 Madam Chair, Excellencies, Distinguished Councillors, Ladies and Gentlemen, good morning. It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to this 2016 ITU Council session. Let me offer a very warm welcome to all our Councillors and delegates. Let me also welcome the Ministers, Ambassadors and the other dignities who are joining us today at this session. Madam Chair, you set up a very good example that your opening remarks are quite short. I tried to make my statement short and I tried very hard up to last night to cut my original speech by one-third. This morning I removed some paragraph as well, but I don't think I will be able to match your length of your opening remarks. I will try my best. But anyway, ladies and gentlemen, this day is a very special day. It's a day for ITU Council to start its 2016 session. But this day is also a very important, very special day for our Africa members. It was 1963, 25th of May. Africa Unions started to celebrate the unity. So I'd like to take this opportunity to offer my sincere congratulations to our Africa member states, African people for their wonderful achievements over the last 53 years. At the very beginning they talked about independence in early 1960s. And nowadays they talk about the Smart Africa. So we really appreciate their remarkable changes and we wish them all the best for the next 50 years. So ladies and gentlemen, 2015 was a very important year for ITU and the United Nations. Of course we celebrated our 150th anniversary and the United Nations celebrated its 70th anniversary. It's a very successful year that the United Nations adopted sustainable development goals. The United Nations endorsed WISIS process to be continued for another 10 years after 2015. And the United Nations also adopted Paris Agreement at COP 21. Here at ITU we understand that ICTs have extraordinary potential to improve social and economic development. And are essential in helping achieve the STGs, the WISIS goals, the Paris Agreement. We commit our union to connect people and to connect the world. I'm very pleased to say that our membership is agreeing to help us to do just that. Our new members include Facebook and Google, which joined ITU last year. And the latest one, February this year, we had Alibaba. These are famous giants in today's market, but we also have many others. So we face the future with renewed confidence. Of course we have not got one more member state yet. Yesterday I participated in the joint workshop between ITU and WTO. I heard that WTO has 194 members. We have 193 members. So I will ask my service concern to check who is missing. And then we try to approach them and to invite them to join ITU. Ladies and gentlemen, let me report to you on some major activities that ITU has undertaken since the 2015 Session of the Council. Radio sector. ITU's most important event since Council last year, surely, is WRC 15. WRC 15. So a record number of 3,300 delegates from 106 to ITU member states. WRC 15 went very well indeed. And membership made effective updates to the radio regulations, which will serve us well for the years to come. Including the mobile, satellite, broadcasting, aeronautical and maritime communities. WRC 15 was a challenging conference which saw some tone issues in the debate. Nevertheless, it concluded well in a good spirit of consensus and resulted in a solid and stable international framework. For the use of spectrum. Let me express our appreciation to the many delegates for their excellent and thorough preparations. And to thank the Chairman, Mr. Festus Nare Dado of Nigeria for his superb and capable leadership. And of course, my dear colleague Francois Ronsi for his enormous efforts to make this conference a success. ITU has also achieved considerable progress in resolving cases of harmful interference in the UHF Bank and coordinating frequencies to facilitate the transition to digital television broadcasting. Radio interface specifications for IMT advanced and satellite IMT advanced have been approved, paving the way for the mobile and satellite industries to rule out 4G and very soon 5G. ITU continues to work closely with national administrations, influential policy makers and leading industry executives in outreach and technical capacity building. Let me move to T. The ITU sector has completed a set of highly anticipated broadband access technologies, notably 40Gb fiber to the home. This is the first series of standards to provide 5 optical access speed beyond 10Gbps. Industry is also accelerating G-Fast deployment and ITU standard proved in 2014, delivering 1Gbps over traditional telephone lines. We are seeing excellent takeoff of the G-Fast standard, with trials launched by major telecom operators in many countries. ITU has also revised a key standard for optical transport networks concluding a three-year process to enable optical transport at a rate above 100Gbps. Prospects for future ITU standardization work look strong. I would also like to mention other high priority ITU standardization initiatives done by ITUT, including the interconnection of 4G mobile networks and ITUT Fox Group on backhaul requirement for 5G and the newly launched ITUT Stereo Group 20 on IoT and Smart Cities. ITUT is working in collaboration with the government and standard bodies to design standard to help the market growth through interoperable communications. And ITUT is engaged in much other vital work, including network resilience, recovery, e-health, and digital financial services, just to mention a few. Of course, Alibaba is joining ITUT with their first participation over this year already makes some contributions. We see very good support from our industries. And the next event is WTSA 2016. I'm going to talk about that. ITUT development sector, ITUDs activities focus on bridging the digital divide and maximizing the impact of ICTs to achieve sustainable development. Achieving the connected 2020 target that 60% of the world's population should be using the Internet by 2020 is broadly equivalent to bring another 1.5 billion people online. We appreciate very much U.S. initiative. ITUD recorded many key achievements over 2015, including the Global Symposium for Regulators in Gabon in 2015 and in Egypt early this month, resulting in the publication of best practice guidelines. The World Telecommunication ICT Indicator Symposium, held in Japan, December last year, which resulted in proposals for a new ICT indicators. The Global Forum for Emergency Telecommunication, held in Kuwait, generally this year, and a high-level policy forum between Ministers of ICTs and Ministers of Education and a high-level dialogue between Ministers of Health and Ministers of ICTs that was completed last night. ITUD study groups have progressed well on their deliverers, including various policy guidance, checklist, tour kits, guidelines, and training material. ITUD is also working on strengthening national cybersecurity capacity with interest member states as well as capacity building activities and training programs via the ITU Academy, providing assistance to ADCs, SIDS, and ARDCs, and providing emergency telecommunications following natural disasters, including