 Good morning, everyone. Mr. Haudenzaugh, Secretary-General of the ITU, distinguished colleagues, ministers, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of His Excellency Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda, I'd like to welcome you all to this spring meeting of the UN Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development here in Dubai. President Kagame has charged me to convey to you all that he remains firmly committed to the work of the Broadband Commission. It's only due to unavoidable circumstances that for the first time, he's not able to personally participate to this meeting. Ladies and gentlemen, the Sustainable Development goals have ushered the development community into a new era that comes with unprecedented opportunities to strengthen the role of our commission. However, we know that no matter how good a strategy is, it remains of little significance if not well executed. We also know from the MDG's experience that country-level leadership is crucial. It is in this vein that I believe that this commission should build on the success of its clarion for country broadband plans and lead a similar drive for national SMART SDGs plans as frameworks for leveraging broadband to achieve the sustainable development goals. Indeed, the world will be SMART village by village, city by city, country by country. We need to build a SMART world that is connected, a world that shares and measures. I'm very pleased to inform you that Rwanda has adopted its most recent broadband plan just last November, which also has been aligned with the SDGs. We call that plan SMART Rwanda 2020. I remember that the last significant change was made to include a pillar on women and girls empowerment with technology in line with SDG number five. We will soon start working on our SMART Rwanda 2030 in full alignment with SDGs. The plan looks ahead and recognizes the need to invest in rapid adoption and innovation based on emerging opportunities with technologies such as internet of things, big data, creative industries in the multimedia, mobility, and digital lifestyle, all backed by resilient ubiquitous broadband infrastructure and skilled human capacity. Through the SMART Africa initiative, there is a similar vision at a continental level. Its headquarters based in Kigali is committed to support member countries in partnership with the private sector and civil society to develop and implement similar plans and leverage economies of scale by working together. Ladies and gentlemen, the success of our commission will continue to depend on our focus on a few but catalytic areas. I look forward to the discussions ahead of us today. And in keeping with our tradition, let's make our remarks short and brief and concise so that we can all hear what everyone has to say and get the best fusion of ideas about digital sustainable development. I thank you very much.