 Welcome to WTDC 17 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We're very pleased to be joined in the studio today by Shiv Bhakshi who is the VP for industry relations group function technology for Ericsson. Shiv, thanks for joining us in the studio today. Thank you for having me here. Now I'd like to start off by talking about the theme of WTDC 17 is ICT for SDG. I wanted to ask you what role do you see private sector companies playing in promoting the use of ICTs to achieve the sustainable development goals? First, let me express my my goodwill towards this entire enterprise of the WTDC, which I think is very important in bringing together shareholders across the globe in meeting some of the sustainable goals that have been set. This is the first major conference after the setting of the SDGs. And I think that is tremendous. With question, with reference to your question that what is the role of private sector? The way I understand is that the state actors in the form of regulators, policymakers, they normally tend to set the direction, identify the needs and provide the circumstances, incentives, etc. for those goals to be met. The actual exercise of meeting the goals is handled by the private sector, which is why we do a lot of innovation in technology and business models and try to see how we can achieve the goals that have been set by the state actors. So the need then is a closer partnership so that we have a better understanding of the goals, the direction, and then we can sort of create the technologies and the solutions that meet those goals. Now the digital economy is inundated with new technologies, 5G, IoT, artificial intelligence, etc. I want you to find out how important are these technologies in the attainment of sustainable development? Not all of them, let me be very clear about that, not all of them are relevant to the same extent or in the same manner, but to the extent that they provide connectivity, they provide new business models in being able to serve different parts of society to be able to be more inclusive, whether digital or financial inclusion. I think they do serve the SDGs. In case of telecom, what is even more important is that we not only create less emissions ourselves, but we become the cause through the various solutions that we offer of causing less emissions in society in other sectors as well. So I think the ICTs are very relevant to the SDG goals, but then like I said, not every single goal is served equally or to the same extent by the ICT technology. Now what regulatory and policy reforms would you like to see put in place in order to reach the next billion, especially those in remote rural areas? When it comes to regulatory and policy reform, I always have two or three things that I talk about. The first is to provide regulatory certainty. If you're going to do public-private partnership, if you're going to invite the private sector to come and contribute to finding the solutions, you have to provide regulatory certainty, for instance, in the case of spectrum. If you are going to sort of look to mobile to reach the margins of society, we need to be able to have a clear understanding of what spectrum is available at what time, so on and so forth. So regulatory certainty. The second thing I think is what I call regulatory forbearance on the part of the policymakers in the sense that there are other institutions in society that can actually address some of the new developments that will happen as a result of these technologies. So my suggestion is do not be in a hurry to bring down the heavy hand of regulation on a fledgling market or a nebulous, you know, development. Let it develop, let it take shape, then you will have enough time to regulate. So that's one and two. The third one, I think, which is single most important thing that should happen in the policy arena. Various segments of the government, various parts of the government need to talk to each other. What you end up seeing is the telecom regulator using universal service funds and other innovations, spectrum and everything else, trying to sort of be more inclusive, trying to bring the cost down, trying to sort of enable collaboration between private sector players to go reach the goals that were set. And then you see the finance sector, for instance, running to its own, marching to its own tune, you know, taxing or not reflecting properly on how the taxation structure should work. Those kinds of things can add to a little bit of confusion and delay. And my suggestion would be that the greater the conversation within the government, within the different parts of the government, the better of the goals will be served. Essentially, it has to start from the top, from the prime minister or the president so that the entire government is geared to meeting the SDG goals, and then they can collaborate and find the proper solutions. Finally, why is WTDC important to Ericsson? And what concrete outcomes would you like to see come out of this conference? The WTDC is an instrument of the ITUD, which is an instrument of the UN with respect to implementation. The ITUD does a tremendous job of capacity building. The WTDC does a tremendous job of bringing together stakeholders from various countries across the globe to come here, and not only the state stakeholders, but also the private sector statehood. So what ends up happening is that we have a better understanding of what the needs are, where capacity building exercises need to take place, what kind of capacity building needs exist, and then I personally have gone to several of these seminars that have been held by the ITUD for capacity building, and I think that's a tremendous job. The other more important element, equally important element, I would say, is the identification of the agenda for the next four years, the study group questions, the resolution, so that we bring into focus things that should drive and things that should capture our attention and motivate us. So to be able to identify the questions, to identify and understand the resolutions, I think that is very important and that's why Ericsson is here, so that we can actually participate in this, both contribute and learn from the whole process. Well, we welcome your participation and we thank you very much for being in the studio today. And we look forward to catching up with you sometime in the future. Wonderful. We look forward to it. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.