 Honourable Chairman, Secretary-General ITU, Directors of the ITU Bureau's Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Good evening and Assalamu Alaikum. Mr. Chairman, on behalf of the Government of Pakistan, let me at the outset extend my warm felicitation to you on your appointment. We also commend Secretary-General Hauline Zhou and his team for their outstanding contributions, achievements and commitment over the past years. I wish to also thank the Government of UAE for its hospitality and continued commitment to support development of ICTs. Ladies and gentlemen, cognizant of the recent developments and immense potential of ICT, our policy is very much aligned with the vision of ITU. We believe that this would contribute significantly towards provision of quality services, education, employment, opportunities and women empowerment in the ICT sector. Ladies and gentlemen, Pakistan was perhaps the first country to pledge itself to implementing the Sustainable Development Goals. Our commitment towards connecting the unconnected digital inclusion and bridging digital gender divide remains unwavering. The ICT landscape of Pakistan is now characterized by robust infrastructure, availability and universal access to high-speed broadband, increasing trend of ICT, application usage, high-skilled IT professionals, innovative startups, incubation centres for startups and a thriving public-private partnership. Ladies and gentlemen, Pakistan has witnessed a phenomenal rate of growth of broadband from less than 3% in 2014 to over 38% now among the total mobile users. This has paved the way for innovation and introduction of new portfolio of digital service, creating a new paradigm of opportunities for the people of Pakistan. Ladies and gentlemen, the Government of Pakistan has taken concerted steps to narrow down the digital divides and towards providing equal opportunities to all. The Universal Service Fund, under the guidance and support of Ministry of IT and Telecom, has been relentlessly and transparently serving the cause by creating new opportunities for the unconnected communities through specialized infrastructure development in the remote and underserved parts of the country in the past decade. Ladies and gentlemen, gender equality and women empowerment has been an integral part of our national policies to realise the potential of women as contributor towards the socio-economic uplift of the country. By virtue of the ICT for Girls programme, more than 200,000 girls and young women are being empowered through training of special coding and communication skills nationwide to enhance their skillset and scope of employment. Ladies and gentlemen, Pakistan has been blessed with a highly skilled IT human resource, specialized in various high-end IT application development and IT-enabled services. Today, we are considered as a preferred destination for business process outsourcing. One of our key performing verticals is the free-lensing community, which is currently the fourth largest outsourcing hub, as reported by independent international observers. Ladies and gentlemen, Pakistan is very keen to continue participating with ITU and its member states to take forward the development agenda. We see matters like data protection, online rights, blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, cloud, robotics and fintech as agents of change. With support of strategic partners like ITU, we can ensure early adaption and dissemination of these technologies. We also believe in proactive consultation at all levels so that upcoming technologies, trends support the global community in the best possible manner. Pakistan has a long history of significant contribution to the work of ITU and in promoting its mandate. Pakistan has been a member of ITU Council and the Radio Regulation Board for several tenures. During our current tenure of ITU Council, Pakistan has been advocating and contributing towards implementation of sustainable development goals at every relevant forum. Pakistan is a candidate for reelection to the ITU Council in this plenipotentiary conference with a firm belief and pledge that our commitment to promote and develop ICTs will continue with more vigor than ever. We also look forward to strengthening collaboration with member states to further collective agenda at ITU. In the end, I would like to once again thank our host and commend the ITU Secretariat for the excellent arrangements and wish everyone a successful conference and fruitful discussion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.