 Welcome to the World Summit on the Information Society 2017. My guest is Thomas Lamanoskas, Group Director for Public Policy at Vion. Hello. Thank you, Charles. Hello. And thank you very much for joining us. Now, Vion is an international communication and technology company with more than 235 million customers. Your mission is to enhance the world's connectivity. So tell us, why is connectivity important for the world's development? Thank you, Charles. And as it was recognized in 2013, in 2005, where it was the summit already, connectivity by itself is a tool. It's not a final goal. So connectivity brings us and connects us to the world, where we can find better jobs, better business opportunities, education, information, access to health here, access to our finance, and all these other things that makes our life fulfilled, both economically and socially. So that is why it's important, not by itself. And I think that's what we see in this kind of new world, where this digitalization is transforming it. We see it very clearly where we see the skills now of the automation, we reduce jobs and all that. Sometimes people say, maybe we should be cautious, not go so far in a connectivity, not go so far in digitalization. But here, and again, that's why, demonstrates why connectivity and digitalization are important. Here, it's a very important message there, where some studies show that in the countries where digitalization is advanced, only 6% of jobs are vulnerable to automation, whereas in the countries which are much less advanced in terms of connectivity and digitalization, around 70% are at that risk. So that clearly shows that connectivity and digitalization is important as a tool for us to progress in this new world and to thrive and survive in it. Now, despite all the efforts of the technology community and company like yours, nearly half the world remains unconnected, so what are the main barriers to ensure that every human being has access to the online world? We still think a lot can be done on the policy side, and I would say so, because as a public policy person, but I think if we have public policies right, we can go much, much further. So in terms of infrastructure development, I think some of the things we see that would help investments go much further is certain things like, for example, taxation policies. In some countries, we see that around 35% of taxation are sector-specific. That means 35% are taken from ICT sector, but not from other sectors, and that means it makes so much more expensive to roll out infrastructure. Monetary policies, where in some countries, current exchange regime doesn't allow investors to actually freely invest and money into their countries. As well as, I think embracing by more policy makers and regulators, more efficient methods of infrastructure investments, such as network sharing and so-called passive and active sharing, that allows that every dollar put in infrastructure go so much further, and so easier to connect people in remote communities, where naturally it's much more expensive to connect. But at the same time, it's important to look at the supply side, because I think infrastructure is fine, but we cannot just build roads if there will be no cars or no destinations to go to. So I don't think that's why it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation. But as yesterday was also mentioned, there is much more connectivity, which is many more people than they actually connected. So statistics show that around 84% of people are within the coverage of mobile broadband, but 53%, as you rightly said, they're not connected. So how we can do, how can we do more to make sure that already those people who can connect, would connect, and that would naturally generate this economic cycle that allow more and more people to connect as well. So connectivity is about collaboration, isn't it? And is that why you're here at WISIs? No, exactly. Connectivity is about bringing different sides together. So bringing infrastructure side together with a usage side. As I said, these all opportunities that connectivity can open, it is true. And that's, again, I emphasize, but at the same time, they don't come by default automatically. This they come because someone creates relevant content and services. So that they come because someone finds the sustainable business models to provide those digital services. And they come because not only someone from some global center decides and masterminds some great services, but because people on the ground who know the needs of the people, of their people and their communities develop them. I think one of the challenge here, and I think that's again about collaboration here, that we need to encourage this more collaboration, but not only on the global level, but also on the national level. And the local level. Currently, if we see on this demand side, so 95% of the app economy is captured by 10 countries in the world. So how do we make, so how do we move further? How do we enable all the other countries, some communities in other countries, not just to be passive beneficiaries, not just receivers of these benefits, but active contributors. And through that way, also opening them to these digital opportunities that connectivity can offer. Thomas Lamanarskas, thank you very much. Thank you very much.