funding to mobilize young associations, youth association to relay the message in their local communities. We also worked with UNICEF to do an online hackathon so that we could accelerate at least 10 local innovations in distance learning, digital communication, and also a platform where people could come and share knowledge of what was going on. So I think overall what we've learned through that experience with the task force is that by collaborating and that bringing different actors together. So we had, of course, the, you know, the development agencies have mentioned them, the UN agencies, the startups, the academic institutions, also private sector got involved. Is that really when we put everyone together, we can develop effective solutions. However, however, I need to say that support is still needed so that we can. I think we may have lost Claude. Well, let's hope that we can come back to to Claude. It's such an important message we lost her on the however, suspense there. So let's hope that we get Claude back. Ladies and gentlemen, I think we can now move to another video address from his Excellency, Secretary Gregorio Honasan the second from the Philippines, if we could hear from his Excellency please. Members of the International Telecommunications Union, distinguished members of the panel, participants from the public and private sectors as well as the Academy, friends, good morning. COVID-19 made an unprecedented and devastating impact on the global economy. Probably the biggest economic shock the world has experienced indicates. As countries in forced lockdowns, community quarantines and other restrictions, many businesses closed temporarily and permanently. Millions of people worldwide lost their jobs and domestic economies plummeted. In the Philippines, many months of stricter community quarantine took their toll on our domestic economy. In a statement by National Economic and Development Authority or NEDA acting Secretary Carl Kendrick Chua, he reported that COVID-19 and the ensuing quarantine have led to a 9% contraction of the Philippine economy in the first semester. Consequently, with 75% of the economy forced to shut down, unemployment reached a high of 17.7% in May this year with 7 million people unemployed. Nonetheless, with a gradual easing up of community quarantine in the Philippines, we are also seeing the slow recovery of our economy. With the advent of the so-called new normal, defined by an increased dependence on digital technology, we recognize the need to restrategize and refocus our priorities moving forward to adapt to and thrive amidst the demands of this new reality. In a report released by the World Bank and NEDA last October 5 entitled, A Better Normal Under COVID-19, Digitalizing the Philippine Economy Now. The rapid adoption of digital technology was identified as one key solution to recover from the COVID-19 crisis. The Philippine government likewise recognizes the urgent need for and the importance of digital transformation and strengthening the country's digital economy to help the country and the Filipino people bounce back from the devastating consequences of the pandemic. It is important to note, however, that even before the pandemic, the Philippine government, through the Department of Information and Communications Technology, or DICT, the primary policy planning, coordinating, implementing, and administrative entity of the executive branch of government that develops and promotes the National ICT Development Agenda, as mandated by Republic Act 10844, has been leading the country towards digital transformation to keep up with an increasingly digital world. The Philippines' vision of a digital future is not something new. It has simply been brought into sharper focus by the ongoing crisis. With this goal of improving the country's digital economy, the DICT implements both immediate and long-term sustainable solutions, focusing on improving ICT infrastructure, enabling e-government and strengthening ICT capacity development among Filipinos. Let's talk of connection. Let me end by greeting one and all. Maraming salamat, mabuhay, and God bless all of us. Very inspiring remarks from his Excellency Secretary Gregorio. And indeed, I think COVID has forced all of us to sharpen our focus on digital as we look to recovery, and as he said, a better normal through digitization. So I'm now going to turn to César, and then we will come back, I think, to Claude, who's reconnected. So if we could go to César Contreras Gonzales to tell us how Mexico is navigating the pandemic and future crises by leveraging technology. César, over to you please. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I am very honored to participate in this session. Thank you very much as well for the invitation and the consideration of Mexico. So I think there's no question that the COVID pandemic has thought us all many, many lessons. It's been an historic series of events that we have all been facing. And definitely we have found that technology has been an amazing tool to actually face this current situation and to keep the world and our economies up and running. However, this situation has thought us that connectivity. I would like to say that first of all, we need to provide connectivity. If we hadn't done this in the last few years, we wouldn't have achieved anything. We have to remember that we need to take other measures aimed at the access to this new technology. Therefore, the most important thing is democratization and KT. We have to make everything necessary to use this new potential in full. This is applicable both to the current crisis and to future crises. Very often, young people are the strikers of this innovative activity. Therefore, it is very important that the country's population really owns this technology. This is a new stimulus for creativity. Cyber security is something that can be explained by bringing analogies to our physicists. It's very important to provide all the different elements for people to as in cybersecurity to stay safe as in technology in the bigger picture to make the most of the different tools. In the Ministry of Communications and Transportation of Mexico, we have been pushing for democratizing technology and going back to the cybersecurity sample. We created cybersecurity specific guides