 We're here at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2014 in Busan in the Republic of Korea and I'm very pleased to be joined by Ambassador Daniel Sepulveda, who is from the U.S. State Department. Ambassador, thank you very much for evening with us today. Thank you for having me. I'd like to start off by talking about that this plenipotentiary comes at a challenging time for the ICT industry. It's a time of great opportunity, but also a time when issues like financing of new network capacity is becoming critical. In a fast-evolving environment, what do you think needs to be done to ensure that everyone will get the access they need? Well, I think nations need to concentrate on creating a legal regulatory and policy environment that encourages investment. That at the end of the day, competition is the best check to ensure that consumers are being treated well and the service is being delivered, but you need an environment of certainty to ensure that investment is made and that return on investment can be secured. Now this plenipotentiary conference comes every four years. What are the priorities for the United States in the four years to the next plenipotentiary? Well we intend to work cooperatively and collaboratively with our colleagues here and with our colleagues around the world to ensure that the digital divide is bridged and that people all over the world have access to the foundational opportunities that connection to each other over ICT networks creates. We also want to make sure that people remain free to build on those networks, free from interference or free from censorship, free from centralized control and that's what we'll be working to achieve. Do you think that ICTs are sufficiently recognized as key development catalysts? Should ICTs be part of the future UN sustainable development goals and if so, why? Well look, this is an interesting question and it's come up a number of times and the underlying question is, is access to ICTs a human right and you can actually have a number of philosophers, economists and academics have a very long conversation as to whether or not that's the case. My personal preference is not to debate that question but to accept the idea that it is better for all of us to have everyone connected and then work toward that goal whether it's considered a human right or not. It is if not an end in itself, a tool by which to achieve other ends and a critical component of the tools necessary to achieve other ends such as to relieve poverty or to ensure full access to education and information and human development. Now I know you take a great interest in youth. You were at the Beyond 2015 Youth Summit in Costa Rica. Here the young ICT policy leaders program is a new innovation here at the Planet Potentiary and I know that you've been actively involved as a supporter and as a participant. Why was it important to you to engage with these young people and should this become in your opinion a regular part of ITU conferences? Absolutely. But in the first instance I miss being young, it was a good time and I enjoy connecting with young people at that point in their life when they're sort of full of optimism and full of energy and full of a desire to move forward and there were people who presented for me you know maps and role models and ideas for how to fulfill my potential and I'm still working to do that but I want to in turn make sure that young people who come after me are able to afford those opportunities as well and I want to encourage people from a diverse background to engage in these issues to make their voice heard and to challenge incumbent power. You were the young ICT policy leaders meeting recently. What do you think was their major takeaway from that? You know they have a lot of questions really. They have a lot of questions about what we see as our responsibility to them and to the countries that they come from and how we intend to fulfill those responsibilities which is really an interesting way to challenge power and to do so nicely. I mean they ask these questions nicely but what they want to know is what are you doing to serve me and my people and it's a fair question and we're doing our best to answer it but by that same token you have to turn the challenge back over to them and say what are you doing to fulfill those needs as well. This has to be a participatory effort that nothing is going to be handed from one to another. This isn't charity. These are some things that we have to build together. So in terms of the ICT industry are you optimistic for the future? I'm optimistic by nature and if there are industries that create more potential for optimism than ICT I'm not sure what they are. At the end of the day like I said I think that the ICT industry establishes the foundation for the success of all other industries that at the end of the day you can't run a successful agricultural facility without having access to information without deploying information in a manner that's efficient. You can't run a supply chain across the world without a sound ICT base of a which to work and honestly you can't organize and be an effective citizen without access to ICT. Your voice can't be amplified to the degree necessary to inject yourself into a public conversation. So that demand will drive the production of goods and services that will continue filling the needs of humanity. I message this up a bit. Thank you very much for joining us today. It's a pleasure to see you again. Thank you sir.