 Your Excellency, it's a pleasure to welcome you to this session, and Brian also, thank you for joining us. John and Barbara, it is going to be a great session. I'm glad that we are all here at this Regional Innovation Forum. The Regional Innovation Forum is part of the Global Innovation Forum. We've been having this exercise all week, but today is purely dedicated to Africa. So I thank you for being part of this. The Africa Innovation Forum is the second now, and I want to particularly thank the Republic of Congo through you, Minister Ibombo, for having hosted the first Regional Innovation Forum last year, 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a spanner in the works and really upset most of our livelihoods and others at risk because in most of the world, the pandemic is still alive. But particularly for us, we've been hit particularly hard in the informal sector where probably 50 to 75% of the employment in the continent is. So everybody, our governments, our international organizations, the UN organizations have been working very hard to try and mitigate this pandemic. However, also our innovators, our young people have been working very hard in order to try to normalize or mitigate the pandemic. And these have included the development of systems that applications that can be used for various things. They have been used, especially in as online applications for mobile phones where people have been able to order services, including even food orders and medicines have been delivered, ordered from pharmacies and delivered by these people. So they've been part of a budding ICT innovation ecosystem that is budding in Africa. We've been trying in ITU to facilitate and anchor these young people who have through their support of their countries been able to or been trying to work within an ecosystem. And this has to be or we've been advocating for it to be an all on board really ecosystem because you can't have an innovation system just in the ICT sector or an innovation system in the agricultural sector. It has to be an all sector or government innovations ecosystem. And I think a number of countries have endeavored to do this. We have anchored our work in the African Union digital transformation strategy, whose overall objective is to harness digital technologies and innovation to transform Africa's societies and economies to promote Africa's integration, generate inclusive economic growth, stimulate job creation, erase the digital divide and eradicate poverty to secure the benefits of digital revolution for the social economic development. These strategies that I have just whose objective I just quoted is built on five foundational pillars, enabling environment, policy and regulation, digital infrastructure, digital skills and human capacity and digital innovation and entrepreneurship. So you can see how important and how how fundamental digital innovation and entrepreneurship is. So this forum aims to engage us in a learning journey really to gain insights on how to build regional and national capacities from ecosystem builders, innovators and champions who will identify the region's challenges and opportunities. It will further highlight good working practices and collaboration efforts between all of the digital innovation ecosystems stakeholders, and we will hear power stories from the winners of the ITU Innovation Challenge. The forum is also we're thought out and in line with the ITU Africa Regional Initiative one, which is building digital economies and fostering innovation in Africa. It will promote practices to build more innovative ICT based innovation ecosystems contributing to social economic development by unlocking digital ecosystems potential. The forum aims to share how to overcome the digital innovation divide and accelerate digital transformation. Working with ITU, some of our member states, South Africa, Rwanda, Kenya already drafted their digital innovation profiles and under drafting Niger and Mali. I strongly encourage everyone to start this very exciting innovation journey towards digital innovation ecosystem, and I want to reiterate that ITU stands ready to work with you in this endeavor. So, it is now my privilege to welcome the panelists that I mentioned earlier. We have, we have his Excellency Leo Giuseppe Bombo, who is the Minister of Digital Economy in the Republic of Congo. And I will go, I will go panelist by panelist. So, your Excellency, what are some of the ICT ecosystem development initiatives in the Republic of Congo that are fostering entrepreneurship activities and fueling ICT innovation? And how are decision makers fostering this partnership? You have minister eight minutes. Thank you. Your Excellency. I would like to first of all leave my duty to thank the organizations and particularly the International Union of Telecommunications. We have made the honor of taking the floor at the present high-level workshop. Through the relevant questions in discussion, such as the collaboration of regional priorities in terms of innovation, entrepreneurship, development of ecosystems. I see in the content of this workshop the commitment of intelligence shared to build digital economies in order to solve the problems of development in which South Africa is singularly confronted. Such a lack of access to financial inclusion, education, energy, or even water supply. Ladies and gentlemen, strong commitment from the President of the Republic. Your Excellency, Mr. Denis Sasungesso, to include the development of digital economies in the heart of his social impact. I am convinced, as you, that digital is of our own time, carrier