 Mr. Chairman, dear councillors, delegates, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Welcome to the 2019 Session of ITU Council. This is our first Council since the conclusion of our 2018 Plenary Partition Conference. PP18 gives us a new ITU Council. Please join me in welcoming our councillors, including our new council members from the Bahamas, the Czech Republic, Kutivoa, Air Salvador, Hungary, and the Islamic Republic of Iran, and South Africa. Of course some of them are completely new, some of them were with us before, and last year were re-elected to get their positions in our new council. So please join me to give the new members a plot. PP18 gives us a new leadership team. I'm very proud to lead this team. For the first time in our union's history, a woman sits on the ITU management team. It was long overdue and more progress needs to be made on the gender issue in ITU. I'm pleased to continue this endeavor with the BDT director Doreen Bolton Martin and my other colleagues so that it is something we can all be proud of. I take this opportunity to encourage you to nominate more women in your delegations to ITU meetings and activities and to leadership positions. I will continue to track gender balance in delegations and report on our progress in strengthening gender equality both in ITU and in our industry. We also welcome a new director of the radio communication bureau in the person of Mr. Mario Maniewicz, who did not waste any time beginning to prepare for the World Radio Communication Conference 2019 and the Radio Communication Assembly 2019. Our entire team is very grateful for the support and trust that our members have placed in us. We will do our best to meet your expectations and more and make ITU a modern model among UN agencies. PB18 also gave us a new strategic plan that asserts ITU's role in facilitating progress towards the implementation of the United Nations 2030 agenda for sustainable development, export and ambitious targets of the Union for the next four years based on five strategic goals, growth, inclusiveness, sustainability, innovation and partnership as well as vision and mission. This goes at the center of our work. Let me just mention some of the important events that have taken place in the last few months in ITU. We held our council working group meetings, the conference preparatory meeting for WRC 2019 and the member states advisory group on the new building. We celebrated the 50th anniversary of World Radio Communication and Information Society Day. Our three sectors advisory group had met and so has the new Radio Recreation Board. We hosted the WRC's forum 2019 and the third edition of our AI for Good Global Summit. Finally, ITU actively participate in the activities of the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development of the Union as well as the 2019 G7 meeting and G20 meetings of Digital Economy Minister meetings. The work of the external auditor and the Independent Management Advisory Committee has proceeded according to schedule. We are grateful for their reports. All this is making our Union stronger. What's at stake is our ability to leverage technology to tackle some of the most important issues of our time. In turn, this requires that our Union be efficient, transparent, open and accountable. And that starts with using ITU's resources efficiently. To that end, PP18 gave us a new financial plan. Thanks to this plan, the strategic plan and the excellent teamwork spirit of my elected colleagues and staff. The draft budget for 2020 and 2021 was presented to the Council Working Group on Financial and Human Resources last January. It is a balanced project without any withdrawal from the reserve account. This session of the Council will also be presented with a financial operating report for 2018 and the external auditor report. Across ITU, we are modernizing how we work to better serve the needs of our members. Efforts are being made to streamline and digitize internal processes. We have already centralized finance and administrative tasks, and we will continue to do more. A modern ITU is an ITU that explores avenues for cooperation and ICT infrastructure investment, especially in those poorly connected and unconnected areas. Just last month, we brought together ICT ministers from across Africa to ITU to develop a common strategic framework for Africa-wide digital priorities and initiatives. And I'm eager to see how this discussion evolves, knowing that such a framework could help overcome the hundreds of investments that can often stifle progress. Just on Saturday, I presented that strategic document agreed by Africa ICT ministers to Japanese administrations for their reference when they organized the next Japan-Africa Summit, TCART 7. And also I present that report, the output document to the Minister of Russia, that the Russia will invite Africa ministers to have bilateral meetings, I mean the bilateral meeting between Russia and Africa ministers later this year. So I'd like to promote that output of that special meeting. ITU invited Africa ICT ministers in Geneva on 29th of March. Although the role of ITU as the lead UN specialized agency for ICTs has been widely recognized, our role and potential as an ICT development agency is still overlooked. This is despite the fact that ITU's development sector was established over 27 years ago. And we have assisted so many developing countries with infrastructure and policy development since then. Even though our resources, both human and financial, are limited, we have to change the perception of our union as being more than just a technical agency. I made a lot of effort during my first term to make the most of the resources we have to show what ITU can do for development and to strengthen our role in this area. More importantly, I made a effort to promote ICT development competitive ITU through administrations and through our partners, and I will continue to do so. But we still have a long way to go. With ICTs being so critically important for development and the implementation of the SDGs, I count on your support and cooperation in this effort. There are some pragmatic perception programs and also pragmatic administrative programs. Because from ITU side, we see our administrative partners in administrations are mainly from technical and technology side. And in government, you have development ministry, development agencies, and we have not been able to reach those agencies. And it's a real challenge to us. So we have to make efforts. So with ICTs becoming so important, so critical for our implementation of SDGs, we have to work together. A modern ITU is an ITU that attracts members who reflect the rapidly changing nature of today's digital economy. I'm pleased that the ITU family is growing and becoming even more diverse. With both large and small companies active in all sectors of the economy, from energy and cybersecurity to auto-movementative and shipping and logistics. And I'm confident that the decision of PP18 to introduce a new category of membership with reduced fees for SMEs and associators and startups will reinforce this trend. And modern ITU is also an ITU that serves as a leading global platform for transformative technologies ranging from the Internet of Things smart cities to AI and 5G. And looks to the future with confidence. This concert we are considering important issues from the World Telecommunication ICT Policy Forum 2021 to international telecommunication regulations, ITRs, to PP process and election procedures. It will make all the administrative and financial arrangements and take the decisions necessary to facilitate the implementation of the new PP18 resolutions affecting ITU's future. We will also review the status and financing related to ITU's future modern home. I take this opportunity to thank Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for their generous sponsorship and the Czech Republic and Ghana for their donations. I would like to encourage all the other member states and all our sector members to follow their example. In the coming months, we will be busy for our union with important ITU event such as GSR 2019, ITU Telecom World 2019 and Radio Assembly 2019 and WRC 2019. So I would also like to thank the government of Vanuatu, Hungary and Egypt for their generous support and hosting of these important events. Before I close, I would like to pay tribute to our dear colleagues from the Africa Regional Office, Marcelino Tejop and Marjane Abebe, who unfortunately perished in the Asobian Airlines crash three months ago today. I would like us to pause in a moment of silence for Marcelino and Marjane and for all the victims of this terrible tragedy. So I invite you to observe one minute of silence. It's very much first and we pay sympathy and condolence to their families. I would also like to take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation for those two families who cooperated with ITU to take care of the follow-up actions after these unfortunate days of these two dear colleagues. Ladies and gentlemen, a new psychic in a four-year period that will drive the growth of our unit and the technology into the third decade of this century. I want to thank our Chairman, Fabio Bigi, who stepped in at a very short notice to replace Dr. Yasajet Azuzu, who could not join us due to an urgent matter to be dealt with at home. I wish our new Chairman and all of you a very successful concert 2019. As the new decade opens, information and communication technologies are transforming the world we live in and our unit is at the forefront of this digital revolution. The world needs ICTs and the world needs ITU. Rest assured that we will do everything possible to strengthen our unit and facilitate the development of ICT technologies and services to advance Connect 2030. May we continue to work together to build a stronger, more open, more transparent, more efficient ITU, a people-centered, service-oriented, and a results-based organization that will increasingly have a profound and positive impact on the lives of people across the world. Thank you very much for your attention.