for telecommuting and for education, knowing that people in the educational sector and as well as in the job market, especially medium, small enterprises, really didn't have enough knowledge or were not 100% prepared to make use of technology as the way the COVID pandemic forced us to do all of a sudden. So in that sense, and following co-creation approach, we totally agree that co-creation is a way to go. So it is very important for us to develop and implement solutions not only in the health area in the future, but also in other very important, very relevant sectors to promote economic development and reduce the impact of future crisis. Agenda 2030, and that has already been said, clearly states that we should leave no one behind. And in Mexico, we are committed to leaving no one behind since we're undergoing a transformation to make sure that historically marginalized communities and peoples are also being part of development. And that's what I wanted to round up when I said that we should take into account people and technology for people, not technology just for the sake of technology itself. So thank you very much again and we're looking forward to the second space to participate. Thank you so much for that important message and sharing the experiences of Mexico and the importance of not just training people to be users but also to be innovators and how you're making efforts to democratize technology and the importance of co-creation. Great messages there. Claude, I'm going to come back to you. We lost you when you got to the, however, you were talking about the importance of how together we can develop things. And then you said, however, and we lost you. It was linked to collaboration. Claude, if you're with us, perhaps we can turn back to you, Claude. Yes. Yes, thank you Apologies for my technical issues. I was saying and it echoes the previous speakers that however support is still needed and is very significant to help our startups and our innovators build resilience and I think this will require a very unprecedented level of collaboration between the government, the technical and financial partners, the NGOs that are on the ground, the private organizations and maybe if I may say in closing I mean that crisis is terrible but let's not you know I think it's Wilson Churchill who said never let a good crisis go to waste. Let's look at it and let's look at what we can learn so that we also put in place the right environment to enable local innovation because it's definitely needed in our economies. It's definitely needed to support also the SMEs and the startups that can play a significant role in the development of our countries. Terrific thank you thank you for that Claude and indeed your last point about the enabling environment is so critical, not only for sustainability but also for for investment as well. Thank you. So now we're going to go back to to Senator Allison West from Trinidad and Tobago, and perhaps if you could, if you can maybe elaborate a little bit further on Trinidad and Tobago's vision and the strategies leading to this inclusive digital transformation of society. If we can turn back to you please. Did we, did we lose Senator West. Sorry, I was muted. Okay, great. Yes, as a couple of my co panelists said we are also determined to ensure that no one is left behind. As it, in respect of the lockdown what we meant by that was ensuring that with terminations from employment and so on, that no one went hungry that no one lived without the basic necessities. With the digital world we want to ensure that everybody has coverage and everybody has access to digital services. So we did things like provided additional spectrum free of charge during the lockdown to the telecommunications companies to ensure that everybody had coverage, notwithstanding that there were gaps in the coverage so we are broadening our access by building out additional wifi free wifi spaces throughout the country in high traffic areas. We are increasing the number of access centers or internet cafes that the government is operating to give people who cannot afford it access to to equipment free wifi teaching them how to use the equipment and how to access government services, giving them a space to research and get together. We have the service providers coming on board with that because they are also using their corporate social responsibility programs to introduce free wifi and to introduce some access centers. We realized during the lockdown that traditionally government is operated as a separate unit. We found that collaboration with the private sector with academia took us so much further that people were willing and eager to come on and work with the government to ensure that together we can all progress and we are continuing to keep that model in place. We have set up as I said a new government structure for the digitalization of the economy that continues to involve private sector and academia. We think that model works well and we're going to continue with it. Even with all of this we realize that although in the past most households would have one ICT piece of equipment a laptop or whatever and they could manage with that having regard to the fact that so many people were working from home and so many people were schooling from home. It was no longer sufficient to have one or two devices per household and that every individual needed a device essentially so we remove taxes on the importation of these items to make them more affordable and where even with the removal of the taxes they will continue to be unaffordable to students. We are arranging to ensure that all our students who cannot afford a given a device. The private sector again is working with us. They have contributed a significant number and the government is filling the gap with the others. So the intention is to ensure that everybody who needs one has a device. Everybody has access to broadband and so with that we can all participate in the digital economy. We have done some work in to encourage a private sector involvement as well but if you've got a chance to come back to me I will. I can go more fully into that. Thank you. Thank you. Terrific. Great to hear about all of the things that you have done to facilitate and keep connectivity going during this crisis. We will now