those countries, Ecuador, Fiji, Kenya, Micronesia, and Mozambique. ITUD has attracted 45 new sector members and associates from the ICT sector and academia and signed over 65 partnership agreements in 2015 for capacity building, health, and financial inclusion. Finally, our journey to WTDC in 2017 has already begun with efforts underway to prepare, engage membership, and build consensus early on. Regional preparation meetings will take place in the CIS regions and Africa this year. ITU telecom 2015. Ladies and gentlemen, turning to the ITU-wide events, ITU telecom World 2015 took place in Barapes, Hungary in October last year, attract 4,000 participants from 128 countries and a lot of national publicings with four SMEs. We thank the government and people of Hungary to host us. The exhibition attracted many national publicings which highlighted numerous SMEs and a number of successful SME projects were recognized with award, warmly appreciated by our participants. I take this opportunity also to express our sincere thanks to those who have participated this event with their national publicings, with their strong delegations from government and from industries. 2016 WISIS Forum, we recently hosted the WISIS Forum 2016, attracting a record number of 1,800 participants from our countries more than 150. And we had 85 ministers and high-level representatives. The forum saw insight for debates on the issues surrounding the growth of the information society. And WTIST 2016 is the last event held before this council across the sector. Last week we celebrated World Telecommunication and Information Society 2016. With the same ICT entrepreneurship for social impact. At ITU, we want to use our experiences and network to support the ICT ecosystem, including tech parks, university incubators, and start-up accelerators so SMEs can scale their business and access new market opportunities more easily. I call on all our members to promote the small and innovative ICT businesses and support the creation of inter-principal ecosystems, particularly supporting SMEs. I'm pleased to report that the ITU UNESCO Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development Goals goes from strength to strength with a number of new commissioners taking up appointments and a much-good work underway in working groups on SDGs, health, demand, and gender. General Secretariat has also carried out notable work welcoming over 7,000 delegates to Geneva in 2015 with innovative working methods for over 3,000 remote participants, paperless meetings, and capturing various applications are now available to help you network, access documents, and collaborate online. By 8 2015, sales of ITU publications had generated revenue of 16.7 million Swiss francs close to our target of 17 million francs. It's more or less similar to the contribution from our sector members plus academies. So it's a very important income for ITU. The UN Joint Inspectorate Unit has examined our internal processes and audited financial statements. I present the GIU's report to your session for your consideration. We are currently considering how best to implement its recommendations with your guidance and support. I recognize the presence of the former chairman and the current chairman of GIU over there. Dear friends, welcome you to join us and I expect that we will give briefings tomorrow to our council members. The Independent Management Advisory Committee, IMAC, has also presented its annual follow-up reports with recommendations for council working groups. Given the current economic climate, ITU recognized the need to make continued efficiency improvements. ITU is making good progress in terms of efficiency, productivity, and cost reductions. We are pulling resources. For example, ITU and the World Meteorological Organization now share the expenditures for common ethics officer showing we can work with other agencies to achieve efficiencies. And some other posts, like social affairs staff and even security experts, we are still discussing with WMO to share expenditures. And internally, we are consolidating the financial and budget controllers currently existing in each department of General Secretary. We are consolidating this team. Distinguished Councillors, ITU's elected officials are grateful for your continued support and the confidence we have been given by all of ITU's membership. The long list of achievements will not have been possible without the tremendous efforts of ITU staff at all levels. All staff of the ITU at headquarters and in the regional office or in area offices have been contributing with almost professionalism and dedication towards meeting the expectations of the ICT community and membership. They all have to be commanded and acknowledged for that. I'm pleased to say that we have been able to convert fixed-term contracts into continuous contracts for some of our longer-serving staff with a positive impact on staff model. Finally, this council compromise many decisions of importance for the staff. I'm sure that you will bear that in mind as you take these decisions. And we look forward to working with you closely during this council and listen to your concerns, proposals, and ideas for how best to take ITU's work forward. Let me just say a few words about our next big event. And first of all, I think that we are talking about the WTSA. Later this year, we look forward to a paper to a World Telecommunications Sanitation Assembly setting the agenda for vital standards work over the years to come. The meeting will be held in Hamamate, Tunisia from 25th October to 3rd November. The host country agreement is due to be signed very soon this morning. Then ITU Telecom World 2016, November from 14th to 17th. We will also be host ITU Telecom World for this year. This year will be held in Bangkok, Thailand to provide an important platform for creative brainstorming between policymakers, industry, and other stakeholders. This year's event will recognize the growing importance of SMEs in driving ICT forward and their vital role in revising economic development. I invite all ITU members to showcase initiatives to promote ICT SMEs from your country to this event in Thailand, November. I count on your support. The last big event will be WITIS, the World Telecommunication ICT Integrated Symposium. We will take place in Botswana later in November. Excellencies, distinguished councillors, ladies and gentlemen, the November will be very busy, so I invite you to block November for ITU activities. Let me conclude this year's State of the Union address by assuring you of our dedication and commitment to address the challenges ahead and to fulfill our mandate. We will continue working closely with all the elected officials, ITU staff, to fulfill ITU's purpose. We will improve our efficiency without sacrificing quality, results-based focus, transparency, and accountability are our guiding principles. Let me appear to each and every one of you to bring your energy and enthusiasm to invest in ITU in recognition of the reasons we established 150 years ago, to serve the common goal and to serve your joint interests. I thank you very much for your attention.