 Hello everybody, my name is Alexander Therns van Rijn and I'm the Secretary of the Consultative Committee at the Universal Postal Union. And next to me I have Walter Trezek, who is the Chair of the Consultative Committee. Walter Trezek, maybe one or two words to introduce yourself? Thank you very much, Alexander. I'm here on behalf of ECOMAS Europe because ECOMAS Europe asked me to run for the German ship and I got re-elected earlier this year. The Consultative Committee is the body of the Union to represent the wider stakeholders and the major decision had been taken about a year ago at the Abidjan Congress to use the Consultative Committee to open up to the wider sector players. So this is something very interesting and as a matter of fact something will happen on 1st July which is actually marking a major milestone in our history. What's that? Absolutely, absolutely because there will be a major change in the Union. The change is that the Consultative Committee changes from a consensual body where all the different parts of the Union had been represented. So the designated operators, the governments, the regulators and the private sector to a very focused committee only for the private sector and that's very, very important because it will be used to help the Union to focus on all those ongoing developments, digitalisation, opening up of the Union to the whole of the sector, not only the designated operators but also the ongoing big things happening in the background, the big storm coming, inflation and what have you. So if our future members would like to have more information about the structure they can go online on the Consultative Committee webpage and dig into that and get more information. I'd like to move on to maybe talk about some of the benefits for Consultative Committee members, private companies but also non-governmental organisation. What can you say about that? Well the Union is already the body shaping the future of the whole postal sector and the Union went through a very strong move forward to shape digitalisation of the postal environment. This is very, very important because during the last congress the Abhijan strategy made it very clear that the Union had its first digital strategy implemented. So everything turns digital and the wider sector therefore is highly important because they are shaping it together with the Union and the Consultative Committee will be the body to facilitate that. Alright, so again more information is available on the webpage. Could we maybe just talk about why do you think that private companies who previously were not allowed to be members and now as a first of July can actually apply to become a fully fledged member of the Consultative Committee, why should they apply and what different options do they have to actually collaborate and add value to the work of the Union? Again, digitalisation facilitates partnership. None of the big companies, even the largest postal operators currently represented here at the Union can do it by itself. They need partners and the partners are the private sector suppliers to the industry and it is therefore a very clear step decided by the 192 member countries to get them involved because all these IT companies, addressing companies, unions, manufacturers of hardware, transport and logistic companies they all contribute already but now they have the possibility to start developing all these future activities directly via the Consultative Committee. This is great, so if I'm a private company I become a member of the Consultative Committee I will actually be able to meet all these stakeholders and these postal operators in this house, in this building and actually promote our activities, my technology or anything alike. That's one point why the private sector players are so very interested in a direct communication and dialogue but it is also about the interconnectivity, integration into the existing global IT backbone of the UPU. People sometimes forget, of course, that the UPU is the only special organisation of the United Nations that provides such an infrastructure for communication on each and every postal matter. I think we have provided you with some very interesting information and I invite you all to go on the UPU Consultative webpage to get more information about it and don't hesitate, you can contact me or Walter Tresik directly. Thank you very much and welcome on board.