 Mr. Chairman, Secretary-General of the ITU, your excellencies and distinguished colleagues, heads of delegations, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the Republic of Ghana, let me convey our gratitude to the government and people of Argentina for the kind hospitality and warm welcome accorded to me and my delegation since our arrival in the beautiful and historic city of Buenos Aires, which is Gracia's. Mr. Chairman, we are delighted that you have the pleasant responsibility of leading this conference to adopt strategies for the continuing global development of ICTs, providing future direction and indeed guidance to the critical ITU telecom development sector. We couldn't have chosen more capable hands and are confident that the successful completion of this meeting will attest to the wisdom of this choice. We also thank Mr. Brahimah Sanu, Director, BDT, for the immense efforts put into preparing for this historic conference, which also marks the 25th anniversary of the BDT. We congratulate Secretary-General Huling Zhao and his able Deputy Secretary-General Mr. Markum Johnson for providing the ITU with such excellent leadership. The theme for the conference, ICT for Sustainable Development Goals, demonstrates the cross-cutting nature of our sector, which is indispensable for accelerating efforts to attain holistic development in all sectors of human endeavor. From health, education, social inclusion, poverty reduction, job creation, women's empowerment, the list is endless. The President of Ghana, his excellence in Anadu Dankwa Ikufuadu, is the current co-chair of the UN Sustainable Development Goals Advocacy Group, and he sends his felicitations to the leadership of the ITU for the adoption of this theme for the conference. He's anxiously awaiting the outcome of the conference and counting on even greater cooperation and collaboration with the ITU to facilitate the early realization of the SDGs. Mr. Chairman, 12 years ago, I was the managing director of the second national telecommunications operator in Ghana. I was the only woman in the room of telco CEOs. Today, when the CEOs of telecom operators meet, there is only one man in the room and the rest are all females. I am elated to notice that the gender divide in telecommunications is closing slowly. In West Africa, there are four female ministers of communications now, countless numbers in senior management positions in the industry, and many young women engineers and tech professionals preparing to take over the reins. Hopefully, our numbers can only increase. I salute my Garland sisters and you brave men who dare to be different. As we mark the 60th anniversary of the independence of Ghana this year, the new government that was sworn into office in January has committed itself to a massive transformation of our economy through technology and broadband development. It is digit time in Ghana. This slogan aptly demonstrates our prioritization of ICT and its use as an enabler of socioeconomic development in recognition of the crucial contribution of ICTs to the realization of the SDGs. The government of Ghana, through the Ministry of Communications, is currently developing a robust framework to support our digitization efforts with widespread broadband infrastructure in the country and international bandwidth provided by five submarine optic fiber cables. Ghana's population of about 28 million people has over 20 internet service providers and an average download speed of 4.78 megabits per second. We intend to scale up our universal access program to ensure that we narrow or even close the digital divide and drive down the cost of accessing data. We are establishing a network of connected community information centers and modernized post offices to serve as e-services centers and bring government closer to the people. We're currently implementing a robust e-government program to promote transparency and accountability in the conduct of government and this covers all sectors of administration, in health, education, business and finance, immigration, environmental monitoring. And to demonstrate our resolve, within nine months of taking office, the government has launched the state-of-the-art 12-digit biometric national ID card enhanced with new technologies, including tactile elements for the visually impaired, e-passport and payment applications. We've also launched the national digital property addressing system which was developed locally, which maps out every five square meters of our territory and tax it digitally, providing every Ghanaian with a unique digital address, permanent digital address linked to post codes. The introduction of a paperless port, integrated e-immigration system, e-procurement, e-parliament, e-justice, e-cabinet, a safe city solution and smart workplaces among other initiatives which are all at various stages of implementation. The development of an interoperability framework to integrate government databases and a system to link all electronic payment platforms and scale up mobile money usage all represent significant milestones in Ghana's journey to digitalization. It is truly digit time in Ghana and this is only the beginning. In an effort to support the vibrant local startup ecosystem, we have set up an ICT incubator hub, the Accra Digital Center, which is also home to a state of the art grade A plug and play commercial office space for ICT businesses and business process outsourcing. We're developing ICT parks to promote entrepreneurship, attract private investment and enhance ICT research and development. Our aim is to encourage the transfer of knowledge and development of human resource capacity to meet the increasing digital demands of the country and boost youth unemployment. As we become increasingly dependent on the use of ICTs, we are scaling up our cybersecurity efforts, working with stakeholders across the country and internationally to build resilience and ensure we're operating in safe cyber spaces and enacting policies to protect our children online. We are holding a cybersecurity week in Accra from 23rd October this year to continue the dialogue and you're all cordially invited. However, much as we try to protect ourselves, our efforts will be fruitless without a robust international legal regime to address the continuing threats of cyber crime and cyber enabled crimes. We need something akin to a Geneva Convention against cyber crime to protect us all from cyber criminals and adventurers who threaten our collective cyber peace and security. We cannot develop in isolation and will support all efforts at connecting and linking up our sub region and the continent at large. We are proud of the work done by the ITU over the years. Humbled by our membership of council and seek your support to continue serving on the council to work together to build a better interconnected world. As the secretary general said yesterday, we are stronger together. Mr. Chairman, we come in solidarity with the membership of the ITU and are committed to addressing the needs of our people and in this regard will support all actions to improve access to broadband, address cyber security issues and the need for developing countries to build conformance and interoperability structures. We trust the proposals to be deliberated upon here will also consider the mobilization of resources for the development sector and indeed the ITU. You can count on Garnes support, Mr. Chairman. I thank you all and wish us a successful conference.