 The President of the Republic of South Africa, His Excellency, Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa, Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services, Dr. Sia Bongo Tule, Honourable Ministers and Deputy Ministers, the Secretary General of the ITU, Mr. Zau, and all Heads of Regional and International Organisations, the Acting Premier of Cozzullo Natale, Mr. Cicile Zicalala, Honourable Members of Parliament, Members of the Diplomatic Community, Dignitaries, Fellow Business Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen. It is an honour for me on behalf of MTN Group to welcome you to the ITU World Telecom and Exhibition Conference 2018. As MTN, we are very proud of our partnership with the Government of South Africa to bring this conference to Africa for the first time. We are excited about the engagements that will take place here between governments, industry experts and other representatives from around the world on the victories and challenges of the ICT sector. As proud citizens of Africa, we are also excited to showcase the beautiful city of Etiquini, our beloved South Africa, and the proud Africa that is home to so many of us. MTN's theme for this conference is, anything is possible when we are connected. This stems from our company's core belief that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern connected life. Since my appointment as MTN Group CEO, I have been travelling to MTN's different operations and I have been able to see the impact of mobile connectivity across our sub-Saharan and Middle Eastern markets. I have also seen the real impact of mobile solutions enabled by data and how this is changing the lives of people across all our markets. According to the GSMA, the global mobile subscriber base is expected to increase by nearly 1 billion people in the next few years, having surpassed the 5 billion connected people in 2017. However, despite significant mobile internet penetration growth in recent years, nearly 2 billion of the 5 billion mobile subscribers do not benefit from connectivity. That is, they are unable to enjoy the social and economic benefits of the power of the internet. Great efforts are therefore needed to heed the call of organisations such as the ITU to bridge the digital divide and foster a digital inclusive world. We cannot tackle the challenges of bridging the digital divide without addressing barriers around coverage, affordability and access of handsets and services, and the education of our users. This endeavour is too complex to be addressed solely by governments or operators or civil society. This needs to be a shared goal. We must all work together for connectivity. I wish you all an insightful and rewarding conference. Thank you.