 We're here with the Honourable Rebecca Joshua Okwachi, Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services with the Republic of South Sudan. Minister, you're very welcome to the World Telecommunication Development Conference here in Dubai. Thank you very much. My pleasure. May I ask, as the newest member of the ITU family, what have been the biggest challenges you've been facing? Talking about the challenges in particular, we are a new country. We had our last civil war in 2005, 2011 we got independence. Definitely with a long period of war, South Sudan has gone through big challenges. Even the Ministry of Telecommunications and Postal Services in South Sudan was established in 2006, which then gives us also a name of being a new ministry because by then when we were one country, the Ministry was under the main government in Khartoum. So we are starting fresh and being fresh then it means that we really have to work hard to address the challenges. With the civil war, which went on for two decades almost in our country, we did not have any infrastructure in telecommunications. ICT also did not reach us in that level you may think of. Even use of computers was also scanty in our country. So our challenge is that we don't have infrastructure, which is enough to cover our country. We are still even battling with the usage of internet now because we have a very limited band and also because of the war, we also had a big challenge of education in general and therefore having people in the sphere and the field of ICT is also very limited. So the infrastructure is not there. The services have been very limited because we are like part of a region in the big country before independence. So I would say we tried our very best to move in a small way. Since we became members of the IT, we also got an opportunity to even learn more of opportunities for improving the telecommunications and ICT in general and also educating our public in terms of benefiting from technology. So the challenges are there but what is good is that we are working hard to catch up and to surmount all these challenges that we have been going through. And what are you seeing in terms of how the population itself is using technology nowadays? Are you witnessing for instance a big explosion of mobile devices like elsewhere in the world? Yes, one thing I want to put forward is that we are still not connected in terms of fiber optic. We are only using satellites and therefore it's expensive and we don't have enough broadband for us to use other applications. But what's good and is actually encouraging is that with the introduction of the mobiles that came to our country not long ago, you walk on the street there, you will find people are on phone and still also not all the applications are being used but I mean today the woman in the market in South Sudan, you will find her even if she has not gone to school with all the literacy level that we have, they are able to use their mobiles, they are able to communicate even with their relatives. Even those who are in the cattle camp, this is where we keep our animals. You know today those elderly people who have not gone to school are able to use their mobiles. So for us this is a leap, it's promising and it also shows that people, the people of South Sudan are open for receiving technology and even for using it. Also the internet user, there is a bit of progress, still also we have limited usage of it but today you will find our young people are on the internet. This also gives us a very big hope in terms of working hard as a country to avail the opportunities for the people since they are already interested in it, since they have already tested it. You will find a large number of our youth now who are on Facebook, who are able to use Twitter. So this is also very promising and it encourages me as a minister really to work an extra mile to ensure that the opportunities that they have already started and they are enjoying and it also helping them is giving them that chance to be able to do that. So we have a lot of plans, we have a strategic plan, our policies are in place and our vision is very clear. Also we have small semblance of progress in terms of use of computer and internet. In ministry we have an institute, ICT Institute, it's a small one, the principle is with me here in the conference and one thing we are also pushing very hard is to give this population that we still feel are suffering from illiteracy, a very high level of illiteracy but then those who have moved forward get that opportunity of training because capacity building is very important for them. Introduction of technology in general for them to be able to absorb it, understand it through advocacy and then for us now to avail the opportunity for them to pick it up because we have always told ourselves even if we are so far the last baby in Africa we are not going to wait, we are going to take every opportunity possible because already the message is there, the innovations are there, we can read and write so why not then pick the positive aspect of technology, introduce it because now we understand that it can help us in terms of health, in terms of education, in terms of business, in terms of money transfer. So if we need education then why not shorten that period of time by using technology. So all these kind of packages are there in our strategic plan in the vision of our country and all we are doing then as a government is to avail the opportunities for our people to pick them up so that it contributes to the development of our country. And here at the World Telecommunication Development Conference where the international community gathers to define the priorities for the ITU's work over the next four years, what particular outcomes would you like to see in South Sudan that can be of real and practical support for you to help you on this journey that you just outlined for us? Yeah definitely for us as I said at the very beginning this is a very good opportunity and I would really want to take this opportunity to appreciate the ITU for accepting us in the membership and also for having this chance to go and join these big conferences of which this is not the first time we also participated in Bangkok in Thailand in the conference and by the way for us it was the first time we can set up our pavilion in Bangkok and that was news even for us in the country I went home singing and telling them you know if you have not done anything now as a new minister of telecom I'm happy that we were able to have our pavilion in Bangkok in the middle of the Giants which is actually you know forward looking kind of optimism for us to in the middle of all these benefits so having this conference and participating here with the delegation of about five of us give us a chance to exchange experiences with colleagues in other countries in the world also be able to learn from the challenges that they have gone through now we are going through a phase that many countries have already gone beyond but then sharing their experiences help us to see what is it that did not happen what are those challenges and instead of you know bogging ourselves down it helped us to look at the challenges and be able to overcome them through the experiences some might have even had pitfalls pitfalls before also this conference you know we also focus on some particular areas for instance the issue of broadband is very important it also gives us an opportunity to speed up having us connected in terms of fiber optic because that will give us a chance also to be able to use other applications in technology and we are working very hard now it's actually what is on my table now and we have a strategy for that also in terms of areas like rural access this is a particular interest for us because many of our population still live in the rural areas and even with the saying in mobile we are still in 3G but even with 3G as far as we can reach this is what we are doing with our friends and partners in the telecom apparatus that are in the country that we need to reach out to the population so that they can you know get the services and also benefit from the connection I'm also setting up one of my priorities as a minister is to set up our regulatory body we have what we call the national communications authority and so far we've also been communicating with the ITU and this is also part of the benefit of being members and request them to guide us and also help us in terms of our panel we have already advertised for the position of the director general and we have been in communication with them to guide us or help us with some experts from the region who can join us and support us in terms of having a transparent credible professional authority or regulator and that's the advice I've been getting from friends and from the ITU have a strong regulatory body in your country and that will help solve some of the challenges so this is also an area really of focus for us also the area of capacity building I think that's also great importance for us as I said we are coming up as a new nation and the knowledge is all over why reinvent the wheel and and I've been like you know why go around suffer why agonize in silence so I've also been communicating and requesting for support in terms of building the capacity we have a number of engineers by the way that when we were one country also done and and they are there but again technology keeps on changing they also need to refresh their minds I have a big population of young people who are budding and who are growing now we also need to bring them into the area of high-city and technology and they are there for training and for learning and for building their capacity so the topics are large but I think these areas in particular apart from also people are talking about digital migration now and we also have a committee that has been put in place comprising the Minister of Telecommunications Postal Services and our Minister of Information and Broadcasting these are two separate ministries but just a week before we this conference is started the team has sat together and we are also chatting on our way on how do we prepare ourselves for the digital migrations so we hope to be part of in the near future of e-education and that is an area also very close to my heart in terms of educating our children if we can use technology it will help us and then I should not forget also the gender inclusivity I'm also biased when it comes to that you know I also promote women development so in terms of this topic here within this conference that is also very important and it's very close to my heart because it also helps us as a country as we move towards development we are also carrying the gender perspective for us put together I think that will help us to have the nation growing at the same time and at the same level and all will contribute to the development of our new nation. Minister Oquachi thank you so much for providing us with such a great range of insights into all of the challenges and opportunities you have in South Sudan and we look forward to talking to you again and accompanying you on this on this journey thank you very much thank you I appreciate thank you