 Hello, thank you all for joining us. We'll be starting in a couple of minutes. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. We have now come to the last session of GSR 23, where we will receive reports from all GSR sessions, events, and pre-events. I am pleased to give the floor to Dr. Cosmos Lakisan Zavazawa, director of the BDT, to give his welcoming remarks. Dr. Zavazawa, the floor is yours. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome. We are almost there. Yes, at 23, it has been a remarkable experience. Our discussions this week have been extremely productive, positive, and third-provoking. This annual meeting, the most established and premier forum for regulatory discussions in the sector, gives us the opportunity to meet, share, exchange ideas, and identify and adopt best practices. It provides us with a platform to exchange information on topical regulatory and technological issues. That knowledge exchange breaks down key barriers that lie in our path to the power of digital transformation and sustainable digital future for everyone. The cadence of GSR 23 are coming down, but we should be satisfied with our achievements. Let us revisit some of the key developments. During the Regional Regulator Association's meeting, we launched the Digital Regulation Network, a new incentive and initiative which seeks to facilitate information exchange among regulators, particularly in between two GSRs, to facilitate also twinning and help in skills and capacity building. It is my belief that it will strengthen cross-sector and cross-border collaboration and encourage harmonization in practices in the area of digital regulation. I would like at this point to invite Ms. Brigitte Pazzo-Linzi, Executive Secretary of Communications Regulators Association of Southern Africa, to present on behalf of our Regional Associations Chairman. It is excellent that Dr. Mohamed Al-Tamimi, the Outlines of the Regulator Association's meeting, held on the 5th of June 2023, bringing the floor to us. Thank you. BDD Director, Dr. Cosmos Zavazava, Distinguished Delegates, allow me first of all to thank the government and the people of the Republic of Egypt for the warm welcome and hospitality that we have received since we are live in Egypt. And also to congratulate the NTU and the BDD Director for yet another successful GSR. I've been requested to present a report on the Regional Regulatory Associations meeting for 2023. On behalf of the Chairman of the meeting, His Excellency Dr. Mohamed Al-Tamimi. The Regional Regulatory Association meeting, which was held as a pre-event to GSR23 on Monday, 5th of June 2023, was chaired by Engineer Abu Dulla Amu Bavarda, Solid for the Patronization, Deputy Governor on behalf of His Excellency Dr. Mohamed Al-Tamimi. The Governor of the Communications, Space and Technology Commission of Saudi Arabia. But he's also the Chairman of the Arab Regulators Network of Telecommunications. During the meeting, as the BDD Director has already alluded to, we've honored that there was a launch of the Digital Regression Network, DRN, which is the Collaborative Network of Networks. Seeing that this initiative will benefit the Regional Regulatory Associations, as well as also Regulators globally, it does aim to provide increased cross-regional and sectoral collaboration. This initiative, he said, will include twinning efforts to facilitate exchange of experiences and information, as well as enrage collaboration amongst the Regulators. The BDD Director also called for support and commitment of partners to achieve impactful and tangible results. On behalf of His Excellency Dr. Tamimi, Engineer Abu Dulla, the Deputy Governor, expressed Saudi Arabia's pressure in supporting ITU on this initiative. The participants during the meeting emphasized the importance of collaboration and the need to consider multiple perspectives in order to align policies and regulatory approaches for global and regional consensus on addressing common issues related to digital transformation, as well as the delivery of digital services. Regional Regulatory and other associations which were present during the meeting, in particular APT-SATRC, the EPEG, ARAPEG, and CRASA, CTU, PRATEL, Regulatory, and WATRA, highlighted ongoing activities as well as priorities that could be taken into consideration for the digital regression network. And these activities do include innovative, regulatory approaches, regulatory issues which include infrastructure sharing, quality of service, consumer protection, OTT services and application, digital platforms, emergency preparedness and responses, and protection of critical infrastructure, for example, the submarine cables. Also, another issue to be considered is the development of policies to support the 5G ecosystem and the deployment of 5G infrastructure. On spectrum-related issues, it was also considered, if we could consider spectrum buy-ins for 5G, spectrum sharing, trading, harmonization, and governance, affordable access to spectrum, cross-border coordination issues, and satellite requirements, as well as challenges related to NGSO, and also how we can bring in digital literacy to our regions. To conclude, Regional Regulatory Association congratulated ITU for launching the digital regression network, noting the importance of collaboration, cooperation, and exchange of ideas among regional regulatory associations and regulators everywhere. At the end of the meeting, two agreements were signed, and we did witness the signing of these agreements, which was the memorandum of understanding between the ITU and the European Mediterranean Regulators Group, which does establish a high-level framework of cooperation in the area of electronic communication and introducing more structured way for cooperation among aiming at translating policy aspirations into concrete actions. The second one was the joint declaration between ITU and image and the Eastern Partnership Electronic Communications Regulators Network, and this was concerning national broadband and infrastructure