of many challenges and happy opportunities for the benefit of our people. This is why we must think, define together, policies to favor the ecosystem of digital innovation and digital transformation. The role played by collaboration and regional partners. Their importance for the integration of a competitive ecosystem at the time of COVID-19. The main challenges and opportunities in which our countries are confronted and national policies in the matter. First of all, it comes back to the state to create the necessary conditions for the release of sustainable development. These, in particular dealing with the issues of economic strategy, legal framework, accompanying the inventors of innovators, ladies and gentlemen. Innovation, when it is well accompanied, can act as a catalyst and accelerator pressure for achieving sustainable development objectives. They play an essential role in bringing in sustainable solutions, including and adapting to the context of our countries, thus allowing these last, that is to say, populations, to access the fundamental needs and services such as energy, education or health. This is why the Republic has adopted a national development plan, which reflects the objectives of sustainable development of the United Nations. It is also in this context that the government has developed the strategy Vision Congo Digital 2025, which is articulated around three pillars, which are the IGUV, the I-Citizen and the I-Business. The policy of digital innovation in my country first relies on infrastructures, and in particular on the highway of information. This is why it is successfully implemented, the national telecommunications coverage projects, the West African Cable System and the Central African Backbone project. Once these highways have been implemented, the Congolese government has enriched its legislation through the promulgation of laws, fighting against cybercriminality, against cyber security, protection of personal data, and the law relating to electronic transactions. And even recently, in my country, the Congolese ratified the Malabo Convention of the African Union on cyber security, protection of personal data. And we have already been working with our European partners to ratify the Budapest Convention. It is all this legal staff that should allow to create favorable conditions and the legislative framework necessary to create numerical awareness, which is the necessary condition to guarantee the development of innovation in our countries. In the face of regional initiatives, the free roaming between the Congolese and the Gabon is now available since January 1, 2020. And this is also the occasion and the place to recall the importance of the Smart Africa initiative born from the will of the State Council of the African Union, which has allowed to achieve this result, which directly benefits our populations. The question of accompanying inventors, innovators, has been taken into account through a structure in my country. It is the general direction of the development of the digital economy, which is dedicated to accompanying young people to ensure that these young people can enter this dynamic sector. But also, my department is carrying out a forward-looking law project carrying the status of start-ups in the Congolese Republic, here again to boost the sector of digital economy. Ladies and gentlemen, to remind you, our country, in partnership with the Regional Bureau of the International Union of Telecommunications, had organized in October 2019 a regional workshop on reducing the digital fraction in the aim of strengthening the capacity, the regional capacity of the national development of the digital ecosystem, and above all of innovation. And at this occasion, the price of Denis Sasungesso for digital innovation, which was launched for the first time, participates in this will to show, to encourage young people to enter the development of the digital economy. Despite the initiative and creativity, the innovators remain confronted, we must admit to a few major challenges, such as the level of penetration of the internet and the digital competence. Our critical infrastructure, our attractive policies of incitement to insert the development of the digital economy and the political stability of our country, are committed to favoring the ecosystems of digital innovation and digital transformation. Our ambition for the next few years, and we hope with the support of the United Nations, is that Denis Sasungesso's edition of digital innovation is to do this activity, one of this competition, we will say young people, a sub-regional activity, and even regional, of digital innovation in order to facilitate emulation, but also creativity. And at the moment, we meet here, there are 40 young Congolese who are competing in the Akaton launched by the United Nations Programme, the United Nations Programme for the Development of the Congo, under the theme Act for COVID-19, a competition intended for innovators eager to bring solutions and created by the COVID-19 pandemic to identify questions and crises and socio-economic reliefs facing this pandemic. These challenges, not only in the form of training, but also in the dynamization of the ecosystem of digital technology in our country. And in the same perspective, before we finish, of the innovation of the fight against COVID-19, the Congo in partnership with the Commission of the United Nations for Africa, the COA, has developed the African platform of communication and information, as well as in CIGL, which will serve as a model in other countries. And this is the President of the