turn again to her Excellency from Cameroon. Excellency if you could share some ICT ecosystem development initiatives in Cameroon that are fostering entrepreneurial activities and really fueling ICT innovations. And if I think we'll try to keep the next interventions if we could try the two minutes each. Excellency please you have the floor. Thank you Madam Moderator. Convergence is causing intense mutations within our industry. We've a continuous evolution towards a single network capable of delivering a spectrum of services to the market. We will try comparing companies whether similar or diverse to come together in order to consolidate or enhance capability for the delivery of increasingly complex and diverse services to satisfy consumer demands. This comes with a lot of challenges. The following initiatives which are far from exhausting outlined our approach to foster an entrepreneurial and innovative ICT environment in Cameroon. Convert regulation. Our case strategy is to build a regulatory framework that ensures interoperability of different networks to provide an experience that meets customer requirements. Regulation that integrates new players who must be subject to cross sector regulation in order to build trust between all actors, create a sustainable ecosystem and ensure a holistic transformation, where responsibilities are fully established. We are currently working with our international partners to achieve this goal. Secondly, security. Emerging business models require the use of customer information by converged companies who are sometimes located several miles away in different countries. In order to protect our citizens and our way of life and our economy, we are embarking on development, cybersecurity initiatives, which during our past meetings we have asked ITO to champion international consensus to ensure the security of networks and personal data. The training and capacity building. If our country is not to be left behind, we must ensure that our youth and economic operators are not only maximizing the use of ICT as business enablers but also become technology creators and contents market. Training is the cornerstone of our strategy. And in the next few months, we will be rolling out a multi complex and multi million dollar cyber park, which will incubate and make mature our youth in tech entrepreneurship. The complex will also be used to train our youth in emerging technology such as intelligent artificial robotics, internet or things distributed, ledger and much more. The last but not the least is celebrate achievements. We organize many national competitions among which is the national innovation week crowned by the price of head of state. This intended to reward excellence and spark creativity and innovation is what we are doing. Thank you. Thank you so much and congratulations on those many, many achievements. Thank you for sharing that. So now we'll turn to to his Excellency Dr. Ali. If you could share with us a little more about how I'm on envisages be really becoming a digital leader in the region. Excellency over to you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Indeed, becoming a digital leader takes, you know, important and courageous decisions. And there are some prerequisites for that to happen. One of them is strengthening international collaboration and international relations with international bodies. And that is something that Oman has been doing for some time. Oman is collaborating with different international organizations, including the ITU. And I think as you all know, Oman is hosting the ITU Cyber Security Center for the Arab region here in Oman. And Oman have ranked fourth in cybersecurity in ITU Cyber Security Index. And we are looking forward as well to collaborate further with ITU in developing an innovation landscape of Oman to identify the strength weaknesses opportunities and threats of the current innovation ecosystem in Oman. And in partnership with ITU and to identify the way forward in innovation. So international collaboration is something that we take very seriously for in our digital transformation journey. And speaking of a journey, Vision 2040, as I mentioned before, is our ultimate destination where we want Oman to become a nation that produces technology rather than predominantly consumes technology. And in that we are focusing in enabling digital transformation in different sectors that Oman is strong in. For example, in the logistics sector, the tourism sector, the mining sector, and the aviation sector. Oman have identified as well as manufacturing sector. So Oman have identified these sectors. These are the economic diversification sectors for the country. And digital transformation is a key driver for us and for the country to advance in these sectors. And a snippet of this was exemplified during COVID-19. So COVID-19 is obviously a pandemic with devastating effects and devastating outcome all across the globe. It also had its advantages. It accelerated digital transformation. It accelerated the establishment of digital startups that have transformed lives. Oman, so many digital startups started operating during the pandemic to provide means for people to buy goods online, fruits, vegetable, fish. Other startups started working in 3D printing to manufacture ventilators and other PPP equipments. AI based solutions started to pop up during the pandemic to predict different patterns to help diagnose the COVID-19 symptoms and so on. So the future is bright, but there are fundamentals that needs or some, let's say, maybe some challenges that needs to be tackled. Among them is the collaboration between industry, government, and academia. This triple helix has to be for us to become a producing nation. In addition to all that and to conclude, technology is not the end game. The end game should be human prosperity. So we want to use technology to serve humanity. So all our technology advancement have to be human centric. So how can technology be used for good rather than be used for evil, if I may say. So that's it and looking forward for further engagement. Terrific. Thank you so much for that. And we also look forward to continued engagement. And thank you for the sort of optimism, good to start a Monday optimism. Thank you for that. And indeed, the future is bright, let's say, and