 Mr. Chairman, Hora Ministers, Mr. Halinzao, Seko General of the ITU, your Excellencies, distinguished delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen. On behalf of the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania, and my delegation, allow me first to extend our appreciation to the Government of United Arab Emirates for hosting this conference and for the hospitality extended to us since our arrival in Dubai. I would like to express our heartfelt congratulations to you, Mr. Chairman, on your election to chair this 20th ITU PPP Conference. Also, allow me and my delegation to express our gratitude to Seko General, Mr. Halinzao, and staff of the ITU for successfully organizing this conference and for the work they have done in the past four years in spearheading implementation of ITU Resolutions toward meeting its objectives, including the Connective 2020 Agenda for Global Telecommunication and IC Technology Development. Mr. Chairman, the Government of Tanzania recognizes the importance of ICT for rapid socio-economic development in its aspiration to become a middle-income economy by 2025 and attaining the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Tanzania has adopted pro-ICT policies and supportive legal frameworks in order to build an ICT-driven nation comprising of knowledge-based society. I would like to take this opportunity to update the membership of what has transpired in Tanzania between the last ITU PPP 14 and this PPP 18. Following the general election held in 2015, the Ministry of Works Transport and Communication is now responsible for formulation of policies and has in 2016 put in place a new policy following revision of the National ICT Policy 2003. The National ICT Policy of 2016 aims at economically, socially and culturally in reaching the people through ICT-enabled knowledge economy. The policy provides a comprehensive framework for guiding the development and growth of the sector to ensure optimal benefits to the nation and its citizens. The growth is evidenced by remarkable development in terms of number of licensees, types of technology used, number of services provided to consumers, number of consumers and provider of regulated services in fixed and mobile telephony, internet services as well as television and radio broadcasting. Mr. Chairman, to promote growth in ICT, Tanzania adopted a technology neutral license framework and invested in construction of broadband infrastructure that connect all administrative regions in the country, linking to neighboring countries as well as to the international undersea, cables, SICOM and EASY, lending on the shores of the country. National and regional connectivity initiatives are among commitment that Tanzania has been paying attention greatly in this period. The country also has invested in tier three data centers and Tanzanians are now enjoying the benefits of the technological development and also prices have dropped significantly. Furthermore, the universal communication services, access services fund which was established through the Act number 11 of 2006 has proven to be an important tool in bridging the digital gap between rural and urban areas. The fund has managed to facilitate extension of telecommunication services to making mobile population coverage in the country reach 94% with mobile subscription slightly above 41 million by June 2018 and internet penetration now is 45% in the population of 55 million people. We are working hard to make sure that few remaining unconnected areas will be connected before the end of 2020 to allow all people in the country to participate fully in the digital economy. Mr. Chairman, the deployment of state of the art infrastructure together with supportive policies and legal frameworks have opened room for leveraging ICTs in the various areas including governance, finance, health, education, commerce and others. Today, ICT is an integral part of Tanzania's daily lives and people are ready to adopt and embrace new technologies, upcoming technologies and the government is encouraging innovation to enable our people to participate in developing technologies. The National Fund for Advancement of Science and Technology provides grants to researchers including ICTs in order to capitalise on the fact that people need solutions and innovations. From such innovations we have been able to develop and deploy government payment systems to facilitate government revenue collection through ICT infrastructure. Also to facilitate e-commerce development of one stop centres and implementation of national addressing and postal code system. Mr. Chair, Tanzania came among the first countries in Africa to migrate from analogue to digital terrestrial television broadcasting in June 2015. Tanzania in June 2018 has also successfully auctioned valuable spectrum in the 700 megahertz band which was released after the migration to advance the country's mobile broadband infrastructure to serve as the catalyst for stimulating economic growth and join the rest of the world in the fourth industrial revolution taking place now. Mr. Chairman, accompanying the deployment of utilization of ICT within the economy and society we have experienced some challenges in the areas of e-west, e-security and of course the entire cyber safety. However, these challenges are worldwide and Tanzania is not exceptional. Provision of a safe environment for digital participation is crucial and Tanzania understands that and therefore is committed to make sure that we provide a safe environment for doing business in Tanzania. Efforts that Tanzania has taken to provide a safe environment for digital participation include the establishment of a computer emergency response team and the computer unit under the Tanzania police force. That is a key advisory tool providing a lot and possible cyber attacks mitigation strategies at national and international level as well as giving relevant mitigation strategies to government and private sector. Corporation within regional and international entities involved within the management of cybersecurity incidents is key to our country. Furthermore, legal frameworks have been put in place including the introduction of cyber crime act number 14 of 2015 and the electronic transaction act number 13 of 2015. We are now in the process of enacting the personal data protection act in line with regional and international cyber laws. In addition, Tanzania has implemented domain name systems extension to enhance security and utilization of the DOT-TZ country code. Tanzania has also implemented central equipment identification register for mobile phones and banned usage of counterfeit mobile phones since 2016 for both security and theft reasons. In line with this effort and commitment would be happy to share experiences with our fellow ITU members in this regard. It is my great expectation that as a team we experience and share and help in the implementation of UN 2030 agenda for sustainable development. The ITUs connect 2020 agenda and global telecommunication and ICT and our national sector policies in the country. Mr. Chair, Chairman finally, I wish to reiterate that Tanzania is committed to cooperate and share with other members of the ITU and ITU secretariat to make sure that ICT is utilized and brings development to our people. Mr. Chairman, before I conclude we wish to inform ITU members that the United Republic of Tanzania as an active member of the ITU has presented his candidature for the election to the membership of ITU council for the term of 2018-2022 for the African region. Mr. Chair, the Government of Tanzania therefore requests for the support of all members during the election that Tanzania remain committed to continue collaborating with others and other countries to achieve greater development of ICT in the entire world through the council. We are confident that upon our election as a council member we will significantly contribute to the development of ITU and contribute to the realization of a harmonized global ICT. Mr. Chairman, on behalf of the Government of Tanzania and my delegation we wish you and all ITU members a successful deliberation in this remarkable and important conference. Thank you for your attention.