mapping. Thank you so much. As I submit the report of the ARA-ALE 2023 meeting on behalf of His Excellency, Dr. Mohammed Altamini, the governor of communications space and technology commission of Saudi Arabia, as well as the chairman of Arab Regulators Network of Telecommunications. Thank you. Macy. Obrigado. Thank you very much for presenting the Regulator Association's meeting, results, and take this opportunity to thank engineer Abdullah Al-Mubadal, deputy governor of communications, space and technology commission of Saudi Arabia for chairing the Regulator Association's meeting on behalf of the governor himself. Your annual meeting is a stepping stone to close a cooperation, starting with exchange of information and best practices. We look forward to a continued collaboration with all Regulator Associations as part of the new initiative. There was also another event which was held successfully. That's a meeting of the industry advisor group on development issues, private sector chief regulator officers, otherwise known as Yagdi Kroh. It was held on the 5th of June. I would like now to turn to Mr. Boga Ba, chair of the industry advisor group on development issues, private sector chief regulator of this meeting, to share industry's views on how they could contribute better to digital developments working closely with the regulators. Mr. Ba, the floor is yours. Thank you. Thank you, director. Good morning, Excellencies, dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. As chair of the industry advisory group on development issues and private sector chief regulatory officer meeting, I am pleased to update you about our group latest meeting which was held as a pre-event of the GSR 23 on June 5th. In this meeting, we deliberated on the need to step forward collectively to achieve a 100% connectivity. Recognizing that doing so requires multi-faceted incentives for the private sector, which are very important for maintaining sustainable flows of investment, fostering local engagement, building human and systemic capacity, and developing nationalized as well as regional innovation ecosystem, powered by universal, accessible, affordable, and secure connectivity, the exchange of insights by our esteemed participant also helped refocus on addressing regulatory challenges, seizing opportunities while at the same time reaffirming our preparedness to support regulatory endeavors around the world. And in the meeting, focus on the urgent need to rapidly expand access to the Internet for the remaining 2.7 billion people worldwide who are not yet connected by 2030. The participant also emphasized the significance of various industries and sectors in narrowing the usage gap, given that mobile broadband networks already reached 90% of the global population, and the well-established role of satellite industry in addressing connectivity challenges, including emergency communication, especially in least developed countries, so-called LDCs. There is a clear requirement to explore innovative approaches for fostering and during partnership. The diversity of industry participants in the meeting also underpinned the criticality of overcoming regulatory challenges and embracing opportunities of this decade, which are catalyzing new changes in the way the ICT industry now operates and continues to evolve in view of iterative changes taking place across other industries and sector, including the space sector. Such changes are fundamentally mandating cross-border industry collaboration on regulation, best practices, and new synergies. All acknowledge that societal and industry dynamics have changed, with different technologies now available to drive connectivity. This requires not only intensified collaboration between terrestrial and non-terrestrial service providers, but also collaboration between service providers and regulators with respect to adoption of regulatory framework that strike a balance for all ICT industry stakeholders. Such a balance can be achieved by establishing fair market access condition for all technology and providers, including equitable spectrum access and technology neutrality, ensuring spectral efficiency and minimal interference, streamlining licensing regimes, reducing administrative fees, and encouraging partnership with local operators. More local engagement and investment by global digital players was called for alongside regulatory parity. YACDCRO meeting also highlighted the need for regulators to develop clear guidance and regulations of artificial intelligence to increase efforts regarding space sustainability. Moreover, to move forward and accelerate actionable measures and to put into force earlier recommendations made by YACDCRO and the ITU, the meeting reaffirmed the private sector's commitment to supporting governments, particularly the regulators during today's volatile and ever-changing environment to achieve global common goals in the near and long term. Participants also agreed to play a more active role in supporting digital development work and to use existing networks to promote the ITUD sector for the purpose of recruiting more private sector members and promoting national digital transformation agenda. I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate Ms. Lele Modisse from MTN Group on her appointment as vice-chair of YACDCRO. With this, on behalf of the YACDCRO leadership, I'd like to thank you for your audience and for being a part of this YACDCRO meeting update. I congratulate the BDT director, the ITU staff for successfully executing this large meeting as a part of the GSR23, and for the ITU's continued focus on fostering better collaboration with the private sector. As always, Charmel Sheikh has been a great place for us to deliberate and exchange fresh perspective. Welcome to NTRA Egypt and the people of Egypt for the hospitality. Stay well, and I wish you all continued success. