 Madam Chair, Ministers, Head of Delegation, Distinguished Data Guests, Distinguished Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you all for joining us today. Together with me, my Deputy Secretary-General, three directors, we warmly welcome you to the sixth World Telecommunication ICT Policy Forum. Why we all wish we could have made face-to-face in Geneva? I'm glad that the ITU family has come together in this way to discuss over the next three days the new and emerging technologies that show so much promise for all humanity. My special thanks go to all the regional coordinators and all those who have closely worked with the ITU Secretariat over the last three weeks to address the challenges of hosting this event under these difficult circumstances. I'm also immensely grateful for all the efforts put in by all the members of the informal experts group during the preparatory process. They have provided us with a solid set of draft opinions and they did it with almost no brackets left. I think that might be the first time. Under the outstanding leadership of their Chairman, Mr. Fabio Bigi, this woman and a man representing our entire family showed a constructive spirit of cooperation and consensus like no other. I'm very pleased with the outputs of this group. The five draft opinions in front of us sent a clear, strong and positive message to the world that these new and emerging technologies and ICTs in general are essential to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals and address some of the world's most pressing opportunities and challenges from COVID-19 to the digital divide. New data from ITU reveals strong global growth in internet use. The largest we have seen in a decade. It is a reminder that our world is more connected than ever. And yet the ability to connect the remains profoundly unequal and almost three billion people are still offline. There's a lot more to do to get everyone connected and to drive the development of new and emerging technologies central to the digital economy. I believe this forum and all the work that has gone into can help put us on the path to meet this huge challenge. I'm confident in your determination and ability to rise to the moment. And I'm grateful to her excellency, the Minister for Communications and the Digitalization of Ghana, Mrs. Osula and also Echo 4 for accepting to lead our discussions and serve as chair of the forum. Before I leave you in her capable hands, I want to remind you that what we are doing here over the next three days, we have facilitated the preparation of the three major ITU conferences that are awaiting us in the new year. So that WTSA, March WTDC in June and the PP 2022 in September, October can in turn bring the benefits for digital transformation to all for years to come. I wish you all a very successful WTPF 2021. Thank you very much.