 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 Professor Alam Musa, who is Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology of Palestine. Professor Munise, you're very welcome to the studio today. Oh, it's my pleasure. Thank you very much indeed. And actually it's my pleasure being to Korea and to being to this conference. I'd like to start off talking about the Plenipotentiary Conference here. We're now in the third week of the Plenipotentiary Conference. It's been quite a marathon and I know that you arrived relatively recently but what are your impressions of it? Actually it's really a marathon and it's very important and you know people interested, people are waiting for this conference for every four years. So it is very important and I have seen here that although I have recently arrived to Korea but I have seen that it is a very good one, very organized one and the topics are presented in a well organized manner and actually the way that it is organized or things are going smoothly so far so people are cooperating and this is very important because I assume this will resolve any misunderstanding or whatever. So so far I am happy with the way that this conference is moving. I know there's a great attempt to achieve consensus here and obviously that's important. Definitely, you know because IT would, I mean this specific conference which is conducted every four years so people are waiting huge issues to come out of this conference so consistency should be there and agreement should be there and resolutions should be there because people are waiting for such issues it will help them in the future, it will help them at least for the coming four years. This has been referred to as the Olympics of ICTs and as you so rightly say it's every four years what are the priorities for Palestine in the next four years? Well, talking about Palestine actually you know because this ITU is dealing or this conference is dealing about the global and so it is dealing also with the individual entities and Palestine being part of this ITU we care a lot to know the regulations and the guidelines of ITU and the policies of ITU and the direction that ITU is going and so we are trying to reflect that on our society. However, the case in Palestine is not that simple you know due to the complications that everybody knows in there so in Palestine we are trying to match globally what is going around with our limited resources, the very limited resources accordingly recently we have to develop our policies and strategies for the ICTs the government and the private sector are going to work closer with each other you know because the government has a role, the private sector has a role but when it comes to the private sector then this is something very important for us and we need to develop the private sector but we need to make the life easier for the private sector in the sense that we draw down the policies, the strategies that they have to follow otherwise there will be sort of misunderstanding or whatever so the first issue in Palestine is to make the policies and the strategies of ICT in Palestine clear for everyone accordingly this will help us to develop the sector and this will be reflected on the human being over there it will help people to find jobs, it will help people to develop their careers and their jobs even enterprises and the issue that we are working on right now is to work not only locally but to introduce the Palestinians to the rest of the world because we Palestinians we do not have natural resources but we have the humankind, we have the brains and accordingly we can contribute to the benefit of anybody in the world to the humankind being in the world so the priorities in Palestine is to enable people to develop themselves in terms of ICT and accordingly official statements will be obtained or will be offered by the Minister of Telecommunication and this will be in harmony with the ITU regulations so this is how we work so public-private partnerships are very important to you not just locally but also globally as well definitely actually we started locally but now we care a lot for the globally and the government is keen to work with the private sector and the private sector would like to work with some other partners outside Palestine and actually we have started that in the past people from outside Palestine they did not think that they will be able to work with Palestinians from inside Palestine but now as time goes and maybe because of using ICT now we are introducing ourselves in an easier way you don't have to be physically anywhere else in the world in order to talk to them, in order to convince them that you can do this in a very good way but now using this technology we can introduce ourselves we can make any sort of conferences or interviews which enable the people from outside Palestine to know how Palestinians are thinking and working accordingly the PPP is well understood in Palestine and it is well demanded and actually it is supported by the government by the private sector, by the academia as well as you may already know I belong to the academia section and accordingly in the academia we care a lot for the university private sector partnership for the government private sector partnership or for the three of them and now we are introducing this or making it a little bit larger by having the partnership with the institutions outside Palestine as well because ICT is an education very much going hand in hand aren't they I mean ICT is a very much enabling people to better themselves through education by getting access to education actually sometimes it is one of the most important means that we may use in order to deliver the message of the university for example you know sometimes it is because of any limitations that students may not be able to go to the university or may not be able to handle an exam at a certain time for example so using the ICT this will enable students to go for exams it will enable them to study it will enable the instructor to be in direct contact with the students 24 hours if you like because he can upload the material the student can put a question anytime so ICT in education is getting very very important nowadays this does not mean we have to relay on it as a whole you know because in education you need the face to face this is extremely important and actually there are some institutions and universities they do not believe in distance learning as a whole but it could be part of the program or part of the course so we really believe that ICT can make a lot for the benefit of education in Palestine as well as anywhere else do you think that ICTs are sufficiently recognises key development catalysts and I wanted to ask you as well should ICTs be part of the future UN sustainable development goals and if so why well everybody can recognise that the ICT sector is developing a lot you know and actually it is contributing a lot again for the benefit of humankind and this is very important for us I mean whatever we are doing is for the benefit of humankind wherever he is so ICT should be recognised in a better way if they show that they are qualified enough it is not important that just to say that I am an ICT company you are an ICT company but doing what so you have to show that you have an important role to develop that community to help the people in different aspects and this could be in return of money it could be in return of recognisation it could be in return of accreditation so it is important that this sector should play an important role to achieve the goals, the vision, the mission of the entire government or the entire society as a whole accordingly it should be recognised this sector should be recognised as far as it can show that it can contribute to the benefit or to achieving the goals of the society yes and meanwhile it can be even part of the international system Professor Anamusa, thank you very much indeed for your presence at the studio today and thank you very much for your very illuminating answers it is my pleasure and thank you for hosting me in this media thank you so much thank you