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa ta'ala wa barakatuhu. Thank you, Bokam. We do appreciate the views coming from industry and we encourage industry to continue innovating for a better world and also to consider partnering with us to implement impactful projects on the ground. Now, I want also to report to you that on the 5th of June, we also heard the heads of regulators executive roundtable, and let me share some highlights. This year's session had some innovation in it. We invited regulators of NANI city sectors to join the discussions. It was noted that collaboration across sectors in the digital space, at national, regional, and global level is necessary. That we must bridge silos and advance collaborative governance. To NANI city regulators, it was noted that by ICT regulators, so, I'll rephrase. To NANI city regulators, it was noted by ICT regulators that they could function as facilitators in the digital space by applying the ITU G5 benchmark. Engineer, I want to thank you for leading and coordinating GSR23 guidelines on regulatory and economic incentives for an inclusive sustainable digital fusion. I also thank all the ICT regulators and all stakeholders who contributed to making these guidelines a significant outcome of this forum. I'm now pleased to turn to engineer our son, Erugamaro executive president, NTRIA and GSRH chair to report on the best practice guidelines adopted during this GSR23. The floor is yours. Thank you, Dr. Davazava. Maybe just before we start reading the conclusion, I just want to show from my heart a deep respect and appreciation for all delegates attended this session. The spirit of cooperation and harmony, it was really remarkable. To be honest with you, although the session, and thanks for you for moderating the session, it was beneficial, remarkable. But in my heart, I wanted to have more debates, to make it longer, because really we enjoyed the views and intervention. It was very valuable for us. So allow me, I just prepared some points just to control the time. So I will read the conclusion from the papers. It's my pleasure to conclude the results of the efforts that have been concluded with regard to this year best practice guidelines document, was the title regulatory and economic incentives for an inclusive sustainable digital future. Ladies and gentlemen, as you may know, the consultation for these guidelines was launched in February 2023. And the first draft of the guidelines was published in May 2023, with 25 contributions by policymakers, national regulatory authorities, international organizations, industry bodies and civil societies. In particular, this consultation sought ideas we use and experiences, regulatory and economic incentives to stimulate the infrastructure deployment, especially in the rural, unserved and underserved areas. And identifying the right enablers required to ensure the introduction of emerging ICT technologies, and innovative business models. So once again, I have to deeply thank our partners for their insightful and rich ideas and guidance. As regulators and policymakers, we are aware that despite the fact that we have extended to our best efforts in ensuring inclusive connectivity to our citizens, we still face major obstacles in connecting the unconnected and bridging the digital gap. Therefore, the GSR-23 best practices guidelines were launched as an attempt to overcome these obstacles and cast a framework for innovative and sound regulatory patterns, while charting the way ahead for industry and regulators. These guidelines put forward principles and identify concrete actions using three main pillars. Firstly, incentives towards achieving meaningful connectivity. Secondly, incentives to support access, adoption and the usage. And finally, cross-sector regulatory coordination and mutual reinforcement of the rule between adjacent regulatory regimes. Ladies and gentlemen, around the guidelines concluded, we consider there are still identified challenges that need to be tackled by new approaches and maybe new concepts. So we do not only need to focus on connecting the unconnected, but also we need to continue making the connected as productive. In other words, from this connectivity to connectivity to productivity. To ensure the contribution in the socio-economic development, therefore the ITU standardization and measurements could consider the factor of adoption of these guidelines and their impact in bridging the digital gap in our communities towards productivity. I call upon you all to disseminate and use the guidelines to move forward. Thank you. Thank you very much. Our ideas are a chair for a job well done. Thank you. I now invite the BDT director and NTIA Executive President to stand up for a photo opportunity of the best practice guidelines. Please join us here. Engineer Hossein, would you please join us? Thank you. Thank you very much for this photo. Congratulations on the best practice guidelines. I'll now give the floor to Dr. Zawazawa. Dr. Zawazawa, the floor is yours. So let me make some comments on GSR23. There were many sessions on many important subjects and these GSR are totally important, excluding the official opening and this closing session. It is my favorite hope that you found all the sessions insightful, exciting and stimulating. At this stage, I want to also inform you that for the first time at GSR we held a power session of the Network of Women of ITUD. This session was held yesterday and I would like to thank Dr. King Malaliu who did an excellent job in moderating it. The message was loud and clear that we must close the digital gender divide. We thank the 300 plus women and men who assembled in that room over lunch and provided great insights as to how we could possibly bridge the digital gender gap. I must say I'm committed to working towards the bridging of the gender gap and we are going to strengthen our work towards this effort. We are going to have the next session of the now, Network of Women, edit the upcoming TDAC from 19 to 23. And it is not just a question of meeting, we want results which are visible because we are known for measuring the information society and we can track our achievements on the ground. Ladies and gentlemen, before we go to the closing ceremony, I want to invite Sophie Madden to come to the lectern and take the floor briefly. Thank you very much. