 Welcome to the sixth ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference here in the beautiful city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. We're very delighted and honoured to welcome here in the studio Mr. Mohammed Nasser Alganim, the Director-General of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of the United Arab Emirates and Chairman of the World Telecommunication Development Conference. Welcome Mr. Alganim. Thank you. Mr. Alganim, why has Dubai become such a popular venue for ITU global events? As you know UAE is located in a central place where first of all we are becoming a hub where east and west north and south countries can come to and exchange ideas and do business. The same time the telecommunications in the UAE has been advancing in a very past way and we are now one of the leaders in the world in terms when it comes to telecommunications whether infrastructure or services or even regulations. Our vision was to basically host, to start with, host the ITU World Telecom back at that time in 2006. So we were competing in order to host such prestigious event at that time. It did not happen and it did not happen in 2006, it didn't happen in 2009. So we were competing in order to get that event. So it happened in 2012, at the same time we decided since we are hosting the ITU telecom event we decided that since WTSA and Wicked was happening around the same time is to host them as well and make UAE a hub at that year in 2012. We had the support by the board of directors who had a visionary vision to look into the partnership with the ITU and it is a huge advantage for all the delegates that the UAE is first of all a very safe country, well situated around the world, it's a hub, it has got airlines which connects to it from all over the place at the same time it is one of the most attractive places for tourism as well. Now looking at this WTDC 14, I know that it's not quite over yet but what do you see as the most significant achievements or results of this conference so far? I think so far we have approved more than 27 resolutions and more than 17 recommendations or questions of course compared to because I have chaired Wicked it's a huge difference between Wicked and WTDC the spirit of people first of all who is participating completely different than Wicked everybody is coming with a spirit to you know to agree and to move forward on the agenda that was established. So far 27 resolutions touching bases on so many fronts one for example that deals with ICT and climate change, one second can be looked into the cyber security and combating spam, another resolution was dealing with people with disability and so on so forth so there has been a lot of important decisions, important resolutions that was taken WTDC that will be submitted to Plainly Potentialy Conference and by the end of this year in Korea and hopefully see the light for the next study period that will happen with the BDT. And what were the greatest challenges in conducting the conference if any at all? The cooperation of the administrations involved in any decision. The chairman of the conference facilitate dialogue between different parties. When you are a chairman to a small meeting you know sometimes you deal with one or two or three people who has got different opinions coming from different backgrounds, different positions. When you deal with a world conference you are you know in front of more than for this conference for the sake of an example more than 150 administrations. So you really need to bring them all around the table. You need to make them heard. You need to allow them to give their opinion and you need to be very balanced in your approach in order to make things happen and you need to be very positive. And the chairman has to come up with sometimes with solution and recommendations to the meeting in order to bridge you know differences. And I think respect for the chairman is so important. So if the meeting respect the chairman's opinion I think this can help in achieving its tasks. I was lucky because I have chaired Wicked. Wicked was a very difficult conference. I think Wicked was the most difficult conference ever I had before. And we came up with a treaty that was signed by 89 countries and my opinion it was a big success because it came with so difficult questions and thanks God it has concluded and we see right now the European is open up to sign and exceed to the treaty. And for me that was a very good exercise chairing WTDC because it has a huge difference in terms of mandate as well as you know it has a much less stress on me to do things. I think the chairman's and the vice-chairman's of committees did a great job this conference. There has been only one or two resolutions that I had seriously got involved in it where I had to sit with different administrations and try to resolve things otherwise things are moving in a very smooth way. I think we will conclude the conference today with a very successful outcome. Yes you just mentioned two big issues that you might have faced. Could you just share with us which those issues were? I think the first issue was the Palestine resolution which was negotiated between Palestine or the Arab countries and the U.S. and they have sat around the table, good faith, they negotiated the resolution and we have concluded it very quickly. So last Thursday the matter was resolved, it was presented on Sunday plenary meeting, it was closed. So that's something which is great and positive. The cyber security resolution which has taken a very long time until it has been resolved, you know people they stayed in the meeting rooms till one o'clock or two, two o'clock in the morning. This also came to a successful conclusion. Some of the issues was popped up in the plenary which was resolved very quickly and we've closed it and it has been approved. So that's these two resolutions. I think there was a lot of contentious around it, a lot of opinions about it but the good thing is all the administrations involved were positive and they solved it in a timely manner. We know that there were the six regions within the development sector and we had regional conferences or meetings where a lot of issues were discussed and agreed in those regions. We're talking about the Arab states, the Americas, Africa, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Europe. So has this helped to make the progress that we've made now? Of course, I mean instead of negotiating with 190 plus countries in a world conference you negotiate with regional groups. So in a region, the region countries get together, agree their common position and then go to the other regions, try to negotiate and then becomes two or three regions with one position and then maybe three regions with one and then fourth and fifth and sixth and then we come up with a conference where we agree with each other. There will be still on the agenda of any conference there will be common agreement on a lot of issues and there will be some issues