 Gen. of the ITU Distinguished Delegates. I bring warm greetings from the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, his Excellency, Dr. Emerson Dambuzom Nangagwa, and would like to congratulate this great nation of Romania for the warm hospitality since our arrival. And on the same token, congratulate the ITU for successfully hosting this plenipotentiary disfa. Zimbabwe recognizes the work that ITU is doing on ICT policy formulation and the guidance that it gives to member states with regards to projects aimed at connecting the unconnected. We have immensely benefited from the ITU assistance in implementing telemedicine projects, establishing an internet exchange point, and setting up a computer emergency response team. As we implement Zimbabwe's partner to connect Pledge that we made at the World Telecommunications Development Conference held in Rwanda this year, we have a number of projects and programs underway and have even gone beyond to further projects which are not necessarily part of that pledge, but I have the privilege and honor to present them today. To ensure internet access by disadvantaged communities, we are constructing, equipping and connecting an additional 32 ICT computer information centers to already existing 170. With regards to internet connectivity for various economic and social sectors in the country, 1,322 health centers, 52 institutions for people with disabilities, 1,500 schools and 352 police stations are being connected to the internet this year. Projects to construct an additional 200 kilometers of optic fiber backbone are also underway across the country through public-private partnerships to ensure the broadband connectivity is available in all areas of the country. A national mobile broadband project under which 332 4G basestations are being deployed across the country is currently underway. On the innovation front, Zimbabwe is a thriving innovation program for digital citizens and part of the program is implemented through hackathons. In the past three years, hackathons have been conducted so successfully and the top cluster of performers have implemented projects in e-education, e-agriculture, e-health, e-social services with funding assistance from the universal service fund. On enhancing environment, Zimbabwe is reviewing ICT policy and in the past four years has passed laws improving its licensing framework. A telecommunications amendment bill to modernize the umbrella law of the telecommunications is underway and in final touches for submissions before the parliament. The impact of these efforts cannot be underestimated as our voice tariff totaled 2.35 billion minutes in the second quarter of 2022. This represents 3.6% growth from 1.7 billion minutes recorded in the first quarter of the year. Distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, all this could not have been achieved without the research that ITU carries out in various study groups and guidance we receive from the ITU sectors. We therefore are proud of Zimbabwe that we have availed our experts to chair some of the reporter groups and working parties of the study groups and will continue to avail these experts and groom other experts to participate in research activities. We will also continue working with ITU to ensure no one is left unconnected. And on a parting note, may I all invite you to kindly consider the humble and resilient child of the world, a humble and tried and tested family member of the ITU for the candidature of director BDT, none other than Dr. Kosmas Zava Zava whose reception by Zimbabwe is going to be hosted tomorrow at 5.30 and are all invited. I thank you.