 We're here at ITU Telecom World 2016 in Bangkok, Thailand, and I'm very pleased to be joined today by Lawrence Yanovich, who is the president of the GSMA Foundation. Lawrence, thanks so much for being with us in the studio today. Thank you, Max. Thank you very much. I'd like to start off by asking you to tell us a little bit about GSMA, how it's contributing to growing the digital economy and what challenges you're facing at present. Sure. So the GSMA represents the interest of the mobile industry worldwide. We unite 800 mobile operators with 300 tech companies that are part of a global mobile ecosystem. And so when we consider this question, we must look at what our industry purpose is. We've made a commitment to connect everyone and everything to a better future. And when we think about a better future in the world of mobile, it's how do we make sure everyone is included as technologies evolve? And so if we look at the data today, it's very exciting that we have 4.7 billion people who are connected through mobile, but we still have 2 billion who don't have access to basic 2G services. And now we understand how important internet is in our lives. We have another 4 billion people who are not connected to the internet. So the GSMA has launched something called the Connected Society Program, and we're really focusing with governments and civil society and how to reduce the barriers to accelerate people's access. We find the large proportion of those who are unconnected are living in developing countries, very often faced with obstacles around digital skills, basic literacy. Women are particularly hard hit. So we're working on four core barrier areas with governments, including how to improve access to local content that's really relevant, digital skillset, building out the infrastructure and affordability. And in terms of collaboration within the industry, how important is that for you? And can you perhaps share some examples of that? Yes, there's one example that I particularly am passionate about is how to close the global gender gap. We've seen repeatedly that women are behind men in terms of access to technologies. We've conducted a study and found that 200 fewer women, 200 million fewer women than men, have access to mobile phones globally. And the barriers around that are sometimes women are afraid to own phones. They're not familiar with the technology. Sometimes they're worried about harassment through the technology. Also, digital skills are still a barrier. So we've brought together 30 mobile operators to come together and really look at solving those problems, but also looking at the huge commercial opportunity. So there's over 1.2 billion dollar potential market in serving this client group. And so the mobile operators have developed programs that create a specific consumer researcher where women's wants and needs and how to address that. And we have increased female subscribers by 15 million through this program. And what's the role of business specifically in the ICT sector in meeting the SDGs? Well, I'm glad you brought that up. The GSMA and the entire mobile industry on our board made an announcement at our Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in March 2016, your hometown, about our commitment to all 17 of the SDGs. And the reason is the connectivity in the 21st century underpins everything and the efficiency it brings. And so the first most important way we contribute is through Global Goal 9, which is about inclusive infrastructure. And then secondly, we have made a commitment to studying annually where can we prioritize our actions. And so the action areas that we see are really relevant are Global Goal 1, reduction of poverty because of the transaction costs can be reduced through mobile. You can bring mobile identity and mobile money and these sorts of solutions. Global Goal 4, education, bringing education content through the digital platform. Global Goal 5, women as I mentioned earlier. And Global Goal 13, which is all around resiliency and climate change. And finally I'd like to ask you, what's the value of attending events such as ITU, Telecom, World? Oh, it's exciting to meet all the different stakeholders from different sectors. You bring together the banking sector with the telecommunication sector, for example, around mobile money. And it's such a, in our world, digital is impacting so many different industries and so many different fields that it's good to bring us all together to look at the possible solutions. Ron Sienovich, thank you very much indeed. Thank you, Max.