 Interpol World 2015 is a significant milestone. It is the first major conference driven by the Interpol Global Complex for Innovation in Singapore, which, as you have heard, celebrated its official opening yesterday. I am very pleased that there is strong support for the inaugural run of Interpol World. Amongst us are several ministers from around the world, as well as representatives from the industry, the government agencies and academia. With over 200 exhibitors from across the globe and approximately 4,000 participants, this will be a strong platform to foster an open dialogue between industry and the government on the pressing safety and security challenges that we face. In particular, the Strategic Partners Programme will bring together stakeholders from both the public and private domains to identify security challenges and to design solutions to meet them. Interpol is a leading international crime fighting institution that facilitates international cooperation and collaboration in an increasingly complex safety and security environment. Interpol World is the manifestation of Interpol's vision and recognition that the key to securing our future against the threat of organised crime and terrorism is continuous innovation and close partnerships. Criminals and terrorists are taking advantage of advancements in technology, globalisation and rapid urbanisation. And this has ushered in a new wave of threats that can destabilise both global and local security. The same technological advancements that have greatly improved all our lives have also aided the nefarious objectives of criminal groups. Some of them have even established themselves as early adopters of technology. From surveillance and planning, communications and transportation, to concealment of crime and expansion of its reach, crime is being committed in new ways which defy traditional countermeasures. How serious is the threat? Cybercrime is one of the most predominant technology-enabled crimes of today. Computers, smartphones and the internet are pervasive in our business and daily lives with the internet penetration rate reaching more than 40% globally. The internet of things will expand in a myriad of ways. The threat exposure has grown with the increased network usage. New cybercrime attack vectors and more points of entry are being introduced allowing criminals to easily steal personal information for fraudulent activities or even worse, cripple entire systems simply by targeting one device. So we must be prepared for cyberattacks of greater scale and severity of impact and plan on that basis to protect our countries and our economies. The move to cloud computing aggregates immense data in computer service around the world. This poses higher security risks as hackers can now access massive amounts of data by hacking just one server. Mobile phones store a huge amount of personal information yet mobile phone security and good hygiene is not widely practiced. Increasing dependence and reliance on technology also means that criminals and terrorists can easily manipulate the information we see on our screens to their advantage. This is evidenced by the availability of technology that enables cyber criminals to intercept wirelessly transmitted information. Even secure communication channels have been known to be intercepted by man in the middle malware. Clearly, cybercrime is rapidly evolving and major threat from a law enforcement and security perspective with criminals and terrorists constantly finding new ways to harness the cyber landscape for profit and propaganda. Our security mechanisms and capabilities must keep pace. With globalization criminals are now able to operate in loose and fluid networks to avoid investigations and prosecution. The increasing global footprint of crime shows that geographical boundaries are no longer constrained when it comes to the scale and impact of crime. For example, the geographic reach of counterfeiting has been aided by improved transportation networks as well as new and cheaper technologies. The prevalence of counterfeit medicine poses a serious threat to global public health. The counterfeiting of anti-malaria medicine, for instance, has become a multi-billion-dollar business with sophisticated operators who evade detection by authorities. Even though malaria can be prevented and cured with good medicine, one-third of all anti-malaria medicine is suspected to be counterfeit, resulting in needless suffering, especially affecting the less privileged segments of society across countries. Finally, we have seen the growing trend of urbanization changing the operating landscape for many of our law enforcement agencies. In 2014, the UN reported that 53% of the world's population lived in urban areas. This is expected to increase to 66%, nearly two-thirds by the year 2050. Cities are also growing in size, with the rise of mega-cities in particular. At this point in time, there are over three dozen cities around the world with a population of more than 10 million residents. Urban areas present an operationally challenging landscape for the enforcement agencies, as they are characterized by high population and critical infrastructure density, increased diversity and disparity, and rapid social and cultural changes. These changes present new safety and security challenges, such as a lower police to citizen ratio and crowd control problems. How should our law enforcement agencies respond to these mounting threats in this new age of security challenges? Criminals and law enforcement agencies are locked in a competitive cycle of co-evolvement, where we fight for technological competitive advantage. There is thus an urgent need for law enforcement agencies to leverage the latest in technologies and to adopt innovation as a key enabler of policing work. Innovation in policing methods and tools is the key to ensuring that law enforcement agencies stay ahead of criminals and ultimately triumph. Faced with such a complex and interlinked security scenario, our law enforcement agencies cannot work alone or in isolation. It is crucial for stakeholders to forge strong networks of collaboration to pool and leverage each other's resources, develop deep expertise, and create innovative policing solutions. This is not an option or a good to have. It is an imperative for all of us. Collaboration is required at different levels, given the increasingly transnational nature of crime, international cooperation at the government to government level is essential. This will help ensure swift identification, mitigation, and investigation of threats. It can be achieved through bilateral as well as multilateral frameworks and there is much that can be done on this front. Just as the impact of crime is not confined to the public sector however, the responsibility for confronting such threats is not the sole preserve of government agencies alone. We need to explore and drive closer cooperation between government and business to develop mutually beneficial partnerships. Opportunities for collaboration are plentiful, from information sharing, research and development, capacity building and training to the setting of standards and policies. For example, the private sector remains at the frontier of innovation. Law enforcement agencies can help to shape R&D efforts of the industry by providing data and problem statements or creating desperate opportunities which allow industry players to develop technological capabilities that are more operationally relevant. Industry players are also able to contribute information, for example, regarding cyber attacks and their impact, which can be tacked for joint analytics and horizon scanning to aid law enforcement to accurately appreciate and forecast crime trends. Such collaboration demands new mindsets and approaches underpinned by mutual trust and respect. We must embrace such change to take business and government collaboration to a new level to effectively tackle these new threats. Singapore strongly supports the need for continuous innovation and recognises the value of a multi-stakeholder approach to drive innovation. A prime example of this multi-stakeholder approach is our smart nation programme. The smart nation programme is a whole-of-government initiative established under the Prime Minister's office, and it aims to bring citizens, government and industry players together to identify issues and co-develop solutions aimed at transforming the way of life in Singapore through technology and innovation. The concept is simple. The Government lays the foundation by building the infrastructure and framework for industry stakeholders to contribute, turning Singapore into a laboratory that harnesses technology. Aligned with the big picture of building a smart nation, Singapore is also embarked on the Safe City Test Bit. The Test Bit is an innovation platform for Government agencies to collaborate with industry partners to create breakthrough technologies and solutions for urban management and security. By leveraging the latest technologies in data and video analytics, simulation and modelling, we have developed urban management solutions that help Government agencies improve operations and reduce resource requirements. For instance, the Test Bit developed a crowd simulation model for environments using our rapid transit system stations. Real-time crowd-counting techniques developed can be applied to emergency evacuation and rescue scenarios and to predict crowd behaviour and movement in a crisis or at a major event. Such innovations will have a significant impact on the conduct of our operations and bring real value to our communities. To conclude, innovation is fostered through networks of collaboration and active exchanges among stakeholders. I am confident that this milestone programme and exhibition will help foster such strong networks of collaboration and that it will challenge and inspire all of you to generate fresh insights and new perspectives on solutions for the challenges of today and of the future.