Republic, His Excellency, Mr. Denis Sasung, who had just launched the work of this platform. And even very soon, during the COA competition, the Congo will take part in the Artificial Intelligence Center at the University of Denis Sasung and others from KIN-TV and this is thanks to the fruit of this fruitful collaboration between the COA and our country. And finally, to finish my speech, I wish that this forum brings the necessary tools to help us accelerate more digital transformation of our countries by promoting innovation and entrepreneurship. Thank you for your attention. Thank you very much, Your Excellency. These are indeed very important, very credible initiatives that you have embarked on. I wouldn't be able to rank them in terms of importance. I'm not going to try, but it is very important that not only is your country initiating national programs, it is also working with neighboring countries. I note the initiative with Gabon. I note the initiative that I actually we are also part of with the UN ECH, a very, very important platform. But most importantly, I note the initiative that is launched by His Excellency Denise Asungweso and promise you that I will also follow up with you to see how ITU can engage and work with you in accompany you in these initiatives. Indeed, creating an innovation ecosystem as a framework for the initiatives to work is very important. So, once again, Minister Jiste, thank you very much. Let me turn to Ms. Lorencio, UNFPA representative in Benet to share with us. Barbara, could you please share with us the ongoing experience of UNFPA in Benet and how relevant what relevant partnerships with UN agencies and other innovation stakeholders for sustainable solutions for the youth you have created. Barbara. Thank you very much, Mr. Director. His Excellencies, Mr. Secretary General Director my best wishes from Benet. I'm Barbara Lorencio, UNFPA representative in the country. UNFPA is one of the UN agencies, one of the member of the UN family and we are really working on reproductive health and especially women's and girls health and rights. So the reason why I'm here today is to share the concrete experience of Benin and I'm actually only one voice among a network of partners and we were very lucky because at the opening of this forum we all heard Mrs. Claude Borna who is the Executive Director of CEMS City, the City of Innovation of Benin. So my voice is only one voice among a large network of partners and to share the amazing experience that we went through this COVID pandemic. Somehow the pandemic is a challenge and certainly a scary moment in history but it also created incredible opportunities and new linkages and I think this is something that we heard along this forum. I read the statements and the takeaways of the ministerial segment of this forum and it's obviously something that everybody agrees upon that the COVID pandemic accelerated the introduction of innovation and digital solutions in our landscapes. Practically what I wanted, the experience that I wanted to share that Claude Borna touched upon at the beginning of the week is what happened with us. We were working with a UN health agency and in March we were all preparing as the rest of the world what can we do in anticipation to this epidemic that was arriving to the African continent. So we linked to the City of Innovation and as UNFPA but soon enough we had other partners starting to also co-create with UNFPA with local startups and soon enough other partners what involved UNICEF and private partners so within a month or so a network was established with over 100 stakeholders from very local startups, small startups to UN agencies to the government involving of course the Ministry of Health too and this enabled to really organize the response around four areas of work and it really enabled to bring innovation and digital solutions rapid innovation and digital solutions to the COVID response in Benin. So this experience is really amazing it enabled us to address a number of bottlenecks and I'm just going to briefly mention then without going in details but for example how at the time of the year we were wondering how to get protection equipments for house workers while most of the travels were blocked around the world. So it enabled us to find solutions to actually have a local productions of masks and other protective equipments it also enabled us to solve other issues such as the information ecosystem, information structure the structure of the data that are being collected and the tools that needed to be with some interoperability in the data collection of all levels of information and tracking of cases so it's just to say that really it helped accelerate solutions and develop local practical solution that really were in response to the situation. Two observations very briefly and I'm finished is first for me the experience was is very really relevant because it did put some partners together that are used to work together the government the UN agencies big partners that kind of used to work together but this time it really linked us with local startups and what was even more interesting for us because we were used to work with those local startups but we even reached local startups that were across the country in the very north of the country very south of the country because young people were so talented and they wanted to participate so they were bringing their own solutions and with the virtual world they could share their solutions so that's one point and the second and final point is I was also very struck by the connections between the young people