 Excellencies, Ministers, Distinguished Guests, Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is a great honor and pleasure to be with you this morning at the grand opening of ITU Connect Asia-Pacific Summit and let me take this opportunity to give you all a very warm welcome. I would like to thank the Kingdom of Thailand for hosting this important summit and notably Her Excellency Prime Minister Yinglu Xinhua Tra for her patronage and personal support. I cannot fully express how much I appreciate this. To the government and people of this great kingdom, I want to express my deepest condolences for the death of Supreme Patriarch Somdet Phra Nya Samvara. Even in the face of this loss, the hospitality has been outpouring and most humbling. Allow me also, ladies and gentlemen, to express my profound condolences to the government and the people of Philippines in the aftermath of the typhoon Haiyan. Many lives had been lost, thousands of people were maimed and hundreds of others were displaced. I would like to reassure the government of the Philippines that ITU and the entire membership stand behind you. ITU since the events deployed over 150 broadband satellite terminals and a CDMA base station would pay for both the transportation and use of that equipment. We are also supporting the operation of other humanitarian organizations with the latest being the World Health Organization to whom we have given 30 satellite terminals and we also pay for the airtime. I have also deployed my team who are on the ground now to support the government. This continues to be a commitment of ITU, the International Telecommunication Union and its management guided by the spirit of the founding fathers who stated clearly that we should protect life on land, at sea and in the air using telecommunications. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, it is with pleasure that I see leaders here present and leaders from different stakeholders, including governments, the private sector, industry, development partners and communities. You are all incredibly crucial players gathered here to set the vision for Asia Pacific 2020, smartly digital, which is the acronym for D for digital, I for innovative, T for transformative, A for affordable, L for living. However, for this vision to add value to the lives of ordinary citizens, we have to move from plan to action and to work the talk. We should forge partnerships based on sound, win-win financial arrangements, build bankable projects that will result in sustainable development of communities and countries. Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, we have all come a long way. The ITU Connect Asia Pacific Summit is part of a series of ITU Connect summits that we have organized in each region of the world starting with the ITU Connect Africa Summit back in 2007, Connect CIS in 2009, Connect Arab State and Connect America Summit in 2012, and here we are in Bangkok today for Connect Asia Pacific. We have observed this, and that's all in all these regions, and we observe that when we brought together stakeholders, ICT growth has been recorded. Let me illustrate this. In 2013, there are almost as many mobile subscriptions as people in the world. Today, mobile cellular penetration rates stand at 96 percent globally, 128 percent in developed countries, and 89 percent in developing countries. This was just a pie in the sky a decade ago because in the year 2000, mobile cellular penetration was just under 40 percent in the world's richest countries, and mobile penetration in this region, in Asia Pacific region, was just 6.4 percent. But look at the figures today, a total of 3.5 billion, 89 percent out of the global 6.8 billion subscriptions are from this region. Here in Thailand, mobile cellular penetration is approaching 130 percent. This summit gives us an opportunity to put our feet on the accelerator in the quest to embrace broadband. This should be quite possible because uptake of high-speed broadband, at least 10 megabytes per second, is highest in some Asian economies. Out of the 25 top performers in the ICT Development Index recently published in the ITU's Measuring Information Society report, 2013, seven are from the Asia Pacific region. On this note, I re-invite all the ministers of the upcoming world telecommunication indicators of symposium that will be held in Mexico from 4 to 6 December this year. This is an important event where you can influence how we run countries as we are at connect. I want to add that the Mexican government has also created a special day during this meeting to lead ministers to some of their success ICT projects as a way of sharing experiences just like we're going to be doing here. I'll be there and I hope most of you will come. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, this is a momentous event that opens door to better broader and bigger opportunities for governments to deliver on their commitments to the Millennium Development Goals and World Summit on Information Society targets arising from increased investment in the ICT sector. The vast market opportunities will be demonstrated this afternoon at the multi-stakeholder meeting. All of you are invited. This land, this water, this air, this planet, this is our legacy to future generations. But you are adding to that information and communication technologies that is a legacy that you will leave for future generations. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, let me share with you my dreams. By 2015, we must connect the remaining almost two-thirds of the world's people, some 4.3 billion people who are still offline. In this region, that would be around 68 percent of people yet to be connected to the Internet. By 2015, this region should aim to have connected the remaining 78 percent to mobile broadband to improve the current 22 percent penetration. You may ask why broadband? Broadband because it will revolutionize the lives of everyone, everywhere. It will help deliver radical improvements in healthcare, education, transportation, utility supplies and government services. In fact, everything, all the time and everywhere. That's the world takes advantage of the big data. The big data reality around us and ensure that it does not manage us, but we manage it. Manage it to our advantage, big data should be a knowledge asset based that can push productivity, create competitiveness and stretch our imagination beyond the horizon. With that said, it is reality that challenges in dealing with big data abound. Large entombed volumes of data, complexity of data, storage of such data, privacy, security, access and deployment to name better few. By 2020, that every kindergarten or crash should have ICT in its curricular in order to ensure that we are bringing up a digital savvy generation. This again in a secure environment, this is my dream. Reality is ICT is now the game changer. I dream that by 2015, every country in this region would have put in place a broadband plan and doing everything possible to connect the fiber to every community, urban or rural and to every home. Excellencies you have already demonstrated that you have the political will, stamina and commitment to connect your people and unleash the benefits that come with the modern tool of ICT. This is why you are here. ICT stands side by side with you all, all the way. We dream subconsciously, but when we wake up, we should make sure that we transform that dream into reality. Otherwise, why dream and lose sleep if you are going to do anything with it? You're not going to do anything with it? I ask. So let us dream together and also implement together. I have seen a very impressive list of projects that represent market opportunities in this region. A total of 88 projects with a market value of over $53 billion have been presented here by member states to the industry. The industry to industry, this is your opportunity. An opportunity for you to grab. The countries have made great efforts to do research for you. This is my challenge to you today. Please stand up and be counted. Ladies and gentlemen, in closing, let me express my sincere thanks to all of the heads of states, heads of government and ministers, CEOs and all development partners from the UN family, international and regional organizations, development banks, civil society and industry for your presence and support. My special thanks go to the governments of Thailand and in particular, let me mention the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for their full support and cooperation in ensuring the success of this summit. Ladies and gentlemen, let me end where I started. Let this connect summit be remembered for putting a cornerstone to a future in which information and communication technology plays a catalytic role, not just in accelerating local economies, but in meeting key development goals, from sustainable development to environmental sustainability, from education to health, because that must be the value proposition for ICTs in any country, that it cuts transaction costs, improves access, expand services, improves government efficiency and make development possible. I thank you.