 Coalition is a multi-stakeholder alliance to foster meaningful connectivity and digital transformation globally in the hardest to connect communities with a focus on, but not limited to, least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing states. Based on the principles of inclusion, partnership and SDG focused digital development, Partner to Connect will serve as a leadership platform to mobilise new resources, partnerships and commitments across four focus areas, access, connecting people everywhere, adoption, empowering communities, value creation, building digital ecosystems and accelerate incentivising investments. Time is running out in this decade of action. We must join forces now and work together to extend universal access and empower the billions of people who are still offline to make use of digital connectivity to transform lives, communities and societies. Visit www.itu.int.com slash partner to connect. Welcome everybody to this third web dialogue of the P2C digital development series, leading up to the digital development round table at the world telecommunication development conference in Kigali, Rwanda, which takes place from 7th to 9th of June. I'm David Kirkpatrick, I'm a journalist based here in New York and I'm with a company called Techonomy and it's been my honour to be part of this series for the last couple of years actually and we're, I'm very excited to be moderating this session today and let me just quickly tell you how the session will go. The first segment is going to be dedicated to the presentation of the white paper achieving universal and meaningful digital connectivity which was co-produced between the ITU and the UN's Office of the Secretary General and Boyan Technology that was just announced yesterday. The second segment of the session will include a deep dive into the key pillars and issues that are driving change in this focus area three, building digital ecosystems as well as initial pledges made under the umbrella of the coalition. So to get us started it's my pleasure to introduce my neighbour here at the table in New York, Doreen Bogdan-Martin, the Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau. Thank you so much David, I hope you can all hear me. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening, so much for us for this third dialogue of our partner coalition. Partner to Connect as I hope know is the global leadership level multi-stakeholder alliance that was launched by the ITU in 2021. Very close cooperation with the Office of the Secretary General's envoy on technology and as part of Secretary General's roadmap for cooperation. The purpose of Partner to Connect is really to generate a movement, a movement not of words but a movement of actions and commitment to connect people in our community and to build digital ecosystems and incentivize investment to build an inclusive world for all. With our four focus areas, we have built together with our action leaders, our area leaders, what I would call a very robust action framework. And of course that was done together with our knowledge partner, the Boston Group who's hosting us for the physical part of our meeting today. We have been invited to. This work builds on extensive and inclusive consultation by the array of stakeholders from across the globe. Last time, a couple of weeks ago when we met here, York had launched our PC online pledging platform and we are very excited about the interest that that platform are pledging to generate civil society groups from around the globe wanting to come to pledges. In today's session, we're going to dive deep which is about building digital ecosystems which ultimately value creates. We're also going to look at ways that will help accelerate the digital transformation of societies through a whole of ecosystem approach that nurtures entrepreneurship, that nurtures innovation and of course job through collaborative policy and regulatory practices that are supported by data. Building digital ecosystems are key to powering .9 billion people that are still offline and to make that connectivity meaningful to those that we count as connected but continue to face many challenges and leveraging that can actually help to improve their lives. Partner to connect is all about driving personal connectivity. Yesterday, we were able to launch together with Secretary Jim Tech Envoy universal connectivity targets that will help us to start a path towards our vision of a globally connected planet that work as I mentioned was developed with the Tech Envoy's office and basically comprises 15 aspirational targets that prioritize universality, technology and affordability to ensure that everyone can benefit from the power of connectivity. More about those targets today in our session, of course with our goal, we want to make sure that these targets are not just aspirations but that they're actually achievable. With that, ladies and gentlemen, thank you to those of you that are here physically. Thank you to all of those that are that are excited to dive into our session and hear more from some new pledgers that have come forward. So looking forward to hearing about those pledges also to engage our coalition focus area leaders with that. Thank you. Thank you so much, Doreen. Now I'm pleased to give the floor to Heidi Schroeder as Fox, who is the acting high representative for the Office of the High Representative for the least developed countries, landlock developing countries and small island developing states. So Heidi, please. Thank you very much, David and good morning, good afternoon, good evening everyone, distinguished colleagues and distinguished guests. I'm sorry I can't be there in person today in this beautiful Boston Consulting office, but I'm really to be there and participate remotely. As Doreen mentioned, just about a month ago, we gathered there to launch the partner to connect pledging platform. And that was very exciting. And at that event, and as I mentioned a day later also in my address to the General Assembly during the adoption of the Doha program of action for the least developed countries, excuse me, I was humbled by the extent to which the international community is really collaborating to ensure meaningful connectivity in the most vulnerable countries, those that are either least developed, landlocked or small island developing state. And the pledges from Vodafone, from Microsoft, from GIZ and others, which included significant benefits, especially to the least developed, will really contribute towards closing the digital divide in the countries that are left furthers behind. We all know the statistics very well, three quarters of people in the LBCs are covered by mobile broadband network, but fewer than a third use the Internet. In advanced economies, of course, almost everyone is online. So as we gather today to discuss building digital ecosystems, we get to the heart of what the vulnerable countries really need in order to catalyze new and dynamic economic activity. These activities should be characterized by higher levels of productivity and increased efforts at scale. In LDC, Lingo, we call this structural transformation. Digital connectivity is now central to structural transformation, no matter in which country you stand in. We need to heed what was highlighted in the recently launched financing for sustainable development report, that if the digital divide persists, LDCs are at risk of falling behind and becoming mainly users of data providers, rather than inserting themselves productively into the global digital value chain. Last year, ITU under Doreen's guidance and my office launched a report that focused on connectivity in the least developed countries. In that report, the prominent message was that more needs to be done in LDCs to ensure productive use of broadband technologies. For many Internet users in some of the vulnerable countries, the focus is almost exclusively on social media or entertainment. In general, the productive use of the Internet remains very limited. So today, I want to make a heartfelt plea for the international community to help the vulnerable countries use the Internet productively. How can we encourage this? For individuals, this includes enabling them to use e-services, including e-health and digital payment systems, basically what you and I take for granted and use on a regular basis. More small and medium enterprises who must be a critical driver of development in LDCs need to be more engaged in e-commerce to become competitive and generate more income. And governments in vulnerable countries should see the digital economy as more than telecommunications. The digital economy must become an integral part of the development agenda. One has to be embedded in various government ministries and departments. There can be no disconnect when we talk about connectivity. And I'm pleased to see that one of the pledge makers today is a small island developing state. This will certainly encourage other small island developing states, as well as the LDCs and the landlock countries, to make their own pledges. To close, I'm urging all stakeholders to pledge through a partner to connect coalition. I sincerely hope that many pledge makers will include vulnerable countries in their interventions so that together we can truly bring about the much needed meaningful connectivity in least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing states. