 Mr. Chairman, Uexcellencies Honorable Ministers, Ambassadors here present, the Secretary General of the ITU, ITU Bureau Directors Distinguished Delegates, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the Republic of Uganda, I would like to congratulate the Government of Argentina for hosting this WTDC 2017. I would also like to join the other speakers before me in congratulating Argentina for having qualified for the World Cup next year. I wish also to commend ITU for organizing this conference, which enables governments to discuss and identify ways in which important global issues can be achieved through leveraging ICTs. Mr. Chairman, this WTDC 2017 under the theme of ICTs for Sustainable Development Goals nefasizes ICT as the strongest unifying factor or threat that can action all the 17 UN SDGs from wards to deeds. Uganda recognizes that the greatest resource the world has is humanity. Today, Uganda is host to over 1.5 million refugees in our country. We have found ourselves in a situation that requires us as a nation to welcome our brothers and sisters fleeing from conflict. I cannot forget to emphasize that ICTs have been very instrumental, very critical in elevating the situation that we found ourselves in trying to resettle the refugees in our country. Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates, broadband offers our emerging economies opportunity to leapfrog and connect our productive rural and mainly young population to the immense opportunities around the world. In essence, we are striving to increase our rural broadband connectivity as the new generation infrastructure that will support both developing and developed economies. We, however, as an emerging economy, continue to grapple with the gaps in these critical areas, such as the cost of broadband delivery. Mr. Chairman, Uganda is a landlocked country and can only achieve 100% accessibility to affordable broadband through an all-inclusive infrastructure plan that includes both satellite and terrestrial options as complementary broadband delivery. We, however, recognize that satellite services, though critical, though strategic, are still, in essence, costly. We call upon the ITU and other global players, stakeholders, to make deliberate effort to further lower the cost of satellite services. This, Mr. Chairman, to us will be the real bridging of the digital divide between the rural and the urban communities as well as between developing and developed economies. The cost of quality of terminal services, Mr. Chairman, as some of the challenges we shall experience, as the world is moving from basic voice to data services, we in the developing countries, however, are faced with the challenge of high cost of terminal devices in this transition. We believe ITU as a global ICT body, together with other industry players, have a role to play to drive the cost of quality smart devices down, to increase uptake of data services and further reduce the digital divide. We therefore call upon all of us for your concerted effort on this matter. Digital content, Mr. Chairman, Uganda recognizes that content is a catalyst of ICT value chain. As nations, we all have a stake in the creation and uptake of digital content. We, however, call upon again the ITU, global players and content platforms to consider that the interests of all the parties are catered for in this data protection, authenticity of cultures, norms and privacy and security matters. We welcome the participation of various partners from the private sector, civil society, developing agencies in achieving this goal. Mr. Chairman, we commit to ensuring that our policy and regulatory frameworks address all emerging technological and industry needs. And lastly, I'd like to address myself to the issue of our candidature, Uganda's candidature, for re-election to the ITU council. We believe our record on the council has been satisfactory. We believe that having been uncansoned, our re-election shall provide the continuity that is needed to strengthen this body. With that, I thank you so much for your attention.