 Welcome warmly to this symposium on the future network car which brings together key stakeholders to discuss the future of connected vehicles. It's a pleasure to be with you today. We met a year ago when the Geneva Motor Show was cancelled. Only days before strict sanitary measures were implemented here in Geneva and all around our region. And 2020 was disruptive for mobility. We learned from our observatory on border crossing status that due to COVID-19 the international transport of goods was severely impacted. And this is why transport ministers from all over the world agreed on a ministerial resolution calling for enhancing resilient inland transport connectivity in emergency situations adopted just last month during the 83rd session of the UNEC Inland Transport Committee. And this is the United Nations only regulatory body specializing in road rail inland waterway and intermodal transport. The COVID-19 related disruptions affected the transport of passengers and persons. The mobility of persons dropped by as much as 30% in some countries of the UNEC region. And this came with some short term benefits such as encouraging progress on road safety figures in some cities and countries, not speaking about some environmental pressures. Some of these short term benefits can be extended to the medium and long term. And for that to succeed, we must not return to business as usual. To recover better, we must consider working in smarter and more connected ways. While our need to remain mobile remains, we need to ensure that we do so efficiently with more reliability and safety than ever before in plain words, a better, more sustainable recovery. 2020 has also been a productive year for the automated and connected vehicles community. The very autonomous taxi service has opened operating in two suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona, and the United States since October 2020, while Honda announced that they would sell the first level three automated sedan car in 2021. And you may remember that repeated calls of G7 transport ministers in recent years to accelerate the work of the UNEC work forum for harmonization of vehicle regulations on automated vehicles. UNEC responded to this and facilitated the creation of the Working Party on Automated Autonomous and Connected Vehicles, or JRVA for short, which is now led by Germany, China, and Japan. The group may progress under the framework of the 1958 agreement, the International Type Approval Framework. I'm pleased to say that three UN regulations dealing with automated and connected vehicles entered into force in January 2021. They formed the initial package dealing with level three regulations of automated and connected vehicles. And as I just mentioned, Honda stated that they started offering the first level three vehicle for sale this year in full compliance with UN regulation number 157 on the automated lane keeping system ALKS for short. We expect other manufacturers to do the same soon. The regulations are in place and some activities are already on their way. Further progress is being made on the regulatory side of automated vehicle type approval by exploring other vehicle categories such as trucks, higher speeds, and lane changes. We observed a number of stakeholders, including startups, small and medium sized companies involved in cyber security, communicating their interests and readiness to deal with the cyber security of vehicles in collaboration with the automotive sector. It has been forecasted that investment in cyber security will soar in the coming years as cyber attacks against countries and companies persist. Although UN regulations will not prevent cyber attacks, they will oblige manufacturers to be aware of the vulnerabilities of their products, monitor and report attacks to the authorities and respond to them appropriately. The research and development and standardization of vehicle connectivity activities started over a decade ago, but such features are still not available in all new road vehicles. Common issues in telecommunications such as agencies, interference and coverage are obstacles we must still tackle in order to make connected vehicles a reality. It is important at this stage that we move our bilateral exchanges to more multilateral technical discussions. The three UN regulations now in force are an achievement which is relevant for countries applying the type approval regime. But some notable partners don't rely on type approval and are not part of the 1958 agreement. Countries such as the United States and Canada being contracting parties to the 1998 agreement support the self-certification system. And therefore, the GRVA working party engaged in a global initiative that involves not only the many parties of the 1958 agreement, but also with those countries who are not yet using the type approval regime. And this is what we will explore this afternoon with the leaders involved in this initiative. The speakers will explain us their activities on performance requirements and the safety evaluation of automated driving systems and provide us with updates on even data recorders and data storage systems for automated driving. Tomorrow, in session two, you will also learn more on the cybersecurity aspect. UNEC and its relatively new working party on automated autonomous and connected vehicles showed its capability to work fast, always keeping safety and security as the first priority with more than eight informal working groups reporting back. Working hard on technical and legal matters never prevents them from thinking about the future and possible reforms. You will see more of this in the second session this afternoon when they will debate the appropriateness of the tried and trusted approaches for standards and regulations suitable for a digital future. Let us now hear from our distinguished speakers and panelists. Thank you all for contributing and for participating in today's roundtable. And in conclusion, I wish you all a connected day and may the outcome of these discussions help us in recovering better for our short future.