between countries in the region meaning the young people in Benin or in touch with the young people in Ghana or in Nigeria or in Burkina Faso and they were all connecting through this platform but through other mechanism that we have in place to put them in connection and I think this is really something that we have to be very proud of them and we have to nurture for the years to come so this is my contribution Mr. Director Thank you very much Barbara I it's very difficult usually to turn to turn the COVID-19 impact into kind of positive impact but what you have mentioned is really a positive impact first of all the value in the region's young people working together which was your concluding point is very important because Africa is going to only be viable as one Africa and bringing our young people together that is the key the key to the innovation but also your other point about the usual the usual partners now going beyond and working with with startups and young people that is something that we can learn from you because the co-creation that you are talking about I'm sure they brought a lot of ideas, you brought a lot of ideas and the co-created solutions were good for Benet I know that Benet is very dynamic I work closely with High Excellence Larry and so congratulations and thank you so I would now like to call on I would now like to call on the Secretary General of ATO my friend John Omo to please can you tell us what key initiatives ATO has taken to promote collaboration and partnership for a competitive digital ecosystem development in the region I need to mention here for those that don't know that ATO is our very very close partner very close partner and regional organization of the ITU John please Thank you very much Andrew for the intro thank you very much for the invitation I sincerely want to recognize the horrible minister from Congo Madame Barbara Brian fellow panelists thank you very much for those that have spoken ahead of me I want to associate with the sentiments that I already expressed as you have said the ATU is a regional telecommunications organization we work closely with the ITU and indeed other communications organizations from other ITU regions we established as an organ of the African Union and so we work principally in the field of ICT now when you talk of innovation I think the question that begs to be answered is why is Africa where it is and what can Africa do differently in order to ensure that we not only catch up but that the digital revolution that is creating so many services do not leave us behind and I see this in three ways one is infrastructure and secondly is skills gap in terms of capacity building and the last one is perhaps for institutions that generate necessary ideas for hand holding, for exposure and for internship opportunities and so let me start from an infrastructural point of view innovation largely has gone online the hubs that we have established whether in Egypt whether in Congo, whether in Rwanda or wherever require that our young people very innovative and creative minds network and look at opportunities that exist in other places and build on success stories from other innovators in order to create African solutions to African problems so we as ITU have been working on the realm of infrastructure both at a policy and regulatory level to ensure that our policies our regulatory frameworks are aligned to each other for purposes of necessitating investments in infrastructure in Africa both at fiscal and ICT policy in terms of skills gap we have coupled we have together with other organizations such as the ITU in initiating a number of opportunities for mentoring, for e-skilling our people in terms of them understanding the opportunities that are available for innovation and online and in terms of exposure and hand holding we have just organized an Africa wide innovation challenge dubbed ITU Africa ICT where we had 169 exhibitors presenting their ideas to the judges and the eventual winner came from North Africa with a very innovative idea realizing that because of COVID a lot of our schools have been closed yet there is quite a bit of learning that is going on in our homes so how can we ensure that the sort of laboratory environment that we have in our schools is available to students when they are learning from home or that most of our schools do not have necessary laboratory facilities so we need to create an environment where our students can undertake experiments online, virtually and the facilities available so we have had an Africa wide competition in this regard and I was amazed at the level of skills that exist in this continent and let me talk lastly at the level of institutions and capacity and institutions and hand holding I think this as I have said a lot of knowledge and skills in this continent and what we need to work a lot more on in my view is how we hand hold, nature you know give nurturing opportunities for young people so that they are exposed, they are skilled in order to ensure that their knowledge is nurtured well enough from stage to stage until they see the market or adopted by the big tail course for purposes of providing services to our people and there has never been an opportunity for cooperation that exists now especially in innovation and I speak this because of what his excellence to the minister has just mentioned a while ago and Madame from the UN the UN in Benin I think Africa has become a testing ground for so many ideas and they are all sorts of institutions that are working in Africa which is commendable but I think we are working in our silos and piecemeal