 Welcome to the World Telecommunications Development Conference, WTDC here in Kigali Rwanda where I've got the great pleasure of being joined at the studio today by Dorian Bogdan-Martin who is the director of ITU's Telecommunications Development Bureau. Dorian, welcome to the studio. Thank you. Now, since we were last at a WTDC in Buenos Aires in Argentina, which is in 2017, it doesn't time fly, the world has changed considerably. Now, I'd like to ask you, what makes this WTDC different, and if so, tell us why? Well, since the last WTDC, of course, the world faced a global pandemic where practically overnight the whole world went online. And I think we understood and the global community understood the importance of connectivity and what it meant to be on the wrong side of the digital divide. So that big focus on connectivity has been recognized by all countries and of course here we are in Kigali trying to bring connectivity to the 2.9 billion people that have never been connected. So I think this WTDC will be remembered as historic, as different and as a conference that really has focused on people and trying to take new and innovative approaches to bringing connectivity to those that are unconnected. It's opened up all sorts of strands here too and before WTDC even started, it was a palpable energy amongst youth and perhaps you could tell us about that. And when it did start, all sorts of things like partner to connect, but I'll let you tell us all about it. Well, again, with the 2.9 billion not connected, we've understood that of course those 2.9 billion are some of the hardest to connect in landlocked developing countries and LDCs and in small island developing states. And we have really focused on what we need to do to get those hardest to connect connected. And that was the inspiration and the motivation behind partner to connect. We launched partner to connect last September on the margins of the UN General Assembly. We focused on connecting people, empowering communities, enabling digital ecosystems and incentivizing investments. Over the course of several months, we developed a very holistic action framework and we invited the global community to come forward and not make policy statements but really make concrete commitments and pledges. Over the past couple of weeks, we went from a few pledges to more than 370 and it's still growing and those commitments have an estimated value of some $24 billion. So I think it's really been groundbreaking and to be able to sort of shift the dialogue and make it action focused has been tremendous. And of course part of that is youth and bringing young people to the table. I think this WTDC will go down in history as being one of the most inclusive, inclusive of all voices, inclusive of women and of course inclusive of youth. We had a generation connect, our first generation connect global youth summit that preceded this conference. We brought together more than 500 young people from more than 110 countries physically here in Kigali and there were thousands more that joined online. And those young people came to discuss things like cyber security, like privacy, online protection, ICT policy making, digital entrepreneurship, the things that young people care about and as an older person. I think my big takeaway was young people really want not to inherit their future but to be part of building it. And you've even had their voice come over into WTDC by having a youth representative making an opening remarks at the opening ceremony here. Exactly in front of His Excellency President Kagami, our young youth leader came to talk about the youth summit and to deliver the outcomes of that summit. And we've been thrilled that so many countries have kept young people on their delegations throughout this WTDC. Now, talking about the opening ceremony, in the WTDC opening remarks you made a reference to one of your favourite movies. It's a wonderful life which I have to admit is also one of my old time grades too. Now it's not often that a fictional film is referenced in a speech at a telecommunications event so if you wouldn't mind I'd like you to ask you to talk a little bit about it here again. So it is one of my favourite movies. I mean who doesn't love Jimmy Stewart? I think the big takeaway and the reason that I use this in the opening ceremony is because we have to remember that even the smallest actions that we take, the smallest gestures, the smallest decisions that we take can have a huge impact on our own lives and of course on the lives of others. So my message to delegates was really let's come together, we can take small steps but let's try together to transform the world. So it's a wonderful life that character is able to be taken back in time and see what would happen if they weren't there. Exactly, and that's what we want to be able to look back in a few years and look at all of the things that we started, that we innovated and that we were able to bring positive changes to the ICT ecosystem and connect those unconnected. Talking about positive changes, there's also been the network of women here as well, there have been events going on, I think there's been a lunch, a breakfast, there's also the war to connect as well. So tell us a little bit about that as well. Well that's another first for WTDC, it's the first time that we've had such a network of women. The purpose of the network of women is to encourage more women's participation, not just in the conference but in all of the work of the ITUD, and to encourage women to come forward in terms of leadership positions in the conference, in our study groups, in our advisory groups. And I think the results have been very clear, we went from I think 26% women's participation at our last conference, we're now at 37% and we actually have parity in terms of the conference leadership. So that's a big achievement and the other piece of the network of women is the mentoring opportunities. And so we've had tremendous interest from those that wanted to be mentors and those that wanted to be mentees. And I think we're going to continue that because it's been very much welcomed by the membership. And as you said, of course we joined forces, men and women together came very early Sunday morning and we had a fabulous walk-a-thon to raise the importance of connectivity and the importance of bridging the digital gender gap. You managed to get delegates up at 6.30 in the morning to be ready for the 7.30 start, which is an achievement in itself, I have to say, but you're quite right, there were men and women in grey numbers walking through the streets of Cigali, which happened to be also a time of car free morning as well, which coincided very well and it was an extremely well attended and successful event. So definitely I think making great strides in terms of gender parity and women's involvement coming to the forefront of people's thoughts here. Finally, I would just like to ask you how would you like this WCDC to be remembered? As groundbreaking, transformative, innovative, action focused and of course people-centered. I'm sure it will be all of those things and more. Well, Dorin Bogd-i-Madef, thank you very much for joining me in the studio and of course we look forward to catching up with you again very soon. Thank you. Thank you.