 Mr Secretary General, your Excellencies, Ministers, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen. Let me begin by thanking you all for the confidence and trust you proposed in me and it is a great honour to serve as the chair of the WTP of 21, the first we're having in eight years since the last meeting in 2013. I'm truly grateful to members of the informal working group, led by Chairman Mr Fabio Bigi, who have worked tirelessly over the past two years or so to present this forum with visionary draft opinions. I'm also mindful of the high expectations attached to the new and emerging technologies at the centre of our discussions. I was looking forward to seeing all of you again after all this time. As the WTPF was to have been the first physical ITU meeting since the pandemic struck, but that was not to be. COVID-19 may have prevented us from coming together in person in Geneva, but you can rest assured that it won't prevent us from discussing the important topics that are on our agenda. We will do it for all the digitally excluded, the women, men and young people everywhere who are still not using the internet, let alone the new and emerging technologies that hold, as Secretary General Zal said, so much promise for all humanity. And we owe it also to ourselves to do our utmost to harness these technologies effectively to accelerate the achievement of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. Because when poverty is on the rise, when our children's education is on the line, when our planet is suffering, when young people have no hope of getting sustainable jobs. When our health is impaired with existing and new diseases, we believe that these innovative technologies can and will make a big difference in people's lives. I'm looking forward to constructive deliberations always in the spirit of consensus building and cooperation that characterizes our work in IT and to a very successful form in the service of humanity and promoting sustainable development. Let's make history together. Thank you.