small organizations or institutions and the impact that is created is not big enough to cause a change and so I think there exists an enormous opportunity for us to work together see the sort of institutions that we can create or work with for purposes of creating a bigger impact admittedly working in our small organizations in our various countries has created you know the impact that is opportune is necessary at that level but for us to create a big impact for us to have a competitive edge with regard to other regions of the world we need to work and cooperate a lot more so that we create the necessary impact that is required in order to create a bigger impact in this content and I'm just impressed that you know Congo Brother has been in the last couple of months or weeks been having a competition for young people in terms of how the ideas can respond to COVID-19 parallel to that we have been running the same sort of challenge and so my idea is how we can maybe through ITU and ITU has fortunately given us at the level of ITU an opportunity to going forward work with ITU so that we create a bigger a bigger thing work with each other hand hold each other cooperate with each other so that people bringing their knowledge their skills we can then create a bigger impact but for as long as we work in silos for that long I think there's more of competition rather than cooperation and I think we will create more impact when we cooperate with each other in this regard and so it's my appeal we have as I've mentioned agreed with ITU that going forward we'll organize the Africa Innovation Challenge together with the ITU and we do invite other organizations working in this space working in Africa that we work together so that the impact that we can create you know instead of duplicating resources that we don't have as Africans we work together so that we create a larger impact in this regard over to you Andrew thank you thank you very much John and yes I let me in in return acknowledge the work at ITU the excellent work actually that went into the Africa Innovation Challenge which really put on the map what it is Africans African young people can do this collaboration this again co-creation the discussions that took place the mentoring that took place with this young people because they do have but this need to be molded so I very much appreciate that I note the challenges that you have mentioned which are the same challenges that that I think the whole of Africa and industry have in terms of really as susceptible infrastructure that in most places that doesn't exist the mentoring is killing in addition to hand holding giving young people an opportunity to inter thereby giving them the opportunity to sharpen their their skills but excellent let me turn to Brian Brian Wundi director of innovation for Orange Middle East and Africa what is the role of partnership of partnership and collaboration in digitization of the informal sectors empowering used to be makers and creators to shape the world to accelerate and adopt digital and close the gaps in the different sectors whether it is health whether it is education agriculture what are the most important challenges that you are working to address today Brian please you are muted well thank you very much I'm very honored pleased to be here with you all Honorable Minister Fibombo Andrew Barbara and John thank you very much for inviting me to participate in this dialogue so Orange considers itself a key partner in the region Orange has been like our other telcos in Africa for around 20 years now we pride ourselves that one in every 10 Africans is an Orange customer we we're present in 18 countries and really we see our future and Africa's future intertwined we are co-creators of our future so I think it's really important to stick stock of how these things are so that we come from a place that we have a long term vested interest in the growth of Africa now you asked about partnerships and challenges especially in light of what the development looks like across the region so I'll answer that in a couple of ways so the telcos of course like Orange we invest over a billion dollars just in infrastructure a billion euro every year across the region across Africa now this investment is only part of the story the fact is Orange for example employs over 18,000 people in the region so we see these investments in infrastructure in skills as I think John was mentioning are really, really key to the growth and development in the region and we form part and parcel of that but these things are also done through institutions like yours Andrew, John like the minister and Barbara what you represent we also have to have key institutions to create the regulatory framework, the fiscal framework that would allow such investment in infrastructure and skills in other things to continue and to have the impact the desired impact that it is to have and the fact is given opportunities, given need I think as Barbara had mentioned that when there is necessity there is invention that came to I think accessing healthcare materials given need the invention is there I think that mobile money was sort of a reinvention of cash and this was done in Africa 20 years ago so there are no doubts that when things are necessary they can be built so it's a matter of aligning these things to make sure that they can become manifest I think that the partners that we seek are entrepreneurs innovators people who either have an idea and want to marry that to a problem or seek a challenge and want to turn that around to an opportunity and make things happen and there's many