 Mr. Chairman, this thing is delegates, ladies and gentlemen. I am pleased to take part in this very important conference, which brings together all stakeholders in the global telecommunication and ICT's landscape. Before I proceed, however, I would like to extend my gratitude to the government and people of Argentina for the warm welcome, according to my delegation, and also to join other delegates in wishing, in congratulating the Argentinian people for qualifying for Russia 2018, specifically also to the legendary Lionel Messi for scoring a hard trick to give the victory to Argentina. In the same vein, I wish to extend sincere appreciation to the ITU for their support and assistance and enable us to take part in the conference. It may interest this august gathering that the Gambia, despite challenges, has implemented most of the action plans associated with our national information and communication infrastructure. Policy since 2014, sorry, 2004, which has been guiding the implementation of ICT activities in government until 2015. A review of the policy implemented on revealed high success rate of 81%, which is attributed to the impressive developments in ICT infrastructure, such as the Submarine Cable National Fiber backbone internet exchange point and LTE network for government connectivity. The area that needs to be addressed is in application development and content generation. In 2016, for instance, a successor policy was formulated and focuses on not only passively using information and communication technologies, but also creating ICT applications and services for use and resale. This is expected to promote increased ICT usage, private sector participation and foreign direct investments. To ensure this, the policy aims at promoting open access, universal access service, cybersecurity measures, and in particular more affordable and secure broadband access. The new policy also intends to promote private investment into the sector through an improved, adaptable and harmonized technology neutral regulatory environment. In line with this policy, the Minister of Information and Communication Infrastructure further and conducted several complementary studies to ensure successful implementation. Among the studies concluded are the broadband demand and stimulation study, the Gambian national cybersecurity strategy, and a feasibility study on infrastructure connectivity options to neighboring countries. Distinguished guests and gentlemen, we in the Gambia are cognizant of the WSIS outcomes to build confidence in the use of ICTs and the promotion of local content in our countries. These objectives are still far-fetched for developing and least-developed countries like ours. Local content and application development and availability has become an elusive phenomenon for the least-developed countries and small island nations. Hence, our call to promote the development of ICT incubation centers. That would provide the requisite environment for innovation and creativity to flourish. We believe the incubation centers will nurture talents, change mindsets and encourage the youth to harness their potential and play their role effectively in the digital economy. The challenge with cybersecurity has compelled us to pursue the establishment of a computer incidence reporting team in collaboration with ITU as a starting point following the development of the cybersecurity strategy. However, our laws are limited in tackling cybercrime, which we would request collaboration and cooperation through experience sharing and knowledge transfer. Distinguished delegates, ICTs have become a strategic cornerstone to drive the attainment of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. My delegation commenced the ITU for adopting the ICTS for SDGs slogan to define its readiness to use ITCs to achieve the SDGs. This can help us achieve SDG 16, which embodies both public access to information and fundamental freedoms. To this end, I wish to highlight that the new Gambia has evolved from the suppression of individual freedoms and information censorship. That used to be the order of the day, until January this year. The new government wants to ensure that public access to information and freedom of expression is safeguarded, which ITCs can facilitate, such as the social media platforms. However, we are confronted with the menace of fake news and identity theft, which needs to be tackled positively in order to make social media more meaningful while promoting net neutrality. On this note, distinguished delegates, I wish to thank you all and wish you a successful conference. Thank you very much.