 Excellencies and honorable dignitaries here present, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for giving me the opportunity to address you this morning at the opening of the 17th World Congress of the International Society for Telemedicine and EF. The theme of this year's Congress, making EF work, global trends, challenges and opportunities is very important and timely. In a world where EF systems are facing increasing pressure to improve quality, accessibility and affordability in a very cost effective manner, ICT are the perfect tool. ITU's work on EF is at the forefront of the transformation process towards information driven EF systems. At ITU, we are putting particular focus on the development of EF strategies and solutions, advancing the establishment of ICT infrastructure for EF and developing of global EF standards. I'm happy to note the very good and efficient cooperation between ITU, WHO and other stakeholders. Using mobiles for health service delivery is just at the very beginning and I do believe that it will be key in providing affordable, sustainable quality services, especially in the rural and remote areas. This is why I have recently launched the Empowering Development Initiative, which aims at capitalizing on the current mobile revolution for sustainable development. One of the main pillars of this initiative is of course MELF, because there is no way to talk about sustainable development without good health. This initiative is an open platform for cooperation to which we are all kindly invited. Let us get EF working for the world, I thank you.