 Excellency, President of South Africa, Mr. Sidria Ramafusa, Honorable Minister Sia Bunga Quelle, Honorable Minister Namavula Mokoyane, Acting Premier of Kwa Zulu, Natal province Sika Zikalala, Excellencies, Ministers, Vice Ministers from the continent of Africa and from the rest of the world, Head of Regulatory Agencies of ITU members, CEOs, dear colleagues, my dear elected colleague officials, Deputy Secretary General of ITU, Director of the three bureaus, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. ITU is very honored and proud today to bring one of our flagship event to a city, a country, and a continent on the coast of a new digital era. I found memories of ITU Africa Telecom 1998, which was held in the Japanese book. Twenty years later, we are very pleased to be back in South Africa and to be here in the magnificent city of Dubai. At this special moment, I wish to pay my respect to Mr. Nielsen Mandela, a global icon, a son of the African soil and a strong supporter of ITU. This year, Mariba would be 100 years old. Shortly after South Africa joined ITU in 1994, Mr. Mandela took part in ITU Telecom World 1995 in Geneva. He traveled to Geneva to address the event. In his speech, Nielsen Mandela stressed the need to work towards eliminating the divide between what he called information-rich and information-poor countries. He talked about the unprecedented window of opportunity, a point by the information revolution. Many years later, at ITU Telecom World 2009, Mr. Mandela gave us a video reminding us ICTs have the potential to enable us to solve many of the critical problems confronting us. As Mr. Mandela once said, information and communication technologies are the single most powerful tool we have for human progress. This message was echoed at ITU's World Telecommunication Development Conference here in Buenos Aires, October last year by the message from United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Antonio Guterres, who said that ICT is a powerful tool to help us achieve each and every single SDG. So, ITU, we'll remember the later President, Mr. Nielsen Mandela, forever. Mr. President, you have made the digital revolution a centerpiece of your vision for South Africa. In a stirring state of the nation address earlier this year, you talked about a year of change, renewal, and hope. Rest assured, your call to assist the opportunities of rapid advances in information and communication technologies has been heard from the golden mile of Durban to the shores of Lake Geneva. President, ladies and gentlemen, one week ago, from 3rd to 4th of September in Beijing, the long-expected Beijing summit of forum on China-Africa cooperation was held, which was jointly managed by Co-Chair, President of China, Mr. Xi Jinping, and the President of South Africa, Mr. Sivir Ranforza. Heads of states of government of 53 countries of the Africa continent attended the summit. It was a great conference with a great success. ITU was proud to be invited to attend as an observer, and I participate at this event. I was very pleased to note that in his keynote speech, President Xi Jinping launched eight initiatives. In his first initiative, he encouraged the Chinese to increase its investment in Africa and to support SMEs. In his second initiative on infrastructure, he listed ICT together with transport, energy, and water as priority areas. At the end of his speech, President Xi emphasized his wish to focus on the use of Africa for the future. In the main output document, Beijing Action Plan 2019-2021, cooperation on ICTs is further elaborated in four paragraphs, 335 to 338. While in the paragraph 338, China and Africa both expressed their common wishes to strengthen their cooperation on ICT through ITU. I'm extremely happy with those messages and initiatives. I take this opportunity to express my sincere congratulations to co-chairs President Xi Jinping of China, President Ranforza of South Africa, together with Chairman of Africa Union, President of Rwanda, Mr. Porokagami. For their wonderful leadership, I wish also to congratulate and thank all ICT ministers of Africa and China for their efforts to bring ICT to such a high position during the process of the summit. ITU will work closely with China and Africa to implement the decision agreed by the summit. I also do hope similar outputs could be achieved for the other partners of Africa on the issue of ICT development. The fourth industrialization and digital transformation that we are seeing here in Durban is spreading across the entire continent. ITU congratulates South Africa on signing the Africa continent free trade area, one market, one of the largest free trade areas in the world. We also commend South Africa for joining the smart Africa project initiated by a few Africa states five years ago. Friday this week, South Africa will host here in Durban, the annual meeting of BRICS communications ministers. I'm confident that all those great efforts by South Africa will have a positive impact on digital transformation and investment in ICT infrastructure. The next four days, we are going to have the opportunity to put infrastructure, investment, innovation and inclusivity in the spotlight. These four eyes are all critical to bridging the digital divide and achieving the sustainable development goals. ITU Telecom World 2018 is a platform for everyone to forge new ICT partnerships and create new ICT business opportunities. Let's use ITU Telecom World 2018 for smart digital development. Let us all work together to ensure a smart and inclusive digital future for all in Africa, in the world of our planet. ITU Telecom World 2018 is the last major ITU gathering before we will meet at the conference in Dubai next month. PP18 is an opportunity for African countries to make their voice count and play an important role in shaping the environment that will lead the development of digital technology into the next decade and beyond. I do hope that PP18 will be a further strength in ITU's mission to develop ICT and engage with SMEs. So at the end of my speech, I have a message for all the young entrepreneurs who are here today. You are the hope of a nation, an entire continent and our world. ITU Telecom World 2018 is your opportunity to show the world what our tech SMEs can do to help to create jobs, transform people's lives and achieve the sustainable development goals right here at this platform for the African continent, for the world. I'm looking forward to the live pitching and the selection of winners of our SMEs in the awards ceremony at the end of this week. Before I close, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our host, President Syria Ramfoosa for your leadership, for your support, the government and people of South Africa, the city of Durban and the province. Let me thank all the ministers, vice ministers, heads of telecom agencies and industry leaders and SMEs and all members who are here with us today. And my special thanks to our special sponsors, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, MTA and numerous representatives of industries who have supported this event either through support of the host country arrangement or through communication. And we are very proud with the ITU Telecom 2018 to be open today. So I wish you all a successful and productive ITU Telecom World 2018. Thank you very much.