which will be left that will not have an agreement between the regional groups and it will end in a conference where the conference is going to decide but otherwise without regional groups I think any conference will be very tough for any chairman but because of the regional groups meetings I think it makes it so easy for future conferences to conduct its business because administrations come at least with an agreement among themselves, among the region before they present it at least to the other regions and normally we see right now regional coordination meetings between the different groups. We have seen it in WTDC, in WRC, even in Wicked, even in WTSA regional groups get together, meet, they resolve their issues and their differences, they come to the conference with at least a smaller amount of work. There is one thing as well that I want to add, the ITU plays a role, the director of the bureau plays a role. So for example the BDT director, this conference played a massive role in bridging a lot of differences between different region groups and he did a fantastic job for the WTDC where he has resolved a lot of issues himself, trying to coordinate among the regional groups, trying to bridge the gap if there is any. So in this conference you know Mr. Sano for example he did it and I was briefed for the conference about the work that has been done and which is fantastic and I think the director of any bureau they do this before any conference. How do you see the future of the partnership between Dubai and an ITU? This is our fourth event in a row with the ITU and I think both parties UAE and the ITU have recognized one fact that this partnership was you know a very successful partnership. We had the ITU or Telecom, we had the WTSA 2012, we had the Wicked 2012 and we have the WTDC 2014 and previously by the way we had the GSR in 2007 where we had the Global Symposium for regulators but these are major major conferences where it was held in the UAE and the conclusion was very successful. So I think I wouldn't predict the future, I think there will be future work with the ITU. We are still committed as a country to work with the ITU closely, we are putting our candidature for the council, we are working very closely with the management team during the council meetings as well as during the study groups and so on and so forth. We have representatives from the UAE in Geneva which works full-time with the ITU, we are very close to the management team, we supported the Secretary General and the Deputy Secretary General and the directors with the bureaus over the past eight years, we have a new management team that will come towards the end of the year, of course we need to set with the new team and discuss the future of the ITU and hopefully work together more on issues and hopefully have more meetings hosted in the UAE regardless whether it's a major conference like this or like others or even study groups which we have held before. Let's look at the theme of this conference which was a broadband for sustainable development. Here in Dubai and in the United Arab Emirates itself a lot of effort has gone into broadband. Can you share the experience you have in this country with us? We have one of the most successful stories that we can tell the world and first of all we have more than 85% fiber run to the premises here in the UAE so which means more than 85% of the households has got fiber connectivity. We have an average speed today which is in excess of 4MB per user which is that's on fiber which we are targeting to have it doubled soon. We have speeds which is right now exceed 100MB, we have 300MB speeds which is deployed for individuals not even corporations for individuals. We have one of the most deployed 4G networks globally. We have more than 90% population coverage of the 4G network here in the UAE and 100% of the 3G. We're going beyond 4G soon. Our theme for the national policy is broadband and we have a high penetration rate in terms when it comes to mobile and when it comes to triple play globally as well. So people in the house they have voice data and TV on one platform and the realization by the government that technology the adoption of technology is so important and they have taken a very serious consideration to basically allow technology and even the day-to-day business of the government where the prime minister declared to migrate the government to become a smart government and have all the government services to be on mobile on smartphones is a huge step forward in order to transform the government services and even the look and feel of the government service into something which is very innovative and today we have deployed a lot of guidelines for all the government institutions. We have 110 applications for the government institutions. We have an app specialized for the government and an Apple store and on Android. We are the prime minister also declared that Dubai is going to be a smart city very shortly. There has been a strategy to migrate Dubai to become a smart city as well to become one of these first smart cities globally. So we have a big story to tell to the world and today in the WTDC all the delegations who was participating in WTDC they can come and witness the story and they can hear the story and they can feel the story. It's available it's running its life and we are we are going to see a lot of advances over the next not a couple of years over the next at least 12 months we will see a lot of advances that will happen in the UAE and that you will hear about. Okay on that very bright note on broadband in the United Arab Emirates we thank you very much Mr. Alganim for being with us today. Thank you and thank you and I would like to thank the ITU also for their trust and hosting this meeting here. My appreciation to the to the secretariat my appreciation to the Secretary General the BTC General the directors of the bureau the they have done a fantastic job we should not forget that this conference is going to be the last conference for them all of course some of them will be re-elected and the next planning potentially conference some of them this is their last term and I wanted to say big thank you for for all their work I think they need an appreciation and I think they have done a fantastic job over the past eight years Dr. Hamadoun Tore he's leaving the ITU this is the last of his term the last couple of months I think what he did with the management team the existing management team over the past eight years is something that a story to tell as well about the ITU where it was with the previous management and what it is now with their team he has given a good example of how team can work together with one hand they have fantastic management team Mr. Zau, Mr. Malcom, Mr. Sanu and Mr. Ransi I wish them all the best over the next couple of months I wish Dr. Hamadoun all the best for also his career after being a Secretary General of a very reputable United Nations agency thank you very much indeed thank you