 Secretary General Zau, Deputy Secretary General Johnson, Honorable Ministers, Excellencies, ITU officials, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen. It's a great honour for me to speak on behalf of the German government at this plenipotentiary conference. First of all, I would like to thank Romania for the very warm welcome here in Bucharest, the great hospitality and all the work you have done to make this conference a success. On behalf of Germany, I would also like to congratulate Mrs. Doreen Bogdan Martin for being elected as Secretary General, good success and all the best of you, Doreen. Ladies and gentlemen, I would also like to express Germany's full solidarity with Ukraine. We condemn the ongoing destruction of telecommunication infrastructure and violation of international law and the UN Carter, which undermines international security and stability. Ladies and gentlemen, since the last plenipotentiary conference in 2018, the German federal government has undertaken several key measures to foster digitisation both in Germany and abroad. Just recently, the German government adopted a new digital strategy and, as part of it, a gigabit strategy. With these strategies, we aim to promote first a connected and digitally sovereign society, second an innovative economy including work, science, research and learning, and third a digital government. By 2030, we will provide fibre to the premises and state-of-the-art mobile communication standards where other people live, work or travel. For this purpose, telecommunication companies based in Germany plan to invest 50 billion euros in the private deployment of fibre networks while the gigabit strategy is providing appropriate framework conditions for them. Digitalisation, ladies and gentlemen, is key economic growth and prosperity, not only in Germany but everywhere around the globe. When we live in an interconnected world, however, digital connectivity has not reached a level to ensure inclusion and to bridge the digital divide. That is why the German federal government supports numerous digital infrastructure projects outside Europe, especially on the African continent. As an example, let me mention the project GUFSTEC in which we are working with the ITU to empower governments to take ownership of their digital futures by building more effective and cost-efficient digital government services. Germany will also support new terrestrial and space-based initiatives that help countries to bridge the digital divide and transition the digital economy, especially innovative satellite industries, plays a very important role here. We are convinced that digital policies are most successful when put into action in cooperation with the business community, social partners, civil society and academia. And that is why Germany supports the idea of enhancing the industry engagement. We have started a domestic initiative to support small but very successful IT companies financially so that they can participate in meetings of international standardisation bodies and attend conferences. Almost 40 Germany-based companies, network providers, manufacturer service providers, academia and research institutes provide technical know-how to various ITU standard groups. Ladies and gentlemen, to be able to continue these initiatives, Germany has renewed its candidature for the ITU Council and with Dr. Thomas Zielke, Germany has also a very well-experienced candidate for the position of the director of the ITU TSB. Thomas' goal is to strengthen cooperation with other standardisation fora and to make participation in the ITU more attractive again, in particular for SMEs. ITU's technical expertise is globally unique, so let's do everything to keep it in that way. As a solid and reliable member, we will help finding workable solutions that are acceptable for all member solutions to resolve issues efficiently and based on consensus to benefit of all members of the ITU. Ladies and gentlemen, I am very much looking forward to fruitful discussion during the coming days and I am sure that the Plenipotentiary Conference 2022 will be a great success for the whole ITU community. Thank you very much.