we have challenges and we need to face them together. Thank you for that. I'm going to turn back to Cesar and Claude and we only have a couple of minutes left. So I'm going to ask you both the same question. If you could each share one example of challenges stakeholders can face and trying to get the to to to get the digital ecosystem collaborating and innovating. If you could try to do that in 90 seconds each, can I go to Cesar first. So one example, Cesar. Sure. Thank you, Madam chair. So definitely meaningful connectivity as I mentioned in my previous intervention will require innovation and ecosystem that works to unlock the potential of communities. Now the question becomes how to foster that innovation to occur in the first place. So it is fundamental to have the right for a force stakeholders to discuss and agree on the next steps that foster that collaboration that innovation and the creation of partnerships across public and private actors. Here in Mexico. Last year we started working towards the creation of something that we call the observatory of digital technologies and public policy trends. A project that I submitted last year as part of this it innovation challenge was one of the winning ideas, and we have been working towards the implementation of this of this project which we consider fundamental to enable the ecosystem and all the actors in the ecosystem to participate in the in the in the collaboration that is so necessary to promote and foster this this change to happen in the first place. I stay here. I know that time is a little bit short and I'm going to pass the floor to to Claude. Thank you again. Terrific Claude over to you please. Yes, thank you. I'm going to stay on the same theme and I think let's use ICT to actually enable better collaboration and information sharing I mean just today we've learned so much about what's happening in other countries and, and there's some best practice sharing that actually should be done more often and why not create a platform, an online platform like you know what we're doing here but maybe more structured and more regular so that we can actually exchange information and also enable at another level our startups to exchange information and get best practice so that we don't have to repeat mistakes but only you know take what works and take it further so I think we have the tools to do that. It's not complicated even something like zoom is already a great tool to do it. Let's, let's set it up. Let's set it up that's a that's a that's a great proposal. Thank you for that. So the, my colleagues have told me that I can go back around just for a 30 second Twitter type last intervention. And maybe Alison I go to you just like 30 second takeaway. If you if you can, Senator please. You're muted. Yes, I am. So what co business taught us is that life is fragile things are fragile, and that we need to stop working in silos we need to stop looking at our own individual needs and wants and work together as a unit to advance society. So we have started doing that the challenges to keep that going. I thank you. Excellent. Thank you for that. Over to Cameron minister, we became a short 30 second takeaway minister. Thank you. There should be left behind the externalities of digital revolution should be inclusive based on openness transparency and from collaboration between all actors in the value chain and nations for shared prosperity. Determined to play its role. Thank you very much. Beautiful. I love it. Okay, now over to Dr. Ali, please. 30 seconds, sir. Sure, thank you very much. So it goes like this competitive economies are inclusive and digital first economies. Very powerful, very powerful love that one to a Claude over to you please. This is really a call for more collaborations between between all the definitions and and a push for government to really look at what their youth are doing and how innovative local solutions can really, really make a great impact in in the development of our economies. Thank you. And say, sir, over to you. 30 seconds. Thank you. Thank you, Madam chair. Two heads are better than one. There's no question about that. And innovation driven digital transformation of society demands participation of all stakeholders, the population itself being one if not the most important of all of them. So we should train our people to make the most of technology but also to set the foundation for them to be the source of innovation and co creation. Thanks. Thank you. This has been amazing. Thank you all that, what an incredible panel. So many good takeaways on stressing the importance of, of collaboration we've heard some interesting governance models that have now come into place and in Trinidad and Tobago in Oman how you're moving forward on a governance side of digital transformation. We've heard the importance of being local when we think about the solutions. We've also heard it's not just the infrastructure. It's the services that go with it. It's the importance of capacity building the necessary skills. We need to always combine connectivity with with other efforts, the importance of co creation, the importance of engaging youth, absolutely. And of course, inclusive I think we we heard over and over leave no one behind and absolutely agree. We need to be inclusive about this. We need to have the right enabling environment in place we need to be thinking about resilience, engaging infrastructure, government, civil society, investors, and what we have seen here is really that COVID has been has been an accelerator for connectivity it's also been an accelerator for for innovation and we've heard so many innovations today, which is, which is really just just incredible. So, thank you all it's been it's been terrific. I'd like to encourage everyone stay with us, attend the other sessions. To discover new insights about sustainability and competitiveness of digital ecosystems. Use this as an opportunity to to build your own know how to learn good practices, and then to take them back and apply them in your own environments. Thanks to again this amazing panel give them a virtual round of applause. And, and please note that the ITU stands ready to help assist you as you go on in your digital transformation journeys. Stay safe, stay healthy and hope to see you face to face soon.