 Welcome to the World Radio Communication Conference 2023 being held in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates where I got the great pleasure of being joined in the studio now by the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies for the Republic of South Africa, Minister Mondli Gungubbele. Minister, welcome to the studio. Thank you very much, Max, and a very great faulty of viewership. Thanks for the opportunity. Now, I wanted to start off by asking you the World Radio Communication Conference. The major event in ITU's calendar. I wanted to find out why is it important to you? Well, it's quite important for a number of residents. One, the world is trying to stay together in a coherent manner to ensure that there's inclusivity, there's equality, to ensure that developing nations find an opportunity to improve the gap between themselves and the developed nation to make sure that the moment of the digital dispensation is a moment for all. So that's very important. In South Africa, we are also here to actually engage, listen to others, express our views, share our experiences with other peers. In general, it's quite good for those number of residents. There are more residents if I could share with you. What would you say are the major challenges and opportunities for the World Radio Communications in South Africa? The big challenge is connectivity. In particular, to the extent that it affects the far-flung areas, poor people, even if you go to the urbanized provinces in the periphery, you still have the poor people. So to the extent that it needs to be inclusive, it needs to deal with inequality, it's crucial for our country. That's why, for instance, connectivity is our main issue, real and meaningful connectivity. In particular for young people, small business, women, and making it more real in ensuring that there's a usefulness of connectivity by training our people. And quite widely useful. And the other challenge is you need to behave like a developmental state. In other words, participate because the big business who are actually captains of this industry don't always find a common ground with government because there's a tendency for them to select areas where they will make margins. Government is an equalizer by creating conditions so that even commercial guys can be able to go to far-flung. It's about making our own interventions. We are doing cabling. We are also... There are different measures. One of them is a presidential stimulus, which is putting millions. And at the same time, what we call SA Connect 2, they will lay the infrastructure for the small business to do the last mile in so doing, we're trying to deal with that gap between that is left by the big guys. And in terms of this conference, what are you hoping some of the outcomes will be from this? Thanks very much. One of the fundamental, the most prominent issue, especially for developing countries, is the resolution 559. Remember in WRC 19, this could have been an issue where a lot of unused slots by the developing countries were actually finding themselves in a precarious situation. An important resolution then, as you know, was taken to put them in front. And then it actually presupposed that they would organize themselves in front to exploit that opportunity. Quite a number of developing countries now have done some work. We hope this conference will put a stamp to secure their slots. That's the major outcome that we're expecting. Looking at the future, what are your hopes for the future of South Africa in terms of radio and telecommunications? The hopes are many. As I've already spoken about disadvantaged communities, we're already connecting in South Africa and trying to up the pace. Already issues like poor children accessing digital books, they would not do without being connected. Ability of applying for IDs and everything. Young children from the worst hopeless situation finding an opportunity to interact with this technology so that their creativity can actually be loaded online. There's quite a number of other issues. I'll give you an example. For instance, there's a village of about 500 rural village homes. We've connected them, we're affirming them some few weeks ago. There in that village, from the capital of the province, which is usually in America, they call them the state, it's about 315 kilometers. So you've actually collapsed such distance. A lot of things they would have gone to to be sure for, those things are at all. Children, some things they would go to borrow books or to buy books. Now they're from their cell phones, they are able to access those. One chap who was selling chickens in that village, immediately they got access to a gig for about five rent, which is roughly on average is 90 rand at home. That chap was able to increase his customs at a very short space of time. Quite a number of things. The schools that are there, a lot of digital activities, their ability for them to access the internet and do research work without leaving the school, either through their cell phones or at school where they are. So there's a lot of issues that are happening and opportunities are very huge, especially for the poor. Of course, those guys who are already running, it keeps them even faster spirit. Only Google and Belly, Minister for Communications and Digital Technologies, Republic of South Africa. Thank you very much for joining us in the studio and sharing your insights with us. And hopefully we get to catch up with you again in some stages in the very near future. Thanks for the opportunity, Max. Thanks very much. Thank you. 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