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, Heidi. You can see we're already getting into a lot of meat in this discussion. It's so important. I'm so excited that all this is coming together so well. Now let me turn the floor over to another longtime veteran partner in this partner to connect series, Maria Francesca Spadalizano, who is the assistant secretary general for the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the acting secretary general's envoy on technology for her special remarks. So please, Maria Francesca. Thank you, David. And good morning, afternoon and evening to all of you. I'm very pleased and proud to be here today, at least virtually, alongside my close partner and friend, Doreen Bolton-Martin and many others. And I'm particularly proud because we are here to present a set of aspirational global targets for universal meaningful connectivity. The culmination of much hard work done by many of us gathered here today. Indeed, I'm deeply grateful to Doreen and the ITU and specifically its data and analytics division working with key partners like the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, GSMA, the World Economic Forum, Alliance for Affordable Internet, Web Foundation, via a cell phone, UNICEF, as well as governments of Mexico, Canada, Italy, France, Finland and many more. We are making history as part of a groundbreaking multi-stakeholder effort to fulfill a key recommendation in the secretary general roadmap for digital cooperation, establishing for the first time a baseline definition and matrix for measuring universal and meaningful digital connectivity. This work is profoundly important because even though we all say the right things about supporting connectivity, these words have to be translated into action in real policies, programs and initiatives that affect the people's lives on the ground. And as they say, what gets measured gets done. So the heart of getting it universal meaningful connectivity done is making sure that we have the needed empirical and statistical foundation in place. A baseline and targets provide the means to measure progress and form the basis of general cost and investment estimates. All of this is fundamental to concrete action-oriented policy making and effective programming policy interventions by all stakeholders. In this regard, I also look forward to the ITU's future work to report on the state of global connectivity based on these targets, as well as their development of an online dashboard for countries to use. And I'm also proud that my office has been part of this journey with all of you. With the launch of these targets, we are building on so many important pieces of work in the last year or so. For instance, the studies, data and initiatives, your various institutions and forums have developed. Certainly, as technology improves, situations change, and especially because we need to constantly stay ambitious and pushing for more, these targets will evolve. And indeed, I'm counting on all of you to keep pushing the targets further and higher to continue working with us to make them even better. For instance, looking at areas that need further work, like digital skills, so necessary to leave no one behind. Today we are taking a bold step forward, setting a basic understanding of what universal meaningful connectivity should look like so that together we can have a common global foundation on which to push even further. And more fundamentally, by setting clear targets, we give ourselves goals and aspirations toward the world, especially in this decade of action to achieve the sustainable development goals. This is especially important as we build consensus around a global digital compact that the Secretary General has called for next year as part of the Summit of the Future. Like all of you, my office has been unwavering in saying that connectivity must be at the heart of narrowing digital divides and achieving a more open, free and secure digital future for all. With these targets that we have launched, we have answered the Secretary General's call in his digital cooperation roadmap. And now we can and must advocate for the global digital compact to contain a resounding call for the world to achieve universal meaningful connectivity by 2030, accompanied by concrete actions and commitments. To those who might try to question this by asking what do these terms mean in practice or how countries can see outcomes. We can point them to the baseline framework that we have developed and the work that will build on this through forums like Partners to Connect. There is no better argument than the one that we are making here today. There is no stronger movement than what we are building together. My congratulations and thanks to all of you again. Thank you, Maria Francesco. I think we are making history and we're now going to hear in more detail about the set of targets that the ITU and Maria Francesco's office announced yesterday. That announcement took place at the UN spokesperson's noon briefing yesterday. You'll hear more details now from Celina Abdullah, who is Chief of the Digital Knowledge Hub Department in the ITU. You'll dive deep into this white paper on achieving universal and meaningful digital connectivity, explaining what this is all about. So Celina, who is right here in person. Thank you very much. David, I believe we do have a video to show. Oh, that's right. I left that out. My apologies. Imagine a world where everyone has access to the Internet, is covered by the latest mobile networks, and owns a mobile phone. A world where people have the necessary skills to make the best use of the Internet, and digital parity has been reached. Invisage a world where every school, every household, and every business is connected to the Internet with a fast connection. And a world in which broadband Internet is affordable for all. This is the world we envisage. To achieve this, the International Telecommunication Union and the Office of the Secretary General's Envoy on Technology have developed aspirational targets on universality, technology, and affordability to give countries and stakeholders a clear direction forward. Universal and meaningful digital connectivity is the possibility for everyone to enjoy a safe, satisfying, enriching, productive, and affordable online experience. The targets will help countries prioritize interventions, monitor progress, evaluate policy effectiveness, and galvanize efforts to achieve universal and meaningful connectivity by the end of the decade. Together, we can implement the UN Secretary General's Roadmap for Digital Cooperation and achieve that vision of universal and meaningful digital connectivity by 2030. Let's partner to connect. Let's achieve this vision together. Learn more at www.itu.int.com forward slash umc 2030. That was the video. Thank you again, David. I've been asked to use this microphone and my friends will know how dangerous it is to leave a microphone in my hands. Doreen, David, if I start singing, just put the video on again. Let me start. Our three opening speakers have already touched upon this important topic and introduced these targets to you. What I'll do is give you more detail. Moving along, I would like to start with a definition. While we get to the second slide, just so that we are all on the same page, what is universal and meaningful digital connectivity? What do we mean by being meaningfully connected? And how different is that from being connected, disconnected online? Universal and meaningful connectivity is the possibility for everyone to enjoy a safe, satisfying, enriching, productive and affordable online experience. In short, it means that you're able to do whatever you want online whenever you want. So whether it's teleworking, remote learning, being entertained, accessing applications like e-farming, for example, or just send a simple message, this is not an exhaustive list. Of course, what we want is to bring everyone online. But in today's context, that's not enough for connectivity to have significant and positive impact on people's lives and enable the digital transformation of economies. Connectivity must not only be universal, but also meaningful. So the targets that we announced yesterday reflect that it's a new narrative, a new imperative and a new mission. So let me touch on the process that led to the formulation of these targets. It's the result of a multi-stakeholder consultation initiated in early 2020 as a follow-up to the UN Secretary General's roadmap for digital cooperation. The definition that I just gave was used to develop the analytical framework shown on this slide, and this framework was used to do two things. First, define the baseline for universal and meaningful connectivity. Secondly, formulate targets for 2030. The baseline indicates where countries are today, and the targets indicate where countries ought to be by 2030. As you see on this expanded version, the framework and the baseline are deliberately agnostic about the interventions needed to achieve universal and meaningful connectivity. And that's because there is no single recipe for success that can be prescribed to all countries. Our intention is not to prescribe a specific policy mix, so the levers that you see shown on the left are out of scope. And similarly, the framework and the baseline are agnostic about how connectivity is used. We don't intend or want to prescribe any specific behavior, nor is our intention to dictate what people ought to do online. These applications and their eventual impacts are represented on the right-hand side of the panel. And so those aspects, too, are not within our scope. What we have is a baseline comprising 29 indicators that collectively describe a country's current state of connectivity and how close a country is to universal and meaningful connectivity. Of the 29 indicators that currently make up the baseline, we set targets for 15, where there is a clear ideal state to aim for. We didn't set a target for all indicators because for some of these indicators, there is no clear objective ideal state to aim for. And for some, there is limited data coverage, and we didn't want to set targets that only a fraction of countries can track. Well, finally, less