 It is my pleasure to welcome you to the FAO forum, artificial intelligence for a digital blue planet. Now this meeting really has a great potential as it comes just at the right time. Why do I say that? Well, the need for better information to manage fisheries and agriculture as articulate in FAO's mandate and the global goals of the SDGs is very well matched with novel opportunities provided by emerging and rapidly maturing technological solutions in the way we all see and measure the world. Now artificial intelligence AI provides potential solutions to the important requirement that we all work very hard towards of improving management of ocean and inland fish. And remember, these are resources that are very important to the food security of over three billion people in the world today. Now, I think we can all say we all know that well managed fisheries are sustainable and productive fisheries and FAO foresees AI and machine learning enhancing the way data is collected, stored and shared, which of course is gonna only ultimately improve the information on which decisions are based. Now, these technologies allow us to provide important information directly into the hands of fishers. That's where you want it to be of custom officials, traders and the general public so that we can jointly improve custodianship and the sustainability of aquatic food system as well as the social and biological environments that support them, that enable them to thrive. So you're all here for this important forum and what can we as a knowledge driven community bring to the global fisheries and agriculture sector through the use of AI? Well, this forum aims to help provide that answer by bringing together like-minded innovators with practitioners, fisheries sector agencies and funding bodies, we can catalyze improvement in fish data collection. And this forum gives us an opportunity to do exactly that. So it's a very exciting meeting we all be involved in the next few days. Now, having information such as what fish are caught and sold, where and when, remember provides the foundation for adaptive management. After all, good management is the best form of conservation and with improvements in fish ID and measures, we can support management to overcome sustainability challenges in our ocean, coastal and freshwater systems where we all know the pressures are dynamically changing faster than ever before. Now, as you may know, FAO has a long history in providing fish species identification materials and tools through its fish finder program. This stream of work in disseminating guidance to facilitate species ID and thus improve fisheries data quality started in the 1970s. So there's a long history of this work. However, using books describing fish species ID through paper-based identification trees and keys can only reach so many and go so far. The forum offers the opportunity to realize solutions that can go further by exploring important issues, including how AI can identify the content of images of thousands of aquatic species, determine their size, number and stage of aquatic life. And many of you participating to this forum are involved in this kind of work. Now, this forum will include discussions also on how foreign participants can work together and seek collaborative solutions. We really need like all many things in life to reinforce learning to benefit each other's work so we can build the assembled expertise and experience of technologists, texonomists and fisheries bodies into on-water, ready smart tools for managers and fishers alike. Now, before I close, let me share with you my thoughts on how I believe you can measure the success of this meeting. I will call this meeting successful when I can see that the level of engagement of presenters and participants in looking for collaborative solutions to push this work forward is high. So we really count on you to be engaged. Like all emerging technologies, there needs to be a joining of mind and finance to overcome the inevitably early missteps and challenges in taking new ideas into general use, not to mention to scale. Especially remember when our intent here at FAO is to leave no one behind. So there are challenges in how we do that, how we do that as a collective and ensure that we bring along all of those who depend and need this kind of information. Now, we can see where advances can take us. Consider how GPS has helped us find our way across land and water. It's now part of our everyday life and how your efforts can help deliver a clearer picture on fish stock, health, and their traceability in national and global markets. With your help, I am confident we will achieve sustainability and traceability objectives much more quickly. So please enjoy each other's presentations, come to the table with an open mind ready to learn from each other. And thank you very much for joining FAO at the forum over the next three days. I know there are many virtual meetings in this era so we really appreciate your time to come here and work and learn with us together for such an important topic. Thank you.