 Welcome to ITU Telecom World 2018 here in Durban, South Africa. We're very pleased to be joined in the studio today by Dr Amani Abu-Zaid, who is commissioner for energy and infrastructure and tourism and ICTs as well for the African Union. Dr Abu-Zaid, thank you very much for joining us in the studio today. Thank you. Pleased to be with you. Now, I'd like to start off by talking about smart digital development. What does it mean to you? Smart digital development, it used to be, I would say. It used to be adopting new technologies, implementing new technologies. But as you may have heard in some of the sessions here in World Telecom, these worlds are becoming almost obsolete. Why? Because it is now the present. It is the way of life and it's no longer. Our life is becoming a smart life altogether. So, in a nutshell, yes, it's adoption of technologies. Yes, it's the implementation. However, as I said, it's becoming the norm and I must say, Africa particularly is exceptionally positioned in that sense. And the innovations that we see everywhere in Africa, the implementation and the rolling out of fantastic programs. In various sectors, using these new technologies is very encouraging and positions the continent very high in the world. Some of them, of course, are the pure invention of the continent, like the mobile money, for instance, and the applications that we are seeing in our countries. Amazing. Also, for our development path in the continent, our countries are no longer following the traditional path, no longer following the development trajectory that was used by others. Since the 18th century, we are creating for ourselves, we are forging and inventing for ourselves a new trajectory path and this trajectory path definitely goes through and by the use and implementation of these technologies. Let's focus on innovation. What innovation do you think is going to be the most transformative in the fourth industrial revolution? It really is difficult to say to foresee. Things that happen and the changes happen so rapidly. But as we speak, in the last years, if I am to single out one innovation in Africa that transformed the lives of many and the economies of many countries on the continent is mobile money. Why? Because we know that most of our economies are informal economies and traditional banking, not everyone is banked in informal banking. So what we are seeing through the use of mobile money is fantastic. You just mentioned that I am also a commissioner for energy. It is helping us with energy. We see solar panels implemented and the payment has always been an issue done through mobile money for instance. Gender empowerment has always been an issue on the continent. Now many in the former sector are women and the use of mobile money is empowering them financially as well and empower them as individuals as well. So that's in the past. Starting where we are now and in the coming years I would say of course artificial intelligence. If we are not quick enough on the continent to prepare ourselves for what's coming, we may have difficulties. But the intelligence news, I'm sure you heard his excellency the president, Arama Poza, in his opening speech mentioning that there is an African commission headed and led by the South Africa to prepare Africa's response to the Fourth Revolution and I'm sure that AI is going to be prominent in this report. So how in your opinion can governments provide a healthy climate for investment in digital development? First of all the word investment. Investment in any sector requires a healthy environment for investment and the healthy environment for investment requires a clear vision, requires clear regulations and laws, stability. I mean that's what attracts generally an investment. All our countries without exception on the continent are working on various reforms to make the economy healthier and more receptive and welcoming to investment. This is one. Now when it comes to ICT particularly, it works also with an ecosystem. Ecosystem meaning that it's in need of, because of its space and nature, it needs innovation, it needs different kinds of risks. So what's the happy news is that across the continent we're also seeing the rolling out of incubators for technologies and startups and technologies. Africa has more than 300 of those incubators, which again is an attractive element for investment in this sector. Our educational programs across the continent are gradually also introducing and promoting digital literacy, which is important again to create not just innovation but now the users of this innovation because at the end of the day investment also is seeking profit. So by creating the need and the literacy, you create the market for this investment to be attractive. Now where is the role of the African Union comes in? We do know that one of the biggest challenges for investment in Africa is that many of our economies on the continent, we have more than 50 countries, are small economies and may not be as attractive to investment as we wish. So what we're trying to do is, in integrating the continent and all these great initiatives that were led by the African Union is to create also an economy of scale that is in many ways attractive for investment because you create also a large space. I am also in charge of the free trade, sorry, the one market for the transport, the air transport, microlead is in charge of the free trade area and the other free movement of people. We're trying to create this momentum and all these activities that bring together the continent in addition to a large number of infrastructure projects, energy, the energy programs that we have across the continent led by the African Union have also for purpose also to serve the ICT because ICT also needs energy and in creating these large markets and creating the infrastructure, both the physical infrastructure but also the soft in terms of rules, regulations, harmonized policies across the continent. All of this creates the dynamics and the proper attraction for the investments. Let's talk about digital adoption. What measures do you think should be taken to encourage digital adoption such as local content, government services, digital literacy which we talked about a second ago? Of course, I mean by having more local content it serves our people in two ways, to be able to adopt the technologies and also to contribute to the technologies and I'm happy that across the continent again we have very good examples of this. It starts also with learning the algorithms, learning the digital literacy and as I said, I mean we are all in all countries, you will find it everywhere. Digital literacy is speaking up. It needs everyone's attention, it needs everyone's contribution because at the end of the day it's not a luxury that we are providing to our citizens, I mean to Africans. Digital literacy is a must. All the services, the whole world is moving now using the ICT and we cannot be and we are not being left behind and we should not. So it is our role and duty to ensure digital literacy is happening and once it happens it also depends to the large youth population that we're having across the continent. It's wonderful and it's really heartwarming to see how they pick up and excel in adopting and inventing all these new apps and applications of the new technology including the local content. Just to give you an example, the Miss Dick, it's a competition that we have made for girls for the use of ICT. This year Miss Dick created an app, she's from Niger and it's an app using Hausa which is the local language to seek help in case of emergencies. Fantastic, fantastic. We need more of that. Absolutely, I couldn't agree more. And in terms of the value of being here at ITU Telecom World, what's the value for you here? First of all, I'm here wearing of course the hat of the African Union. Another hat is being a commissioner of the Broadband Commission and the third is my personal Humber person. As African Union we've always attended the ITU and we see it as a fantastic gathering bringing together the, of course, the professionals from the industry bringing together the general public the UN organizations, the officials. So it is important that in such events we all talk to each other judging by the number of panels, the heated discussions that we're having. This is how you get the new ideas. This is how we also identify opportunities and challenges. Now my humble self is my first time to attend ITU World Telecom and I couldn't be happier for us as Africans that this is the first time World Telecom has been held in Africa. I'm extremely happy and proud. I mean, South Africa is making us all proud as Africans. Just the first two days the opening ceremony was amazing. The rest of the, I mean since then all the panels and the events have been happening seamlessly, organization-wise. The welcome of our people in Africa is, you know, the usual legendary welcome so I'm very, very happy both at the personal professional level to be here in South Africa to be here for World Telecom. An event that I'm sure that people will be talking about for many years to come. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you very much. Thank you.