is more. We believe that 15 targets are manageable. That is a manageable number that will not overburden and not deter stakeholders. So as you can see on the slide, the targets call for universal use among the population aged 15 and above. They call for every household, school, and business to be connected. They also call for digital, gender, parity to be affordable, and they call for schools to be beacons of connectivity. I should also mention that the concept of universality must be interpreted usefully. As you can see, there are several targets set at 100%. Targets will be considered met or nearly met when a country is sufficiently close to the target value. For example, the target of 100% of population using the internet will be considered met or nearly met when the share reaches 95%. And that's because while the spirit of the targets is universal, there will be a margin of allowance to take into account factors such as how countries gather information, those who are just turning 15, and those who just refuse to go online, for instance. At this point, I'd like to highlight six important features that define the spirit of the targets and will contribute to their adoption. The targets are ambitious because we are aiming for the ideal state. They are time bound. The deadline is 2030, like for the SDGs. It's short enough to create a sense of urgency and long enough to deliver. The targets are set as absolute values, i.e., we are not aiming for a mere progression from current levels, for example, 20% above a current penetration rate. So these are absolute values. Next, the targets are all the same for all countries, and we don't have differentiated targets. The targets are primarily for countries. We want countries to aim for universal and meaningful connectivity. So if each country meets its targets, then the world would have met them. The targets are consistent with and complementary to existing global targets in both the spirit and substance. And we hope that this approach and features will make the targets clear, intuitive, easy to communicate, easy to track, and more likely to be adopted. So why do we need them? There are four main reasons. The targets help to promote the concept of universal and meaningful connectivity. They provide a clear direction and common reference point. They provide a tool for advocacy and for monitoring, and they encourage evidence-based decision making, which is critical. Yesterday's unveiling of the targets was the first step in a process to encourage the adoption of the targets. Moving forward, in June, ITU will release the Global Connectivity Report of 2022, which will feature a preliminary assessment of global progress towards these targets. So please stay tuned for that. In November, we plan to release the universal and meaningful connectivity dashboard so that we, and countries, can start tracking progress. Beyond 2022, we plan to monitor progress towards these targets at country, regional, and global levels. So with the inevitable changes in technologies, needs, applications, and behaviors, the concept of meaningful connectivity is bound to evolve. More data and indicators will become available, so in fact, the base libel adapted on a regular basis to reflect this evolution and developments. Some targets may be added. The version of the baseline that you see today should therefore be seen as the first of many. Thank you very much for your attention. For more information, there is a dedicated page. As you can see, it's ITU.int forward slash UMC 2030. And if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to put them in the chat. My colleagues, Kiri and Martina, here to assist you as well. And I'm giving the mic back to you, David, without even breaking into song. Thank you. You can break into song, because what you're doing is very important. Well, thank you so much, Selena. So now we're going to shift gears a little bit and enter the second part of the session, where we're going to take a deep dive into focus area three of the partner to connect digital coalition, which is value creation, building digital ecosystems, which is obviously critical to achieving all these very ambitious but achievable goals. So let's start out with a video. What do you use the internet for? People use the internet for different types of things. Some use it for communicating, others for learning, others for accessing basic services, and others for creating value. Having access to the internet and having the right skills to be able to use it is important. But equally so is what people do with that connectivity once they have it. Thriving digital ecosystems are key to empowering the 2.9 billion people who are still offline and to make connectivity even more meaningful to those already connected. They can also provide new economic opportunities and overcome barriers that prevent people from participating and contributing to their economies. Through its four focus areas, the partner to connect digital coalition seeks to drive universal meaningful connectivity and digital transformation globally. The focus area three of P2C aims to accelerate the digital transformation of societies through an inclusive whole of ecosystem approach that nurtures entrepreneurship, innovation and job creation through collaborative policy and regulation practices supported by data. Are you ready to use the power of digital to create value and help transform societies and economies? Join P2C. Be part of this global effort. Pledge for building digital ecosystems or any of the other focus areas of the coalition. Visit www.itu.int. slash partner to connect or email us at partner to connect at itu.int. Okay now we're going to hear from four members of the partner to connect global coalition who are focus area leaders and are making pledges as part of this project. So we're going to begin with a video from Gopal Vitaal who is managing director and CEO of Bharti Airtel. Hi everyone. Let me start by thanking ITU for having me here. We are privileged to have led the group on value creation building digital ecosystems. Bharti Airtel is the third largest telco globally with a footprint of 18 countries spread across India, Sri Lanka and sub Saharan Africa. Being a sector member of ITU we are fully vested in the initiatives taken up by the ITU. I also want to compliment Doreen who has led this with so much energy. The ICTs are the backbone of today's digital economy and have enormous potential to accelerate the progress on the sustainable development goals so as to improve lives in fundamental ways. The partner to connect digital coalition is a testimony to the spirit of collaboration amongst stakeholders who believe in the transformative power of ICT and in specific connectivity. The focus area we've led, value creation, building digital ecosystems, looks at three aspects, digital innovation and entrepreneurship, development of application and services and driving the digital economy. In each of these areas Airtel has created a meaningful impact for our customers. I remember when I was handed the license for Airtel payments bank by the RBI deputy governor he mentioned three very powerful words, serve India well. And Airtel therefore our pledge is to serve India well by bringing every disadvantaged Indian into the financial inclusion net. We will do this through the power of our digital infrastructure. In specific Airtel will serve over 300 million customers who are unbanked or underbanked. Traditional banks do not find these customers profitable and therefore financially exclude such customers. Our whole business model is geared to serve such customers to the power of a totally digital bank that has over 500,000 points of presence where customers can deposit, withdraw cash and earn interest on their savings. We do this by synergizing the strength of Airtel payments bank and Airtel's digital infrastructure. This pledge will contribute towards the government's vision of digital India and financial inclusion by taking digital banking services to the doorstep of every Indian. This pledge is also aligned to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In the end I would say that it is only by joining forces and working together that we will be able to achieve the goal of connecting everyone, leaving no one behind. We are really proud to have been a part of this initiative and wish you all the very best. Thank you. That's a great example of digital ecosystems. Let me now introduce Kate Wilson who is CEO of the Digital Impact Alliance who was joining us virtually. Thank you all so much for having me here today and I just want to echo the thanks of really the value of being a part of such a compelling initiative with so many amazing partners from around the world. I'm delighted to be here not only as a co-chair of the Focus Area 3 value creation but also on behalf of a number of colleagues who unfortunately could not join us today. But together we make this pledge motivated by the desire to realize a more inclusive digital ecosystem and on behalf of Focus Area 3 co-chairs, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, United Nations Development Program and the Digital Impact Alliance which I lead, we commit to increase advocacy and to mobilize financing for digital public goods through the development of a charter for digital public goods fully aligned with the UN high level panel recommendation and roadmap. We are not doing this alone but rather in close cooperation with our co-chairs, the Digital Public Goods Secretariat, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation who have also joined in this pledge. Together this group in close consultations with other agencies including the US Agency for International Development, the Swedish International Development Agency, the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office