 Welcome to ITU's headquarters for WISIS Forum 2019 as we celebrate the 10th year anniversary of the event. I am joined and delighted to be joined by the Deputy Secretary General of ITU, Malcolm Johnson. Malcolm, thank you very much for joining us. Thank you Charlotte, nice to be here. So Malcolm, as we reflect over the past 10 years, can you tell us about the journey of the WISIS Forum where we are at today, but what's been achieved over the past 10 years? Well, it's a very exciting journey. I was at the first WISIS Forum 10 years back. We had less than 300 participants and as you know now this year we have over 3,000. So it's very, very nice to see that the event has grown each year and we've always tried to innovate each year to bring in some new elements. So it's really developed tremendously over these 10 years. But one thing that's been constant throughout that is the original idea of bringing people together to exchange some best practices, some innovative ideas that others can learn about and take home with them and also implement their home country and benefit their own people and businesses. So it's really an exchange of best practices, innovative ideas, knowledge sharing. And we now have a lot more participants than we used to have. I find that they all really find it worthwhile. You know, they come voluntarily, they don't have to come of course, but they really find they come because they find it really worthwhile. And that's the nice thing about it. And of course we've got the prizes. It's nice to get a prize, but these prizes actually do make a difference because I've spoken to prize winners and they've always told me what a big difference it's made to them because maybe they've got better support from their government for their project or they've got some investment that they were struggling to get. Having this prize really makes a difference. I think it's very important indeed to emphasise the fact that WISIS Forum can lead to real change on the ground. It's not just a place where people talk, it's also a place where people decide on action to take to use ICTs for delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Tell us more about that. Yes, well now of course we relate all that we're doing in regard to the WISIS Action Lines, to the Sustainable Development Goals and that's really the driving force now behind it. It is really looking at how we can use the technology to reach all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. So the discussion really surrounds that and the main challenges that we're faced today with the major technological advances coming along like artificial intelligence, IoT, 5G, blockchain, etc. We have to ensure that these technological advances benefit everyone everywhere and we can only do that by having all the various stakeholders come together and look at how we can really ensure that everyone benefits from these technological advances. As we know half the world's population is still unconnected. Most of these are living in the rural areas and in some countries that's you know 70, 80% of the population is in rural areas. So there's a lot of people there that are unconnected and that's the main challenge. So a lot of the discussion is around how we can bring connectivity to these people and then bring them the advantages of being connected. Of course it's not just the connectivity because they've got to be aware of the benefits of connecting and that they can see the advantages of paying whatever it is they're going to have to pay to be connected. So we have to get that across to people. People have to be you know have their digital skills to take advantage of the connectivity but also the content has to be there to their advantage. So we need to encourage more local content in local languages and that's another theme that's coming out a lot in all the discussion at the WSIS Forum. So addressing the paradox of connectivity and introduction of very innovative technologies. Is that what is likely to keep you very busy in the next 10 years? Yeah that's something that's keeping us busy now and we'll continue to do so because it's challenging. The reason why there isn't connectivity in those areas is because there's a very poor return on investment compared to the urban areas. So we have to encourage more public-private partnerships. Governments have got to really take a lead in encouraging investment in those areas and give incentives to provide connectivity in those areas and also to develop the digital skills as well necessary. And with major developments like artificial intelligence that has tremendous potential for improving the lives of those people in those areas. But the risk is of course that we won't be able to bring them those benefits if we don't have that connectivity. So connectivity and ethics are likely to dominate discussions in the years ahead? Yes I think everybody that's coming to this event doesn't matter which type of stakeholder and it's a really truly stakeholder event which is very nice to see because I often quote if you look at the contributions made in the open consultation in preparing for the WSIS Forum. We have thousands and thousands participating in that open consultation but we did a pie chart to see where the contributions are coming from and it's almost equally divided between the five main stakeholder groups. Government, private sector, civil society, academia and other organizations regional and international. It's almost an equal 20% for each of the five. So it's really a truly multi-stakeholder event and it's only by having discussion amongst all those stakeholders that we can really ensure that this technology is going to be beneficial for everyone everywhere. Malcolm Johnson, thank you very much. Pleasure, thank you.