 Welcome to the ITU Planning Potentiary Conference 2018 in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. I'm very pleased to be joining the studio by Mr Solomon Jamiro, who is the Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Information and Communications for Sierra Leone. Deputy Minister, welcome to the studio. Thank you very much. Now, I'd like to start off by talking a little bit about the fact that there's currently considerable attention being placed on harnessing the power of information and communication technologies and ICTs as an enabler for good, for development, for the benefit of people, families, communities and nations. What's your perspective on this? I think that principle resonates with me personally and I could say that I represent Sierra Leone as Deputy Minister for Information and Communications. It's a country of about a little over 7 million people and we have a President retired Brigadier Julius Madabi, who was elected in March this year. So the government is like six months in office, but he believes in ICT as the cross-cutting driver of growth. He's already issued directives to all ministries, departments and agencies to see how ICT could be embraced to ensure productivity in all sectors, bring accountability and development. So I'm sure in the course of the conversation we'll be talking about the several facets of ICT. But I agree with you. I subscribe to the principle that indeed ICT is an enabler. And that's why for me I am so thrilled that coming to Dubai at the Planet Potentiary Conference, we're able to review the resolutions that were achieved in Busan four years ago and see how those ones could be remodeled or amended so that it forms the trajectory for the next four years. And I hope and pray that Sierra Leone would continue to be part of the global ICT ecosystem so that together we forge ahead with the right direction to ensure that ICT positively contributes to development, to security, to education, to health, to agriculture. And I see it's a cross-cutting tool. And that is the appreciation that I have personally. And I think it's the appreciation that is shared globally. Now you mentioned the ITU Planet Potentiary Conference in Busan that was four years ago. This conference here is the first since the world adopted, in fact, a year later after the Planet Potentiary Conference, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. I wanted to ask you perhaps to give us a few examples of how ICTs are enabling sustainable development in Sierra Leone. Yes, of course. One critical pillar has to do with education. As excellent as the president, Rita Brigadier-Julio Smada-Bio, has launched what we call the Free Quality Education in Sierra Leone for the very first time. And as a matter of fact, for the first time also, one of the milestone achievements that this government has made is to appoint somebody we call the Chief Innovation Officer. Under an office, we call the Department for Science, Technology and Innovation. So that department would be interfacing with relevant ministries, departments and agencies to ensure that ICT positively contributes to the economy, to agriculture, to education, to health. And those ones you know would constitute critical pillars under the SDGs. So for us in Sierra Leone, we have a very fair appreciation that for us to have, to change the narrative with respect to those different sectors that may have informed and advised the United Nations to formulate those SDGs, we believe that it will be the critical step to take. And as a government, we have a consensus. We are settled, well settled on the position that every ministry, every department, every agency has to embrace ICT to ensure that we meet our SDG benchmarks as set by the global platform. Now you mentioned innovation, I just wanted to know how much are SMEs, small and medium science enterprises, in your line of sight? We have a very unique situation and I'm sure it's a situation that other countries that we now call developed or advanced countries or economies would have been into at some point in time. We have an emerging market. As a developing country, I would say that we have some critical challenges. But I think the culture has now emerged and Sierra Leone's across the board have embraced the idea that SMEs have to be supported and so there is the business of rolling out the emerging technologies and assisting SMEs and promoting the culture of embracing ICTs. One example has to do with what we call mobile money. The mobile telecommunications companies and other facets of our economy have rolled out what we call the mobile money platform. So now you could be in the city and you want to send money to somebody in the provinces to the remotest part of the country. So indeed, different areas are being embraced and we believe that SMEs becoming a critical chunk of the economy. If ICT is rolled out and they are supported, they are given the necessary tools, I am sure that we should be able to change the story with respect to the economy. And for us, SMEs like every other part in the world play a very critical and significant role in developing the economy of Sierra Leone. Let's talk a little bit about how much this particular figure is important to you. About half the world's people are connected to the internet. The other half isn't. What is Sierra Leone doing to get everyone connected? That's a very important area and it's a very profound observation. And I am glad that one of the key resolutions at the CS Plenty Potentiary Conference has to do with what we have to do within the context of ITU to bridge the digital divide. Within our own local context, we have what we call the Telecommunications Act of 2006. Section 13 of the Act, well, don't mind me that I am making references to those provisions because I have practiced as a legal practitioner for 12 years before my appointment as a Deputy Minister. So section 13 of our Telecommunications Act provides for the creation of a Universal Access Development Fund. So that fund essentially should be utilized to make sure that we address the critical gaps in underserved and unserved areas. So we're working closely with the mobile telecommunications companies, the internet service providers to see how they could be encouraged to roll out those services to those areas. And once we are able to meet a certain critical benchmark, then I would say Sierra Leone is one country that would provide a very encouraging example in bridging the digital divide. I think that every country has its own percentage of what the gap is, but the most important thing is that at this year's conference again in Dubai, we have looked at digital divide. And I am sure whilst we are working on our own response to the digital divide in Sierra Leone, we would also be collaborating with other countries, looking at our immediate neighbors. For example, Guinea and Liberia, I'm just coming from a quick meeting with them to see what we do first as a country, second as a sub region, and then by and large by extension within the global context of the ITU what we do. So we're looking forward to the next four years with great optimism that we should be able to take critical steps in bridging the digital divide. Finally, let me give you the opportunity to put your message across, which I'm sure you have been doing here at the ITU Planet Potential Conference to our wider audience as well on behalf of Sierra Leone. First of all, I would want to say that we have, the Sierra Leone delegation has come to the ITU with great optimism, but also with tremendous willingness to be able to learn from the best practices of other countries and also listen to the instructive guidelines that the ITU would be providing. So I want to use the opportunity to say thank you to ITU for organizing such a wonderful, wonderful Planet Potential Conference. Thank you to Dubai for the hospitality. Thank you to the studio for giving me this opportunity. And I believe that in the true spirit of globalization and collaboration, we should be able to change the narrative and see how ICT and specifically telecoms could respond to the critical challenges that we have within the context of security, the economy, the health, agriculture, unemployment issues, because those are issues that will continue to define the global environment. So on behalf of Sierra Leone, I want to say thank you to the organizers and indeed I hope and pray that this conversation, this interaction will continue and the world should be a better place four years from now. Well we very much look forward to catching up with you again in the future and Solomon Jamiro, Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Information and Communications, Sierra Leone. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Thank you. Thank you.