and the Norwegian Agency for International Development, we are starting this advocacy pledge this year for the Charter for Digital Public Goods. We believe that the benefit of this charter will be to expand and strengthen a digital public goods ecosystem, increasing trust in digital tools, improving the sustainability of these solutions, ensuring that safe and inclusive systems are available that can reach everyone and are built to serve the needs of people. To achieve this vision of a stronger digital public goods ecosystem, the pledge partners commit in 2022 to consult with stakeholder groups around the world to develop a charter for DPGs which captures a diverse opinions and articulate a unified vision for the needs, societal impact and efficiencies of DPGs. Set together common success metrics that will measure our future investments progress against this vision laid out in the charter. In three, mobilize financial and in-kind pledges for digital public goods, products, capacity and implementation efforts. By the end of 2022, we commit to have input from at least 50 countries on the charter document, global civil society organizations and the technology sector and have at least five financing commitments to implement this future. I want to stress on behalf of all of the partners that have joined in thus far, this is just the beginning of what we see as a global movement to collaborate closely with global development actors around the world. We know that in order for this to be successful, we all must join in to shape together a future that will benefit all and we hereby invite all PTC participants to engage with us as we build on this early pledge and lead this effort forward through 2023. Thank you all so much for inviting us here to make this pledge and we look forward to continuing to build on the work of the PTC partnership and enable and make sure that we have participants from everywhere around the world. Thank you. Thank you, Kate. That is a powerful partnership. Next joining us from Singapore is Ted Chen, co-founder and CEO of Evercom Singapore, a member of the Generation Connect Visionaries Board and youth leader of Focus Area 3 of the PTC Digital Coalition. Ted. Thank you for having me today. So data is the importance to any digital ecosystem and we need accurate and reliable data directly from the local communities in order to understand the situation on the ground as well as to support decision making and better resource allocation in order to maximize the impact that we want with limited resources. So by joining the partner to connect digital coalitions and committing to two pledges, we hope to get more youth and grassroots organizations involved and collectively contribute accurate and valuable data to the local and global digital ecosystem in which then can shape and advance especially Asia sustainability development progress which currently we're lacking behind. The first pledges focus on developing and training 50,000 youth data agents with education institutions across Asia. The youth knows their community best and have a strong incentive to fix the issues in their community. They are the best candidate for data agent and can contribute accurate and high quality local information to the digital ecosystem in which act as an effective feedback loop to the policy makers and government leaders. Complementary to the youth data agent initiatives, the second pledges focus on empowering 10,000 grassroots organizations to take meaningful sustainability related actions back by data and some of these initiatives can be small. It doesn't have to be very big actions. The partner to connect digital coalitions provides a platform to connect these local ecosystems and so therefore local youth as well as communities can take collective actions to be able to progress the sustainability bottom goal. So thank you all for inviting us and looking forward to do more with the platform. Thank you Ted. And now let's go to the Dominican Republic and hear from Amparo Orango who is director of the telecommunications development fund of the government of the Dominican Republic. Muchas gracias David voy a hablar en español y nuestra querida Ana se pulveda para hacer la traducción. Thank you very much David. I'm speaking Spanish and hello everyone. My name is Ana se pulveda will be helping with the translation. Bueno primero decir que estamos muy contentos como indotel y República Dominicana de haber sido invitados a formar parte de esta creativa y super importante iniciativa para una una un ecosistema digital fuerte y vigoroso. So first of all we want to say that we're very happy and grateful to be part of this initiative on behalf of indotel and also the government of the Dominican Republic to be part of this creative and important initiative for building the telecosystems. And thanks to Doreen Bogdan Martín por por hacer este esfuerzo para realmente conectar de manera significativa nuestra gente. And once again thank you very much to Doreen for making this tremendous effort to connect everyone in a meaningful way. Bueno bajo el lema de conectar los no conectados para avanzar hacia el acceso universal a las tecnologías digitales a la stick y contribuir a un desarrollo sostenible a un ecosistema saludable. El indotel tiene pautado varias iniciativas que son una prioridad a nivel nacional vinculadas a nuestra agenda digital 20-30 pero también vinculadas a las pautas de la Unión Internacional de Telecomunicaciones en esta en esta alianza para un ecosistema sostenible. Under the aim of connecting the unconnected and in order to advance towers universal access to ICTs and contribute to the sustainable development, indotel, the Dominican Institute for Telecommunications has established several initiatives which are of high national priority related to the 20-30 agenda and also to the route established by the International Telecommunications Union. En particular voy a mencionar cuatro proyectos iniciativas que están en marcha y entendemos que están apuntando a los elementos centrales de este ecosistema digital sostenible y aportando esa creación de valor. In particular I want to highlight four initiatives or projects which are our pledges that contribute to the building digital ecosystems and also connecting the unconnected. Los temas son una canasta digital social, segundo un sandbox regulatorio, tercer tema que estamos trabajando es la quinta generación de telecomunicaciones 5G y expandir la conectividad de banda ancha en los hogares y en todo el territorio nacional. So the four initiatives we want to pledge are first one the social digital basket, second one the regulatory sandbox, third one the fifth generation of telecommunications or high G, in particular the roadmap for the implementation of the 5G in the Dominican Republic and fourth the expansion of fixed broadband connectivity in homes in the country. Y por último no estaba en el guión pero a partir de la presentación de la encuesta de la medición de conectividad significativa quiero anunciar que por primera vez República Dominicana estará haciendo una medición de conectividad significativa a través de una encuesta nacional de hogares que inicia este mayo, el 15 de mayo de este año. And going a little bit of script here but a bit inspired of what we have heard today about the survey of meaningful connectivity I also want to mention that we for the first time the Dominican Republic is going to be measuring as well meaningful connectivity in the national household survey as of May this year. Muchísimas gracias, thank you very much ITU, thank you very much all of you Doreen and all the principal table for invite us to be part of this very active and very important initiative. Thank you so much Amparo great to see a lot of really active discussion in the chat including someone who's just written something who is in the Ministry of Digital Economy Telecommunications and Innovation of the Ivory Coast so it's really great how global this is. So now we're going to look more closely at some of the key issues related to focus area three and I'm going to turn the floor over to Michael Wilms who's a partner and director at BCG who's as Doreen said BCG is a hugely important part of all this project so Michael. Thank you David and tell it if you could show the slides please so I think as Heidi Schraders-Fox also highlighted it's important that we can move beyond using connectivity only for entertainment and connecting people and really drive value creation also in in less developed countries. I think if we look at what's driving economic growth in the U.S. and in Europe digitization of businesses and ecosystems has been a huge driver in the past years and it's also necessary to sustain the the whole connectivity ecosystem and the investments in infrastructure economically longer term. So to really get there we believe that it's important that each and every country has a viable ecosystem for digital value creation. Now there's a number of factors there and we'll drive into that a bit deeper on the next slides but clearly advanced digital skill sets innovation capacity catering to the local and national challenges that we see across basically all of the SDGs and economic development is a key empowering factor to drive this going forward and as was also said before by Kate I think creating digital platform and a digital public good especially in the LDCs LLDCs and SIDS require quite major effort going forward and this is particularly also true as many of these countries have a fairly small economy so it's also important to start thinking about how can we partner up and create some broader ecosystems and get scale. So the factors will dive into our digital innovation entrepreneurship how can we create how can we use these to create more targeted relevant applications and services in a safe