things happening across various sectors where there is actually extreme need agriculture is a big one, I think most working-age Africans are involved in one way or the other so that's a big one healthcare is a major major issue facing the whole world, not just Africa but of course we have to focus on some of the local challenges education has been very traditional for a very long time and I think that we are seeing models around the world that are emerging that are sort of reinventing education and learning which I see as a lifelong process and I think to upscale yourself as the world changes and also even basics like transportation those are also things that we can do anew we talk about the fourth industrial revolution to some degree it means we can leapfrog some of the sort of traditional ways to develop and actually use digital as a platform to actually have an industrial revolution that's rather rapid and has the right impact on our environment and so on so those are the kinds of partners that we see people who can manifest such solutions and of course the challenges we face are many we have for for example we have to get ready to embrace diversifying revenues where we do our business voice voice calls are changing around the world many things are different so you have to be able to adapt to these things and that's where we actually want to most empower some of our youth in the region, talented youth in the region to really drive these new solutions that would meet new challenges and of course capture new opportunities for growth in the region Thank you Thank you very much Brian I know that Orange has had a history of supporting innovation and I do appreciate the work that you are doing in the joint region of Africa and Middle East and certainly substantial investment and I'm sure you have as you mentioned plans to channel some of that to the young people to be able to innovate around even the diversification of revenue revenue sources that you mentioned and the new emerging areas that we can leap from too certainly I have no doubt that by the time that driverless cars are fully operational in the developed countries, we also have our own so I think you'll be a driver to some of that So thank you very much You did mention the need for a policy and regulator framework that is an area that ITU works in so we will probably be happy to work with you to see where and what needs to be done in this environment I know that we are starting to tackle the policy and regulatory framework for 5G for example and your role there would be much appreciated So in the short time that we do have and we have barely 15 minutes I want to go back to his excellency Ibomu Minister, I know that you work with other ministers in the region as you have mentioned you are aware of the challenges not only in your country but maybe in the neighboring countries So what I wanted to ask of you is to share what are the key challenges and opportunities that countries in Africa or in the area are facing particularly during this public health crisis that we have been talking about and which national policies do you think are key? There is only a short time so you can only summarize but it would be important I think to know what you are sharing with other countries that needs to be done Thank you very much My dear friends what are the challenges to try to respond in a global and synthetic way The first challenge is to have connectivity an important challenge and in the case of the Congo for example, we have nationalized the access fund for the universal communication service which allows us to interconnect the white areas because through the digital we must also ensure the financial inclusion because today we have a lot of penetration of mobile phones but we still have a bridge of the population that is excluded at the level of financial transactions The challenges we can still say we often say maybe too much it is the price of the internet because for innovators obviously they have to use a price of internet access quite favorable which allows to undertake in the sector the challenge is just to be able in the case of the Congo to boost the sector and especially the innovators we wanted to organize in Brazaville recently a concept of the OAPI for the protection of intellectual works at the level of Africa the other challenge is that we can, in the case of our department carry at the level of the parliament a law project to establish a startup so that we can have a certification for startups because the innovators the problems they have is that after one year, two years often the projects by means of accompaniment we will say at an institutional level they ask for what they can have we will say at the level of support at the government, at the customs at the ministry of finance at tax taxes and recently launched the FIGA in our country and there was a partnership at the bank of the Congo but the problem is the access to these credits and as long as the startups are not labelled and are not certified through a recognition we will say legal, governmental for the access to credits it will be very difficult at the level of the sub-region the challenge we have we are building in the case of the central project in the case of the internet access points in the case of the central project in the FIGA we have already finalized the interconnection with the GABAN we have an interconnection with the Democratic Republic of the Congo but it is not a great capacity and there we are already finalizing the work of the interconnection with the Cameroon the work we have already launched and we will launch very