 Your Excellences Distinguished participants, legends and gentlemen It's a privilege and great honour to be a part of this esteemed gathering for the place potential conference 2018 in this captivating city of Dubai. On behalf of the Republic of Zimbabwe please allow me to express my utmost gratitude to the host of this event. I am also obliged to ratching my sincere congratulations to the ITU management led by the Secretary General, Mr. Olin Jauu, for organizing this well-prepared conference. I believe that this conference is a landmark occasion where we take stock of our achievements towards the vision 2020 and whose outcomes we map our aspirations towards the attainment of the 2030 sustainable development goals. For Zimbabwe, the year 2030 is a watershed year as we have also set ourselves to have attained upper mid-income country status by 2030. With regards to the vision 2020 targets, we are doing our best in fostering growth of the ICT sector where we have witnessed unprecedented growth in the use of internet bandwidth. We have achieved 86% 3G population coverage in our quest for an inclusive information society. We are using our universal service fund to roll out community information centers in all corners of the country, connecting schools and health centers mostly in rural and remote areas. On the demand side of things, we have deliberately directed our efforts on reducing cost services by maintaining a cost-based tariff regime, mandating passive infrastructure sharing and establishing a national internet exchange point which will double up as a regional internet exchange point. We have also embarked on massive training, education and awareness programs for broadband consumers targeting the remote areas so as to build confidence and enhance security in the use of ICTs. On the innovation front, we have started disbosing startup funds for SMEs in the ICT sector following the successful launch of the innovation fund in March 2018. Looking into the future, we are saying Zimbabwe is open for business and we cherish building partnerships and concerted collaboration to take us to the desired level. Our target is to grow our economy by at least 14% year on year on a sustained basis with broadband as our linchpin. Ladies and gentlemen, having said all that, it is my great pleasure to present to you Dr. Kosmas Zawa Zawa. He is well known to most of you as our candidate for the post of Director Telecommunications Development Bureau. Kosmas is a diligent, versatile and humble man. He speaks several languages and has diplomatic experience within and outside the ITU. With almost 20 years of experience in the development sector. Some of you have worked with him in disaster situations and I'm sure you can testify that he is undoubtedly a strategic asset to the ITU who deserves your support. We are offering Dr. Kosmas Zawa Zawa to the ITU as a token of appreciation for the support that we've enjoyed and also our commitment to the work of the union. We are counting on you to support our offering to the union. I thank you.