trustworthy way and then start building more of a digital ecosystem to ensure also that's inclusive for the whole wider population to take advantage of and if we can get that to work I believe we can get a flywheel which will get the purple red and also green bars on the left hand chart up and and see that we get to the 100 target that Selina outlined for 2030 by building this ecosystem around the pure connectivity and make sure we can get it sustainably financed as well. Just on the next slide as a reminder for everyone sort of last time when we were in in in this same setting we presented the full action framework which has 12 pillars across the four focus areas today we'll focus on the value creation and how can we build digital ecosystem which are three key pillars digital innovation entrepreneurship application and services and digital economy and obviously we need something which is consistent across all of these 12 without that each and every one may be separate and not sustainable but if we can get this to work across all four I believe we can get to something which long term will work zooming in on the three pillars we are focusing on today and we'll have the discussion after my my little presentation has ended if we move to the next slide clearly there's a lot of work to be done around digital innovation entrepreneurship if we look at a lot of the educational programs whether they're targeted IT university courses or the inclusion of digital skills in the wider set of training and education that's that's available in many countries there's still a lot of work to be done on that front and obviously as was laid out in in the targets there's a target of 50 percent of people having intermediate skills but if we want to build this kind of digital economy we're also going to have a percentage of people maybe 10 20 percent who are much better skilled even and are able to build applications that are able to deal with big data questions etc etc the other thing to start creating more entrepreneurship is actually connect people in startup ecosystems and ensure that we get silicon valley like setups in many more places in the world obviously that doesn't come by itself but we do see efforts where you get incubators where lots of small companies can work together and we are seeing some hubs in developing countries already sort of Nairobi being a good example and if we can get more of those spread in more countries around the world we should be able to see a lot more innovation zooming then into the next pillar which is application and services there's a lot of barriers here still a lot of these investments are having a quite a short term point of view around what's profitable in the coming two three four or five years we need to get also a point of view where this is seen as an investment in infrastructure and the payback may not be direct but indirect that also means and I think Kate made a great pledge here we need to start creating a much wider set of digital public goods and think around how can we use that to co create in the local communities using those digital public goods as a basis for that kind of innovations and building new businesses and then last in this aspect I think the whole question around data governance especially when it comes to personal data how can we best use the personal data in a way that is safe and secure that doesn't jeopardize privacy will be critically important and especially a lot of the lower income populations are at risk of their private personal data being abused and not being safeguarded very well and I think here if we can get to that to a more global aspect around how do we do personal data that's going to help a lot and last pillar around digital economy obviously it was mentioned already by by Barty as well but a financial inclusion and the ability of everyone to do digital payments etc is quite important but it's not only that to to get a viable digital ecosystem we'll also need digital identities we need the ability to do physical deliveries everywhere digital contracting a lot of these infrastructure setups to build the digital ecosystem are not in place in quite a few countries in the world and that's something where help will be needed similarly as we move to a more digital economy obviously the increase of cyber attacks is also of increased importance and also there there's a need for more robust national cyber security strategies and ensuring that we also build those capabilities within these emerging small and medium businesses to ensure that they can protect themselves and keep operating their digital businesses all of that should then lead to a much more accelerated digitization of businesses drive innovation and does drive the creation of wealth also in smaller villages in towns where people can start their own business and then last but not least to make this also sustainable from an ecosystem ecology perspective will also need to drive more sustainable practices into the digital economy obviously becoming digital has huge advantages from an ecosystem perspective but it should be promoted as well I think if you look at overall this focus area three it's probably the most esoteric of the three because there's a lot of different factors that we need to get in place sort of focus area one we can say well if we built the infrastructure we make it affordable we've solved it this is much more around how can we get a lot of little different interactions to play together in a way that it starts stimulating each individual and starts making them capable to drive innovation and thus create value thank you David thank you Michael so now we're going to dive into this focus area three with a discussion with many of our speakers broken into the three parts of focus area three digital innovation and entrepreneurship applications and services and digital economy each section will begin with a poll so let's start our first poll and put it up on the screen for our virtual participants and I think we'd be able to put it up here in the room for the physical participants too I'm not sure I'll read it it's what do you think is the key ingredient to foster digital entrepreneurship a up skilled workforce b access to innovation hubs c effective local and national startup policies and partnerships d lower taxes targeted funding for startups and e availability and sharing of data so you can only pick one but let's uh everybody pick one but we can't vote okay I'm trying to vote I can't do it all right okay let's okay how many in the room would pick up skilled workforce okay how many would pick access to innovation hubs okay how many would pick effective national and local startup policies and partnerships okay d lower taxes targeted funding for startups okay there's proponents of that and availability of and sharing of more data well interestingly there were people who put their hands up for every one I think here in the room the single largest number which is one I was going to select was effective local and national startup policies and partnerships which not surprising this group would be in favor of partnerships can we get on screen the results of the virtual participants well that was the most common answer although again every everyone had some proponents so that's really healthy I think because it's really hard to pick from those five they were all important so let us go to our first speaker Amparo and let me ask you Amparo how should governments foster digital entrepreneurship and gracias Patrick pido paciencia a la audiencia al panel por la traducción pero es parte de la inclusión lingüística así es que vamos a como mencioné inicialmente tenemos estas cuatro iniciativas que entendemos están contribuyendo a la innovación y al emprendimiento de nuestra de nuestra gente de nuestra población de nuestros hombres y mujeres so again we have these four initiatives that can contribute to um um in print and to the entrepreneurship um and a simulated entrepreneurship in our nation y voy a ir rápido sin sin mucho detalle para poder aprovechar el tiempo la canasta digital social es es un programa para fortalecer la demanda y está orientado lo estamos haciendo con fondos propios del del fondo desarrollo de las telecomunicaciones del indotel y tiene la finalidad es contribuir al empoderamiento y a la autonomía de mujeres jefas de hogar a que pertenecen a los estratos más pobres y vulnerables de la república dominicana es un proyecto piloto que después queremos expandir para que ellas usando una una canasta digital social una una conectividad subsidiada por dos años con un celular inteligente y una capacitación una alfabetización digital con enfoque de género puedan realmente e ser e impulsar y mejorar su autonomía económica y su empoderamiento so the first one was as i mentioned before um the social digital basket program this is financed by the fund of the development of the telecommunications entirely and it aims to contribute to the autonomy and economic independence in particular women who are heads of household and living conditions of poverty and vulnerability through the use of subsidized internet and digital technologies for a period of two years and the use also of a smartphone so they can achieve social economic development for their own well being and that of their families luego de este piloto vamos seguramente en el próximo plan biannual e tener unas metas mucho más agresivas after this pilot in the probe in the next biannual program we will have more aggressive targets bueno este es el segundo proyecto tiene que ver con un sandbox regulatorio que está realizando el indotel con el apoyo y con la coordinación de la uite y este sandbox regulatorio tiene como finalidad a mejor una una mejora regulatoria y impulsar la innovación a identificar mejores prácticas que nos permitan realmente a impulsar nuevos