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. So now we will be holding a Mentimeter to participate in the Mentimeter. Asking the technicians to please put up the code so that we can, ladies and gentlemen, to participate in the Mentimeter, please scan the QR code with your phone. The QR code is available on the screens. Obviously this is a big room so if you cannot fix it on the code, please go to menti.com and enter the code and I will read it to you. I will just give you a few seconds. The code is 4305604. I repeat 4305604 on menti.com. The code will stay on the top of the screen if you just missed what I read. And the question is, what word summarizes GSR23 for you? We will give you a few seconds to be able to respond. Director, I give you back the floor to read the exciting results of the Mentimeter. So ladies and gentlemen, let me assure you, first of all, there was no rigging. And second, there was no cyber attack. The answer we have is collaboration. We too believe in collaboration and we are going to incorporate this in our own. So we came, we saw and we had fun. I invite you to watch this video, which is also going to be posted as a Mentor on the webpage of GSR23 and you will be able to download it and share it with friends and family. It was a wonderful video. Now I kindly ask Ms. Lindsey, Mr. Ba, Mr. Manevich and Mr. Onoi to return to your seats in the front row. I kindly ask Mr. Engineer Ilgamal to remain seated on the podium and Dr. Zawazawa to please come to the lectern for the official closing of the GSR. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sure you will agree with me that this was a momentous event. I can firmly say that this GSRI has broken records in terms of the number of innovations, but also in terms of the numbers of participants. A total of 1,037 participants registered and 757 showed up. We also had 52 VIPs and I think these are great achievements. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to express my profound gratitude to the government of Egypt and to Engineer Ilgamal, Executive President of NTRIA for taking the 22nd edition of GSRI back to Egypt and also to new heights. Please join me in thanking all of us for providing us with great facilities for a very warm welcome to everyone of us. I want to thank the NTRIA team for their hard work, kindness and respect. I also want to thank the honorable ministers who joined us years of regulatory agencies and the chiefs of industry for the immense contribution to the success of GSRI 23. You might have noted that for the first time GSRI participants were able to benefit from sign language interpretation. We thank our hosts for making this possible. I would like to express my thanks to all the moderators, panelists and speakers for your invaluable contributions to make GSRI 23 a remarkable success. To my ITU colleagues here at the Arab Regional Office in Cairo and back in Geneva, thank you for your professionalism and hard work. A special thanks goes to the engineers, technicians, conference staff who have worked extremely hard to make the symposium an enormous success. I would also like to thank the interpreters for their patience and hard work. Some sessions required additional time, but you never complained. I would like to thank all of you here present and those who joined virtually. Without you, there is no GSRI. We will send you a questionnaire for you to provide us with your proposed topics for the next GSRI. We want to keep on growing and innovating. But again, we will also give you an opportunity for you to critique and to compliment GSRI 23. Your advice is invaluable for us. We want to make GSRI 24 more special than this. Finally, I want to thank and congratulate our Chairman, Injina El-Gamal, for his leadership and the airport guidance throughout this event. Ladies and gentlemen, as I conclude, let me end where I started. Let us regulate and connect for people, planets and prosperity. Let us embrace and practice collaborative regulation across sectors, across borders and across regions. Finally, let us continue to work and always remember that success is a ladder that cannot be climbed with your hands in your pocket. And we should not fear failure. As we say, to get lost is to learn the way. See you at GSRI 24 and good travels. Stay safe. At this point, I would like to invite Injina El-Gamal to join me up in the election, please. The Executive President of NTRIA is one of the most humble men I have met. He went an extra mile to make sure that we had everything that we needed. Always with a smile. We cannot thank him enough. I would like to extend a symbolic appreciation for his generosity, for his wise wisdom and guidance and leadership, and allow me to end on this small certificate token, which marks his leadership at GSRI 23. I think a certificate is just a piece of paper, something a little bit more tangible. I think we will do justice to our appreciation. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. Zawazawa, Engineer Hossein. Would you please come to the lectern for your closing remarks? Thank you. Thank you so much. Maybe you allow me to speak in Arabic. So, Sayyed al-Doctor Kozma Zawazawa, Director of the Department of Education for the United States of America. Al-Sada Al-Afadil, Director of the United States of America. The members of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Health. Al-Sada Al-Sada Al-Sada Al-Sada Al-Sada Al-Sada Al-Sada Al-Sada. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Just before going down to my seat, I would like to invite Dr. Zawazawa. So, you give me something. I have to give you something in return. This is just a souvenir from NTRA. So, wish you like it. Thank you very much. I now announce the session to be closed. Thank you very much everyone for joining us. It's a pleasure having you and we hope to see you again very soon. Thank you.