 Welcome to the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2018, PP18 here in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates where I'm very pleased to be joined in the studio today by Dr Mahabin Najib Azizi who is the Chairman of the Afghanistan Telecommunication Regulatory Body or ATRA. Welcome to the studio. Thank you very much, such a pleasure. Now I'd like to start off by talking about the fact that there's been considerable attention being placed on harnessing the power of information and communication technologies or ICTs as an enabler for good, for development for the benefit of people, families, communities and nations and I wanted to find out what's your perspective on this? I think there is no second opinion in regards to the importance of the ICTs as the people around the world need the support from their governments and in Afghanistan also we understand that ICT is really an important tool in order to empower the people. It plays a significant role in the promotion of democracy in bringing accountability and transparency and above all the Afghanistan government is committed to utilize ICTs for the better delivery of the services. So I think overall we all are on the same page that ICT plays a significant role in the development of the societies and in the development of the countries. Now this play of attention conference is the first one since the United Nations and the world in fact agreed on the sustainable development goals. I wanted to find out which are most important for you and how is Afghanistan promoting these and looking to the future? I think overall Afghanistan is very much putting efforts to make sure that we achieve the sustainable development goals. And indeed you are very right that this is the first PP after the ICTs are introduced and in Afghanistan in particular we as the regulatory authority are utilizing the universal access fund in couple of areas in order to make sure that the development in the different social sectors in Afghanistan occur. If I may give the example we have connected all public universities of Afghanistan to the internet we are working closely with the Ministry of Education and there are hundreds of schools that will get connected this year to the internet. And then also I think this is an important area that in order to bring the empowerment of a woman also into this discussion we are very closely working with the Ministry of Women Affairs of Afghanistan in order to see what sort of different enabling roles ICT could have for the girls and women in Afghanistan. And again what we are doing is that in collaboration and cooperation among the different government agencies we are closely working and ICT is considered as a cross cutting component in this regard. Now you mentioned being connected to the internet and schools being connected to the internet about half the world's population is currently connected and the other half aren't. I just wanted to find out what other steps are you taking to try and bridge this digital divide I should say. I think it's very important for any country to identify the different companies that are required to improve connectivity. In Afghanistan the first thing is that our vision is that by 2021 we want to bring at least 50% of the Afghan population online. And in this regard we understand that the development of the physical infrastructure is of immense significance. That's why just last year we introduced the open access policy in order to further liberalize the telecommunication market of Afghanistan where we have allowed the private sector to come forward and invest in the development of the fiber optic ring across the country. And likewise it is important for us to make sure that we improve the regulatory environment in Afghanistan. That's why with the support of the different institutions we are modifying and reforming the regulatory frameworks in Afghanistan to make it more investment friendly and to make sure that connectivity goes beyond the urban centers and we should be able to bring also the rural areas under the coverage. And that's why the universal access fund is massively utilized for this purpose. And lastly I will say that overall the political commitment of the country is very important and we are lucky that the president of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani is very much supportive of connectivity and I think the overall development of the telecom sector is the top priority of the government and that's why our CEO attended also the PP here this year. Being here at the PP obviously you've had a chance to get your message across but I wanted to ask you a final word for our viewers, for our wider audience here. I think we have to understand that ICT is changing every day and there are new emerging technologies that are coming and it is the job of the governments and the regulators to make sure that the people are aware both in regards to the benefits and the risks associated to these changes in the technologies and I think we all need to work together in order to make ICT as a tool for the development of our countries. Dr Mohamed Najib is easy, thank you very much indeed. Thank you very much sir. Pleasure.