 Welcome to the ITU studio, the World Telecommunications Development Conference in Kigali, Rwanda, where I'm very pleased to be joined in the studio today by Thomas Namanaskas, who's a representative of the Government of Lithuania. Thomas, welcome to the studio. Thank you very much Max, always a pleasure. So I'd just like to start off by asking you a little bit about connecting and digitally empowering. What are the key factors that are shaping our ability to connect and digitally empower everyone in your opinion? Thank you very much Max. There is some positive trends, there's some challenges and there are some opportunities. I think among the positive trends is that in recent years, I think in big part due to COVID, there's a big recognition of importance of connectivity and that's now recognized in Secretary General Sotomayor Guterresius, our common agenda, and also organizations like G20 and so on. Another positive trend is that in the last years, the financial market situations, the low interest rates, a lot of stimulus money, but also a lot of uncertainty market created, a lot of opportunities for investment in digital infrastructure, and the third positive trend is that you have new boom of new technologies, like low-ethobid, middle-ethobid satellites that can help connect the world. However, there are challenges. First of all, these investments in digital infrastructure are not equally distributed. They're still concentrating mostly in Europe, in North America, somewhat Latin America, but not other parts of the world really are not that well covered. Second is that the economic station is changing and actually there are some reports in the first quarter this year that the value deal in the telecoms market dropped by half because of really economic contraction and now actually a quantitative tightening rather than easing and rising interest rates, so we'll see what happens further. Third is that there are some issues where the industry is becoming somehow victim of its own success, because there are a lot of investments, sometimes there are labor shortages, and because of other challenges in the world, also supply and change shortages, which really delays industry investments. There are other challenges still affordability and even some new applications are really not always targeted to those people who really don't have much money to spend on connectivity, and we still see that information that around 90% of the people who are not connected are actually covered by connectivity. And of course, last but very important is climate crisis. So World Meteorological Organization says there's a 50-50 chance that the next five years the radio will exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius, so it's definitely a big challenge. Opportunities, there are a few. So first of all, governments are recognizing that they need to step up in this situation, so we have a lot of new investments, like US set aside 65 billion US dollars for broadband investments. European Union, in their response to recovery funds from COVID-19, said 20% of those should be allocated for digital. It's also not only in the countries, but in global investments. So we have programs like European Union Global Gateway Initiative that seeks to allocate 300 billion euros for infrastructure investments around the world and a big part of that digital. And there's also opportunities, I think, for organizations like ITU now in this environment to really step up, you know, to ride the wave in a good way and to boost the way and to help the countries and the private sector to leverage that goodwill or for investments in digital infrastructure in this current market environment. And how do you think that today's leaders in international community can help connect to respond to the challenges and seize the opportunities of today? So thank you very much. I think the first words, there are a few words for me are key. First is partnerships. And partnerships are really a key for that. So we need to kind of all work together. It's no longer a solid approach. Both as partnerships within our UN family with different organizations, some have a few of them here with private and public sector, including new players, such as digital infrastructure funds, as private equity funds. They all, and we all need to sit at the table and see that as a common solution. Second is, step up our ambition on climate crisis. This is no longer something's a activity. This is something that requires all hands on deck approach. And we need to look through that across all our activities. In telecoms industry, 90% of companies recognize importance. They report about sustainability, they report. But only 36% actually do something about it in terms of so-called science-based target initiative, complying with that. So actually have a clear target. So we recognize the problem, but we need to step up. And the third is, we have to really work on what we call renewed and more effective multilateralism. We talk about a lot of multilateralism where we still recognize that every country around the world, regardless how big or small it is, how powerful or not powerful, how rich or not rich, has a really strong seat at the table. That we, all the multilateral organizations really look how to make them the most effective using the both majoral practices of the past. So we really make sure that they are effective, results-based. And then the last bit is really that they are partnership-driven and also they really work together with others. Excellent. Now it's early days, but I just wanted to ask you, how's your experience been here at ITW's TDC here in Kigali, Rwanda? I think it's an amazing experience. I think first of all, it's hospitality, a great hospitality for Rwanda hosts. It's not the first time for me in Rwanda, and every time I come here, the first time was for the first Transform Africa event. And definitely that was already kind of a clear demonstration of the capabilities of Rwanda to host great events, and we see that here. Third is the people you meet. There's really people coming back, and that's another hope. So it's a great meeting here. There are lots of decision makers, decision makers around the world. These are the people who can make the difference, and this is great. And the third, I really love the innovations, like partner to connect summit, which moves us only from talking to the really action. And Lithuania also comes there with a strong pledges, both pledges to strengthen our digital infrastructure and digital equality locally with investments for around 350 million euros from our digital infrastructure in Lithuania to strengthening our sandbox initiatives as well, but also with helping others. So we identified around 12 countries around Africa and Asia specifically, where we want to help with strengthening digital ecosystems, and our private sector also comes together with us. And again, that kind of partnership approach to help with strengthening cyber security, you know, infrastructures of the country. So they again, they fight, you know, above 10 countries, and they will work on that. So this has clearly given impetus, this partner to connect call, gave an impetus for all of us, nor does it say what someone would have to do in the passive voice, but what we will do to make sure that everyone is real digital empowered and everyone is a true part of the digital world. Thomas and Nasus, thank you very much for joining us, and we hope to catch up with you again very, very soon. Thank you very much, Max. Always a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you.