 Welcome to ITU Telecom 2017 here in Busan and the Republic of Korea. I'm very pleased to be joined in the studio today by Dr Sharifat, who is a Senior Advisor for the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology for the Islamic Republic of Iran. Dr Sharifat, great to see you in the studio. Thanks for being with us. Pleasure is mine. Thank you. Now I'd like to start off by asking you about smart digital transformation. It's the theme here at ITU Telecom World 2017. What does it mean to you and what does it mean to Iran? Well, for Iran it means that we have to utilize the power of ICTs to solve a number of pressing issues. We are facing not only us, but many countries are facing many problems that are common to all of us, such as prolonged droughts in many regions of the world, the need to improve the health sector and to provide the citizens with better services, among other things. The education as well, the application of ICTs in education, the application of ICTs in better governance to the populations. And so there are many areas that we can benefit from the power of ICTs in basically improving the efficiencies. And in my country, we are embarking on a number of mega projects. Specifically, the government, the new government is keen on utilizing the power of ICTs in e-agriculture, also in e-health, the same for e-government. So we have a number of big projects that we are planning to expedite their implementation so that the population could benefit from the results. We have already started some initial public trials. As my minister mentioned in his presentation this afternoon, as an example, we have been using the power of ICTs in the form of IOT and artificial intelligence for e-agriculture. As an example, we have used the IOT and AI to reduce the power of consumption for agriculture by as much as 50%. And that is notable because more than 90% of water consumption in my country is for agriculture and a significant reduction in the use of water resources is very much indeed because as I said, we are suffering from prolonged droughts. And the interesting thing is that not only we have been benefitting from the improved efficiencies in consumption of water, but at the same time we have been reducing the consumption of electricity used for pumping water. And so not only we have been reducing the water consumption but the electricity consumption and as a result there is a reduced consumption for fuel which would protect the environment. So we are focusing on areas which would ensure sustainable development. Another area of focus I'm sure is small and medium-sized enterprises. I wanted to find out from you the perspective, driving innovation in the digital economy around what's the situation? I think this is a unique opportunity for SMEs. The case study and example that I mentioned was undertaken by the academia in conjunction with SMEs. So there is a big role for SMEs to play in the development of these technologies and these infrastructures, new infrastructures for the benefit of the people in large. So we are focusing on the involvement, the active and to some degree I would say aggressive engagement of SMEs in such activities and the government's policy is to facilitate. By all means we are encouraging SMEs, we are providing them with whatever legal resources they need to become more active and the Ministry of Communication Information Technology is also providing financial support, seed money for such companies to become more active. Talking about looking at budgets obviously it's an expense to come to an event like this. I wanted to find out what's the value of attending events like this for you? Well these events are very much appreciated by the Ministry and also by the private sector in Iran. I think the value comes primarily from the opportunity to network and to get to know your peers and your potential customers and the other entities that you can collaborate with. So we have been present I would say in all telecom events in the past. In the previous telecom we again started to have exhibition in this event as well and we will continue to do so in future. We have had discussions with our Minister and the Minister is very much supportive of a meaningful and active participation of the nationals and the people engaged in our city activities in telecom events. And finally have you got a key message here for participants at ITU Telecom World? I would say the message is that we should use such events to as I said network and to familiarize ourselves with other opportunities to get to know and benefit from the experiences of others and to engage in a manner which would be of mutual benefit. Thank you very much for joining us in the studio today. Joining us here at ITU Telecom World and we wish you the very best of luck for the rest of the stay here and for the future. My pleasure. Thank you very much.