 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 2020 Global Innovation Forum, hosted to you by ITU. The forum promises five action-packed days with 120-plus speakers, simultaneous regional events, with one goal, bringing the global community together to unlock digital ecosystems potential. COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us how critical entrepreneurship-driven innovation is to economic growth and digital inclusion, and there is no better place than here to learn about this. The Global Innovation Forum will empower participants with new approaches, insights, tools, frameworks, communities and relevant case studies to understand how to mainstream sustainable ecosystems that accelerate digital transformation. Now the sessions we brought to you live here on Swapcard, so you can use the chat to comment, the Q&A box, and connect with each other directly. And also remember to use our hashtag, hashtag rediscover innovation to join the conversation. So if you are watching on this platform, you may wish to listen in one of the other UN languages. If so, click on the link below. And remember that you can only ask questions on Swapcard and in English. So without further ado, I would like to give the floor now to the ITU Secretary General, Mr Julien Zhao, for his opening remarks, who will be followed by the BVT Director, Ms Dorian Bogdan-Martin. Mr Zhao, the floor is yours. Thank you. Okay, thank you very much, Madam Bob Dorian, Director of Telecommunication Development Bureau of ITU, another elected officials of ITU who are joining us today. Dear colleagues, dear friends, dear participants, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 2020 ITU Global Innovation Forum. The history of ICT innovation and the history of ITU are in separable. For 155 years, ITU has shaped the development of technologies that have made people's lives better. Technologies like the telegraph, telephone, satellites, internet, and today's Internet of Things, cloud computing, AI, or 5G. But it is at our 2014 Plenary Potential Conference in Busan that ITU first made innovation and partnerships a strategic goal. Today, innovation is one of the strategic pillars of our Connected 2030 Agenda at a time when 3.6 billion people are still unfortunately unconnected. Simply put, innovation pushes the boundaries of what is possible. It creates jobs, economic growth, and new ways to tackle the world's most pressing challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, SMEs are at the center of this effort, developing innovative solutions to address local needs. It's very clear to me that innovation is not the property of big companies only. I'm pleased that this forum brings the resource and the solution owners together. Supporting entrepreneurship-driven innovation has never been more important. For digital ecosystems to thrive, ICT innovators need access to the resources to take their ideas to market. And of course, they also need access to where developed broadband infrastructure. At the beginning of the pandemic, I've stressed the importance of putting the right regulatory and business environment in place to increase investments in ICT infrastructure. If we are serious about unlocking the potential of digital ecosystem and bringing the benefits of ICT to all, we simply cannot continue to do business as before. So ladies and gentlemen, infrastructure, investment, innovations, and inclusiveness from what I call four eyes. These are areas where we need to focus our efforts moving forward. All this week you will be taking a deep dive into these areas and in the infrastructure policies and programs that support our digital ecosystem. I'm confident that what you're doing this week will help ensure that your communities are competitive in the digital economy. And that they have access to the digital technologies and the solutions that have proved so essential during the pandemic. I want to thank ITU, the telecommunications development sector, and the Bureau, the director of PDT, Ms. Doreen Bogdan-Martin, for bringing us all together all week. I wish you all a very successful forum and look forward to working with you to accelerate the development of digital ecosystems for innovation as a path to sustainable development for all. I thank you very much. Thank you very much indeed, Mr. Jiang. I'd like to now give the floor to Ms. Doreen Bogdan-Martin, the director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau, ITU, for a deliver her opening remarks. Thank you. Doreen, the floor is yours. Thank you very much, Max. And thank you, Secretary General. It's a great pleasure to welcome you all to this 2020 Global Innovation Forum. We're really excited to be able to host this forum online this year, which gives us an opportunity to extend participation. We have participants joining us from all over the world. We're also very pleased to be able to offer many of the sessions in multiple languages of the UN. So why host this forum? Innovation has been an important programmatic priority for the ITU membership since 2014 when the theme was first introduced at the World Telecommunications Development Conference. Its importance has risen over the years. However, we have often seen more excitement than real action. For this reason, we're holding this Global Innovation Forum to share insights, to discover new practices, and to enable participants to connect with change makers for more action oriented outcomes. 2020 has been a most unusual year to say the least with COVID-19 continuing to shake the world. Our professional, our personal, our family lives have been disrupted, value chains have been interrupted. And in order to navigate this new dynamic, policymakers, city mayors, community leaders have had to look towards their digital ecosystems. In every region in every community, a rapid response was necessary. Some were more prepared than others. And many now understand the potential of digital technologies to address issues that have been brought forth by this pandemic. As the saying goes, out of adversity comes opportunity. The global health crisis has accelerated the need for new solutions from digital innovation ecosystems around the world. Innovators have been working on ways to change the new normal in COVID times into something better for their communities. And those that support innovators, including policymakers, academics, corporates and investors have also sprung into action. In not this week long event, you will have the opportunity to learn new approaches to hear about frameworks and to understand good practices from seasoned practitioners in the field of innovation, entrepreneurship and digital ecosystem developments. We need to develop an innovation culture so that creative new mindsets and frameworks can tackle the disruptions that we witness today. Innovation thinking needs to fuel digital transformation so that communities can address their problems and support their small and medium-sized businesses, startups, and to scale up and become resilient in the face of a changing world. On ITU's Innovation Toolkit series, I'm happy to announce the release of a new toolkit. We call a toolkit for developing sustainable ICT-centric innovation ecosystem projects. And this revised toolkit brings additional features and insights on how stakeholders can undertake rapid ecosystem diagnosis, can establish key recommendations, and develop flagship projects that effectively nurture ICT-centric innovation within their digital ecosystems. Demonstrating new mindsets is not enough. Stakeholders also need to build collaboration and trust so that the problem owners, the solution owners, and the resource owners can come together, can come together to sustainably grow their potential. We have an incredible, powerful lineup of speakers and experts who will explore these dimensions this week. And from their stories, we hope that you will be able to understand what it takes, what problems we need to tackle when we look at the problem owners, the solution owners, and the resource owners and bring them all together. Technology can be the great accelerator for achieving national ambitions. It can also be the greatest equalizer. But let's remember that technology itself is just an enabler. It's not the root cause of change. You need change makers for change. And this event will highlight the stories of change makers, the change makers of the 2020 ITU innovation challenges that were held over the summer under the theme, rethinking the digital economies value chain during COVID-19. And through their stories and the stories of past winners, you will hear why digital ecosystems need more support for innovation and entrepreneurship. We'll also have an exciting keynote lineup for you on the power of digital storytelling. And on day four, you will have the opportunity to deep dive into regional perspectives and hear from change makers closer to your communities, as they discuss regional performances, as well as good practices, accelerating your digital ecosystem innovation capacity. On day five, this will bring closure to the forum, and we hope that by then you will have deeper insights on the step by step approach that is needed to address issues as complex as those within your digital ecosystem. Our aim with this forum is to take you through a learning journey on mainstreaming sustainable digital ecosystems so that every community can benefit from their innovation potential and opportunities. I do hope that you will find this forum useful and that you will have an opportunity to meet new people, to learn new things, and to have your own action plan to start or accelerate your own journey. And finally, a big, big thanks to our high level officials attending this forum, our distinguished guests and the event partners, and of course to all the speakers, moderators and community members who are making this happen. Many thanks again and looking forward to an exciting week ahead. Thank you very much.