 Mr. Chairman, Mr. Secretary-General, your Excellencies, dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. It is a great pleasure for me to be here among friends for the most important meeting of our organization and speak to you on behalf of the Government of Romania. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the ITU Secretary-General, Mr. Julin Zao and the ITU Secretariat for the Efforts put into the organization of this conference, as well as the Government of the United Arab Emirates for hosting us in the beautiful city of Dubai. Romania is one of the most experienced members of the ITU, having joined the organization in 1866, just one year after its creation. And as a member of the ITU, we witnessed the great changes which brought us from the telegraph to the Internet of Things cloud of 5G. And while the ITU changed and evolved, so did Romania, becoming an example of development in the electronic communication sector. The Romanian ITNC market is very dynamic and a vibrant one, reaching over 6% share in the Romanian GDP. Romania has some of the most performant fixed broadband networks in the world and among the best in Europe. In 2017, the mobile broadband traffic doubled, making our country one of the fastest evolving markets in the world. However, there is still work to do. We have small communities unconnected, but efforts have been made to cover these gaps. Just an example, I would like to mention the Ronet project, which aims at building national broadband infrastructure in disadvantaged areas funded by EU. That is why Romania is so committed to ITU objective of connecting the unconnected and that is why starting 2010, Romania gradually increased its contribution to the ITU, not only financial, but also in terms of human resources dedicated to the work of the ITU. During the first half of 2019, Romania will chair the European Union Presidency for the first time since its accession to the Union in 2007. In this capacity, we consider that it is extremely important to work in close cooperation with ITU for the benefit of the worldwide ITNC sector, especially in developing countries. I would like to commend the effort of ITU and Mr. Zao in the field of gender equality. Romania is also a gender equality champion at the European level in the ICT sector, almost a third of our IT specialists are women, and this trend is confirmed at all levels, starting with STEM students and going all the way up to the highest leader position, as you can see here also at this event. Romania has committed to support the ITU work and our priority is to keep working close with all of you for our common goals. Together, we are stronger, so we seek your support for Romania's reelection as a member of ITU Council for Region C. Thank you very much.