modelos nuevos actores para cerrar brecha digital no solamente los actores tradicionales otros actores redes comunitarias proveedores de de de de televisión de de televisión provincial etcétera the second one is the regulatory sandbox this project is carried out by indotel jointly with the itu and its main focus is to improve regulation and the regulatory framework with innovation identifies also best practices and providing spaces for experimentation bringing new and different actors from other sectors and facilitate also the entry of new players in the field of digital connectivity which is our ultimate goal to bridge the connectivity llegar a esos no conectados a esa base de la pirámide va a requerir necesariamente que nuestro marco regulatorio se modernice sea innovador y permita la entrada de nuevos actores in order to reach those people the bottom of the pyramid we will need to modernize our regulatory framework and for that it is very important to provide an entrance for new actors bueno un tercer proyecto y es muy importante también empezamos una hoja de ruta para la implementación del 5g en república dominicana y esto partió por una declaración al más alto nivel de la república dominicana de declarar de interés nacional el acceso a el acceso universal a la banda ancha y a las tecnologías a las redes avanzadas the third one is the roadmap for the implementation of 5g networks in the dominican republic and this came out as a out of an initiative of the government and the country which declared of national interest the right of universal access to the latest generation of broadband internet network and the productive use of this technology bueno y esto en resumen se hizo una licitación internacional para disponibilidad espectro tanto de la banda 3300 3600 como de la banda 700 fuimos el segundo país en la en la región que inició esta licitación y el resultado fue que se alocaron se se se se dio concesión a dos de las empresas más importantes del país alocando 700 megahertz 70 megahertz para el uso del 5g ya en estos momentos desde el finales del 2021 ya se están empezando a prestar servicios bajo la red 5g um to achieve this project we launch an international tender making our spectrum available in the 3300 to 3300 megahertz band and the 700 megahertz band which concluded with the word of 70 megahertz to the two tender participants and in the 3500 megahertz band the implementation of 5g and this is the second country in the region dominica republic is a second country in the region starting this effort and we are starting to plan to offer services from december started offering services from december last year on y el despliegue de esta red junto con una actualización del del del 4g también en toda la republica dominicana nos va a permitir a apoyar la innovación creatividad el internet de las cosas en el marco de nuestra agenda digital 20 30 que tiene metas también agresivas with these deployments we aim to start a new era of digital transformation and achieve as much as possible materialize the 23rd digital agenda for the government and also the ability to connect more equipment bring innovation and facilitate things like the internet of things as well bueno y por último un proyecto también importante un proyecto que hemos llamado mejora de la conectividad para la transformación digital de republica dominicana estamos hablando de el territorio y cuando hablamos de acceso universal hablamos de territorio y de territorios que no están conectados este proyecto lo que busca es llevar e internet a fibra óptica a en en una primera etapa 26 municipios que no tienen a fibra óptica que no tienen internet fijo este es uno de los grandes desafíos que tenemos como republica dominicana para que tengamos e ir avanzando en esa meta de hogares conectados a un internet a un internet fijo un internet de bandana and the first one is a project to improve the connectivity for digital transformation in dominican republic and really getting access to un connected territories it seeks to increase the the levels of affordable and quality broadband connectivity through the deployment of digital infrastructure in about 26 municipalities that right now do not have fixed internet networks este este último proyecto con un componente de asequibilidad porque estamos también moviendo la entrada de actores no tradicionales como proveedores de esta última milla en términos de de banda ancha por fibra óptica and again as i mentioned before this has an affordability component to promote the entrance of non-traditional players bueno y tiene también el último componente de este proyecto es una plan nacional de alfabetización digital la meta tenemos una meta de de de certificar cincuenta mil personas hombres y mujeres de los estratos también más pobres de las regiones con con menor nivel de desarrollo porque bueno finalmente tenemos infraestructura tenemos servicio pero tenemos que tener a las personas con la tecnología en el bolsillo con las habilidades para poder generar innovación y emprendimientos y mejoras económicas y más oportunidades y last but not least the second component this initiative seeks to address the issue nationwide of digital skills training we aim to reach about 50 000 people mostly from disadvantaged communities because we're conscious that it's not only about infrastructure and service but also about skills where we can achieve innovation and digital transformation y esto último siempre con un enfoque de género nosotros creemos en tenemos un compromiso para que toda nuestra agenda digital para la innovación tenga este enfoque de territorio y de género and our focus is a gender focus and also territory um those are very important pillars that constitute our digital national transformation strategy well thank you very much and um excuse for the time for this translation but this is part of the language inclusion thank you David and thank you all of you thank you so much Amparo a lot going on in the Dominican Republic um so now we're going to go to Lagos Nigeria and hear from Adelaia Odubunmi who is CEO of ex Rubicon Lagos is one of those cities that Michael was referring to which is really a digital hub but before I ask you your question Adelaia let me just point out to everyone that we are running a little behind time and we've got less than 20 minutes left so be conscious of the time as we go forward but let me ask you Adelaia um as an entrepreneur and advocate of circular economies how do you think technology can help create new enterprises that focus on social impact especially in developing countries uh thank you David for this question um if you see the way it has been uh our traditional way of doing things has not really worked uh for us yeah especially in the uh let's call it a developing economy and um I get to also have a lot of challenges from public safety uh transportation, waste management, healthcare, finance and the agriculture so that's this concept of yes we have social problems so the only way you can connect to solving this social problem are through technology uh adoptions so as it's where we're also seeing the uh high level of uh internet penetration and uh ICT penetration in the spot of the world and as such the the best way to then solving this social problems uh then to use technology and uh key into those adoptions and of course you start to get um the required results so um one of the main focus has also been how can we connect um people uh to um enable us and also be able to provide data for insight because um one of the major challenge that this part of the world has also faced is the fact that there's no data for insight so you just see everybody working from January to December trying to make plans and all that including government so there are no data and um there's no how you can run a state, there's no how you can run a government, there's no how you can run a country without those data and that is where what we are creating to ensure that everybody are able to plug in and um have access to these uh ITC tools including internet to give value to the public and also we also we've also noticed the fact that uh there's some population we have a substantial amount of population that also not yet on uh I don't have access to ITC tools but what we've noticed is this but it's uh when you create this enabling environment for technology to strive it propels people who are selling the value you need to now go around to say you know what I need to get this um our smartphone I need to get this laptop I need to get this so that I can connect and we're seeing that even in rural area so what that means to us is is improving citizens engagement in social problem is driving efficiency is increasing transparency is building inclusion and of course increasing value and building sustainability thank you awesome thank you so much Adelaide um so now we're going to move to the second pillar applications and services and we're going to start with a poll so which issue would you address first in order to increase the use of applications and services in ldcs lldcs and sids a insecure digital public infrastructure be limited open source content c few smart hubs for digital and commercial connectivity d little co-creation with local communities or e data governance framework and while the online audience is making their selection in the room let me ask you which issue would you address first in these less developed countries insecure and island states etc a insecure digital public infrastructure how many would emphasize that first okay limited open source content what about that few smart hubs for digital and commercial connectivity little co-creation with local communities yes there's some hands up on that one data governance framework and hands on that too okay let's get the results from the online audience i'd say in the room probably