recently the interconnection with the Central African Republic so it feels to be available an abundant internet connectivity and prices that are affordable too other challenges in the case of the Congo we have already ratified the Convention of the African Union on cyber security we are trying to work in the context of a global partnership to work to ratify the Convention of Budapest of the European Union the challenges today, as we already have the framework of the sector which also protects our information systems that our individual freedoms the other challenge to push innovation we are working with the UN program at the Congo the PNUG we are launching 40 youths who have been supported to present applications in the context of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and we think that following this emulation of our sector today, more and more we are going to use videoconferences we are going to use teleworking teleeducation health care we need robust infrastructure without robust infrastructure it is very difficult and accessible so that young people can come through these highways by offering us applications that will make the sector grow I hope that I have understood the challenges this is the need for support but the biggest challenge we are going to say is to cover the areas that are not covered to ensure this inclusion connectivity access to this infrastructure connectivity but also interconnection with other countries we can say that since the first year of 2020 the free roaming is operational between the public so we don't need I think that Mr. Massimo was happy we don't need to change and we are going to extend the end of the year to other countries of the region we have almost taken all our time but it was worth it because the issues that you have mentioned of cross connectivity affect it affects affordability as well the issues of government incentives and registration of these startups all that is really important I want to give seconds to each one of you to give me a line for tweets Andrew before I give you a line for tweets this will be my tweet I am speaking this panel comprises the police maker the operator two UN organizations and one regional organization is it possible because I think the key issue that we need to come up with is how we can we can pull our resources together as institutions as countries in order to avoid duplication I don't know how I can say this enough but there is increasingly for me seeing a sense of more competition rather than cooperation and the challenge I know a hundred ministers have spoken quite a number of them but the challenge that I see in Africa whether in Brazil, whether in Nairobi whether in Addis is the hopelessness of our youth and until the police maker the UN body, the government the regional body, the operator work together to develop solutions that would give hope to our youth in terms of their innovative ideas we will not have a future let's work together I have to bring it to you Andrew your tweet is how do we pull resources to avoid duplication you got it Andrew Barbara what's your tweet Andrew I actually have four very little tweets the first one is we can't go back so we made amazing experience with the COVID but we have problems ahead we learned how to work together and we have to continue and shape this partnership my first tweet the second tweet is we absolutely need technical expertise to support the local ecosystems and ensure that young people present bankable solutions third tweet is we need spaces where we can hack talents to solve our problems because I see problems on NLP for example in Berlin we don't find the right talents but we know they are around so we need those spaces where we can hack talents and first last tweet we need to make sure we have enough girls in our local innovation ecosystems sorry sorry I didn't hear the last one the last one is we have girls in the local ecosystems IT centered ecosystem because we are shaping our new future and our leaders tomorrow we need more and more girls there thank you very much absolutely and I'm with you 100% the tweet on top thank you what's your tweet I can go next so thank you all very much it was great speaking and my tweet is to say that innovation is ideation plus commercialization plus inclusion it's a little bit of saying what I think the minister John and Barbara said just that we need to be more inclusive more thoughtful around all the stakeholders the environment gender based issues the youth as John was saying and what the minister was saying which is a wider empowerment of society so that's my tweet innovation, ideation, commercialization plus inclusion and I'll put it in the comment by the way thank you wonderful minister what's your tweet your new my tweet is that I would like to thank the regional director of the telecommunications union for this initiative I think we need it and we also need in the framework of the young world to fight for that we have competitions of hackathons that will make the young people more confident and especially the young girls that's my tweet excellent thank you I think I shouldn't live without my tweet my tweet is that digital innovation ecosystem with the efforts for transformation beyond COVID-19 I thank all of you most sincerely for participating in this session I think we've set the pace for all that are coming by showing that ideas from private from government from union organizations from international organizations can come together to shape the basis for digital transformation and based also on digital innovation ecosystems I thank you and wish you a good afternoon