 Welcome to ITU telecom world 2019 from Budapest in Hungary where I'm very pleased to be joined in the studio today by Joe de Messon Who is the chairman of Equinette? Joe, welcome to the studio. Thank you now I'd like to start off by talking a little bit about SMEs now. I understand that Equinette is is an SME or you're involved with SMEs. We are involved with SMEs Okay, all right great. So what role does SMEs play do you think within the digital ecosystem in accelerating connectivity which is very much The theme around here. Absolutely We think SMEs have a very important role to play The problem is right now. They're not doing that yet and that's very much the reason why we're here So our invitation was on the back of work We've been doing with them which is to empower them to give them the tools to participate So hopefully by doing that we'll bring them closer to what's happening at the top and how do you do that exactly? Yes, so the problem really that drives our work is based on a number of number of statistics Which is that in developing countries only less than one percent Of SMEs sell their products and services online in developed countries is less than 10 percent So those numbers when you consider that SMEs are responsive for 60 percent of the employment burden They need to be the first people that we look to to drive digital participation upward So the work we've been doing is really developing technologies that take away the burden Because for them today what they need to do to be able to sell is to honor us Create a website Optimize it and all those things so we developing technologies that remove all those burdens So that very quickly we can shorten the path to them being part of the digital economy And and how have you risen to the position that you've been in? I mean I quit it. I mean not you personally Yeah, so uh about four years ago I was doing some work with the princess trust which is a trust that is set up by prince charles Who's the future king of england? And the princess trust works with entrepreneurs young entrepreneurs and helps them build their business And many of them were failing simply because out of the five thousand pounds they received in ground They were using up to three thousand To build a website and they could never sell through that website And that spurred this whole research into what's happening globally Then we started talking to the world bank and the world trade organization and the data suggested that it wasn't a problem Just in the united kingdom. It was a global problem So I put a team together drew on my network across various fields and we decided to say What can we do to change this problem fundamentally so that those businesses Do not suffer from the lack of participation, but they can actually compete on power with companies that have the resources And that's how the project started And uh because I have other responsibilities. I decided to stay as chairman and there is a ceo and the rest of the team is in place Excellent now innovating together connectivity that matters is the theme of this year's event What's what's meaningful connectivity for you meaningful connectivity is one that leaves nobody behind It's all about people And we take the view that over the next five to ten years We have the opportunity to use the internet to lift communities out of poverty But to do that we need to consider two facts The first one is the fact that more and more people are buying their products and services online So if those businesses don't follow them online, they will not be part of the connectivity that we're preaching The second fact is that governments are less and less able to pay for health care education social security free So those small businesses are responsible for the base education and health care of our workforce of our populations In a digital economy, they need to be connected. So for me connectivity is about people It's about bringing everybody on board talking about bringing everybody on board this this event has got a Lot of participants from all over the world. What's the value of attending events such as this for you? So we've done a lot of work up to this point And one of the first ecosystem we created was actually the united kingdom But this event is the platform to be able to talk to other leaders across the board So on the first day when we arrived here on Sunday, we literally just got out of the plane And the ministers from Nigeria said we have to meet you So we had to go and meet them at their hotel at 10 o'clock at night And it has been like that ever since So today, for example, it's a series of ministerial meetings But this is the platform where you meet the people who make the decision that affects people that matter And therefore here is the place to be to speak to the right people to make connectivity happen And what's your message for participants here at Dean Budapest? My message is simple. We need to shift from the conversation that digital is about inclusive inclusiveness It's not just about inclusiveness It's about participation So we need to shift the focus just a little bit because that shift of focus changes the way we design policy And that has been my message and that's also a message that I have on the guest blog that I wrote for the For each fantastic. Well, thank you very much for joining us in the studio We look forward to catching up with you again at some stage in the future. Thank you It's a pleasure and enjoy the rest of telecom world. Thank you very much