co-creation with local communities was our top one but online insecure digital public infrastructure was by far the biggest choice that's interesting and very relevant so let's move to kate wilson again kate you talked in your talk before about digital public goods as a collective global resource so what can be done so that digital public goods can be localized and customized to the specific needs of a country so thanks so much david for the question and also i was one of those who voted for insecure digital public infrastructure so probably also uh leva makes a few comments on that um i think we need to take a step back and also say like on top of the critical need to connect every country is then you know what's going to drive that connectivity which as many of the speakers have touched upon has been about you know having the right content an affordable price and more accessible to them and so focus area three is really about building that local digital ecosystem that then encourages connectivity to take place realistically every country in the world is on a journey to achieve some form of digital transformation and serve all of its people with the power of digital tools the challenges are that many of these digital tools are not terribly easy to find we don't know necessarily if they work together and they certainly aren't tailored for the number of contexts in which we operate now i came originally out of technology before i joined sort of the policy realm and i can tell you that every platform in the world starts with fundamental basic precepts and we need to think about countries journeys all countries digital to digital transformation as really starting on a basis of fundamental infrastructure which is enough power enough connectivity enough uh you know ability to essentially access affordable handsets then on top of that there's a digital public infrastructure which is often a shared public good of identity payment player of payment layer a data layer and an ability to secure that infrastructure and then what we should be doing is on top of those fundamental platform precepts enabling a local ecosystem that can actually build digital public goods on top of that and a lot of applications and services because what is right and correct in kenya or nigeria or in abu dabhi or in the u.s these are different and your citizens are best able to actually tailor that where they need help is making sure that they can find a robust set of existing digital public goods and digital public infrastructure and make sure that those get laid out so i would encourage us all to think about this not as a you know an adaption or a localization but rather investing together in secure digital public infrastructure and some core digital public goods and then enabling a local application ecosystem to thrive where the citizens themselves are actually building their technology that is when to me we truly have achieved you know an ability to serve everyone everywhere with the appropriate infrastructure that is tailored to those to that country thank you thank you kate you are a thinker as well as an activist so it's great to have you here now we're going to go to bjorn ricker who is with the government of germany where he heads digital transformation cluster of global and sector programs in giz so bjorn i know you're an advocate of the importance of digital ecosystems in cities where digital tools in cities can be helped to improve housing health care energy efficiency waste management so what do you think we need in terms of policy and standards to create more of these smart sustainable hubs and welcome and have thank you for being here yes thank you very much as well and as kate has pointed it out already it's a pleasure because i believe we can only work we have to only work together to solve the issues globally so and it's a fantastic environment and coalition that it has formed here so thanks thanks a lot for the ring for your guidance but back to your question i think david the the current focus is very much regional or internationally but looking into the cities what one is then also called smart cities it that shows us a magnificent ability to work and to foster digital ecosystems cities quite often have a reality under a magnifying magnifying glass due to that fact that makes cities appear more tangible and they can also enable us to see things clearer and get a better understanding of what lies ahead of us for everyone and definitely also cities are proving their agility and they are perfect testbed for verifying the gains of animations with that variety we see very promising examples for the application of similar ideas for example in source career or also in european cities like barcelona with the focus on digital data sovereignty for citizen and particular focusing on urban planning or also in kegali where they focus is very much on smart cities and the ability of of transport on autonomous driving so the global community has definitely witnessed that on a broader level during the last years in the context of global climate change while countries were still arguing for the best compromise cities from the global alliance and move ahead and we see that and we are supporting that also from gsz site on issues like energy that cities are forming urban development initiatives for example the international smart cities network of cities in brazil india mexico and so we see definitely there's a there's an opportunity to provide support to a digital ecosystem in cities but in the end of the day it's also very much focusing to the topics that were already laid out particular laid out to an inclusive approach to digital transformation and the designing the accompanying regulatory framework and that definitely ties back to what was already launched today the dpg the digital public goods charter that was introduced and of what germany is a part of and we would definitely would like to ask partners from the digital ecosystem to rally around this important alliance to implement open source well government solutions of in a geographical focus and very very relevant also with the application on cities level particular their own identity so that includes and applies to open data for better informed decision making not only when it comes to transport and energy but definitely also to urban planning and that same is true for our work that was introduced i think last meeting already the gothic initiatives in which we designed generic application on digital public blocks that every city and their particular cities like singapore are very spare heading the development can greatly benefit from to really then work for the better of its citizen and to really then spare head also the development of what we call smart cities and i think that's also something that an expect your next speaker is focusing on thank you so much thank you very much bjorn i look forward to seeing what they're doing with autonomous vehicles in kigali so we've heard a lot about data and bjorn just set up a ted chen who's now going to intervene and from evercom singapore and obviously also adelaia was talking uh with some passion about the importance of data so what's the experience of singapore ted and how do you think more and better data can be generated to help governments and citizens work together thank you for the questions um we believe that there are many ways to generate data an expensive example could be using high-tech lidars or robots to create city-scale digital twins and from the digital twin of course it's much easier and cost effective to test different city planning scenarios with accurate and rapid simulation however crowd sourcing feedback from thousands of local youth across different parts of the cities and initiative just via a simple mobile phone or sms could also be an effective way to generate data for city planners and for governments to make a better city planning decision so there's not just one way to generate data and there's not an expensive way to generate in fact there are many ways that we can generate data depending on the community and for both scenarios making organized and accurate data available to the public should be a priority it lowers the barriers so everyone in the community is empowered to make their contribution towards improving their community we see singapore does this by creating a common platform called data.gov.sg this is where important and highly accuracy related data are made available to the public some of these data are static and some of these data are dynamic with a real-time api access already built in so anyone can access these dynamic data as well to build their application so theoretically anyone can build an app or solutions directly using these data or insights generated from these data and more importantly these kind of initiative encourage youth to pursue entrepreneurship and build a data-driven application that supports the wider digital economy so for countries that does not have something like data.gov.sg we hope to leverage on the partner to connect digital coalition is another way to be able to better empower and encourage the local youth and the grassroots community. Well thanks Ted this is such a rich conversation now we're going to move to the third pillar third and final pillar digital economy and we have a quite brief poll which is good because we're short on time so the question is are you taking full advantage of the digital economy this is I think a question everybody could answer with some certainty so are you absolutely sometimes or not at all let's ask you here in the room are you absolutely taking full advantage of the digital economy I dare anyone to put their hand up okay no how about sometimes okay let's say that's probably what we have to say but some people might say not at all so really quickly I imagine online it was people were able to answer that fairly quickly too so let's see what you said online okay some say absolutely all right well I dared them and 35% said that good for them and a small percentage said not at all but mostly we're sort of sometimes taking full advantage of the digital economy so let me now move to Rahul Vats whose chief regulatory officer at Barty Airtel tell us where you're coming to us from Rahul. Thank you David for you know the question you asked. I was going to ask you where you're coming from but the question sorry is how is Airtel helping bring financial inclusion to farmer communities in India and sorry I didn't ask that I was just hoping you'd tell us what city you're in. So I'm in New Delhi right now and thank you very much for the question David. Also let me thank ITU, Dureen and more specifically leaders in Focus Group 3 and BCG for a very engaging discussion we have been having over the last few months. At Airtel we have built nurtured very strong relationships with all stakeholders including customers, communities, government and our suppliers and in a year gone by where India and most of the world by the way faced a crisis that had two parallels in human history and which actually permanently altered the normal way of life. I think we at Airtel were able to leverage our digital capabilities and technology backbone to seamlessly serve our customers and the nation. We could not have done this without having our digital platforms that we have created. What do these digital platforms really do for us? First they create for us a very efficient and a good omnichannel experience to our core business. Secondly they generate a lot of revenue streams for us which relate to data, payments, distribution network and finally they also lead to a creation of an ecosystem of powerful partnership that we try to leverage our foundational stance on. So at Airtel we are really creating impact to the customers and communities through applications and services. Let me give you a few examples. One of the platforms Airtel Payment Bank is India's only multi-segment fintech operating at scale changing the way Indian banks are becoming more simple and accessible and we are doing this to five lakh bank points which we have created throughout the country. We also have a product called Airtel Safe Pay which makes digital payment secure to additional layer of authentication to prevent from frauds happening from cyber frauds. Third with our partnership with the National Small Industries Corporation we are making it easier for millions of small businesses to get access to Airtel's connectivity, conferencing, cloud and security solutions. We also have something called a Suraksha salary account which by the way is very innovative salary account for the medium scale enterprises where the informal labor force is not able to get the social benefits. So with this account we actually offer them hospice cash insurance and also give them personal accident insurance covers. Now coming specifically about the farmers and the agriculture community we have done some extensive work on this field. First we have a partnership with the IFCO, Kisan Sanchar which is like a farmer union where we have set up a mobile app and this has empowered millions of farmers to improve their productivity and income by enhancing their knowledge on commodity prices, weather, agronomy, horticulture and government schemes. And this we are offering in 10 different local languages in the country and it's right now being used by more than 3 million farmers all across the country. Secondly we have partnered with Mastercard to develop customized financial products for farmers and out here what we are doing is we are giving them a platform which provides them with advanced farming techniques and connections to marketplaces. The platform also provides farmers with access to neighborhood banking services and also gives them stable income growth. Also moves towards a cashier's economy. Thirdly we have recently partnered with a company called Stellapps. This is like a dairy startup and we have tried to enable cashless payment transfers to small dairy farmers where we would actually onboard the farmers partner milk connection centers as banking points. So I would like to reiterate what Gopal had covered earlier. We are really committed to bring changes to our communities and to serve the communities which are unbanked and we really want to drive our digital stack so to serve our customers overall. So thank you very much for this question and look forward to working with the PTCU. Thank you so much Rohul. It's really impressive the degree to which Barty Airtel is thinking beyond just providing mobile internet and telephony and really thinking hard about especially the financial side but I'm sure you're doing tons of other stuff too and thank you also for your patience as we were running a little low on time and a little behind but you were very very kind to wait. I want to also thank all the great participants who've been making great comments joining us the hundreds of you around the world and now to wrap it up I'd like to turn it back over to Doreen to end what I think has been an incredibly interesting, dense and inspiring session. Thank you Doreen. Thank you. Thank you so much David. It's been another great session I think starting with Heidi in the beginning of our session who made a heartfelt plea to Maria Francesca who as she rightly said we are making history I think here laying the the groundwork for the future global digital compact and as she said there is no stronger movement than what we're building together for universal connectivity and for improving lives. I think as Gopal also said in the beginning partner to connect is really it's a testament to the spirit of collaboration. We covered in our first PTC connecting people and our second one in connecting communities empowering communities and of course today it was all about value creation so those digital ecosystems and we saw that we can of course use ICTs to bring value to people everywhere so that they can leverage ICTs easily and usefully to improve their lives. I think our pledges today were groundbreaking from Barty Airtel with the digital financial inclusion pledge to every Indian that was really very powerful exciting to see that to dial. Kate on behalf of the group that's working on the charter for digital public goods the advocacy pledge which is just terrific and of course to Ted focusing on youth and data to connect local ecosystems to the Dominican Republic and I'm part of it's so great to see you and learn about your your four pledges which I took as very comprehensive and it's also great to see that the Dominican Republic is actually going to include a question on their national survey on meaningful connectivity and of course Adelaide the way that you have linked social problems to technology and of course the need to connect people to enablers and of course the importance of data for for insight. Bjorn I think it was great how you of course focused on the digital building blocks taking the angle of cities and also recognizing the importance of having the right policy framework in place which of course can help to foster strong digital ecosystems and of course David to you for for helping to to lead us and animate our our discussions a huge thanks to you thanks to all our panelists a huge thanks to the host BCG our knowledge partner for bringing us together physically in your amazing venue here in in New York and of course a big thanks to all of our participants that have joined us remotely. I think I saw in the chat we had participants from all over the globe which is which is exciting and thank you for staying with us even though we have we have run slightly slightly over and I guess to conclude of really again a huge thanks to our PTC pledgers those who have already pledged those that will soon pledge I think all of you are actually helping to pave the way to accelerated digital transformation in particularly the hardest to connect places of the world we see that every pledge is a step towards positive change and I would like to just close to encourage every government every organization every civil society organization every private sector organization academia join us if you believe in the power of connectivity to change the world make a pledge and help us to turbocharge digital transformation let's take every action that we can together so that we can meet those universal and meaningful digital connectivity targets ladies and gentlemen join us again for our last PTC dialogue which is the 11th of May we will be touching on the challenging topic of investments we'll look at how we can incentivize investments which of course is key to making sure that this that this all works and finally join us in Kigali in particular to our pledgers we kick off the world telecommunications development conference on the 6th of June and our special high-level roundtable series will kick off on the 7th of June and last until the 9th of June and with that thank you again and David I hand back to you thanks thank you so much Doreen I really you've said everything I would have said so thank you I think we should just we haven't gone too far over but a little bit and I would just point out though we had speakers from almost every continent in addition to having attendees from everywhere in the world pretty much so thank you all again thank you Doreen for hosting us and especially to BCG too for giving us this incredible facility as well as your intellectual support so thank you everybody see you on the 11th thanks everybody online hi everybody thank you thank you Adelaia did we didn't go that far the only thing we missed the Q&A at the end which would have been fun but we did good with yeah yeah I'll play it