 We will see in today's discussions that we shall soon be reaching an important milestone with half of the world's population online. It's an impressive achievement that deserves great recognition since we know all the advantages of internet access that what they can provide to better people's life. But we also know that these benefits are not shared equally, that four out of five people in developed countries have internet access compared with just two out of five in least developed countries. At UNESCO we have two transversal priorities, Africa and gender equality. And I think this shows us where our effort should focus also on our subject of the day. Women remain less likely to have internet access than men. And this gap is widening, exorbitant existing inequalities. Today more than 2.1 billion people are considered to be low skilled and low literate and they are at risk of being excluded of our digital future. The commission I've seen and learned has done excellent work in the recent years to better understand inequalities in digital opportunities, particularly in relation to digital skills for work and the digital gender divide. At UNESCO we put great emphasis on digital skills and knowledge, particularly for those being otherwise left behind. We've established a global alliance to monitor learning, to develop a framework to assess and monitor progress in digital skills. The Africa Code Week initiative has reached 1.3 million youths in Africa, nearly half of whom were women. Together with partners such as Microsoft and Ericsson, we're working to support countries, to support individuals with low literacy to better navigate digital spaces. The Equals Skills Coalition, which is led by UNESCO in Germany, is working to threaten digital skills for women and girls across the world. We must aim not only for digital literacy but also media and information literacy, to enable critical thinking about information and instill values that contribute to online debate in the spirit of freedom of expression. And we've all seen in recent years many examples of online misinformation, hate speech and incitement to violence, tearing at the heart of unity and tolerance between people. We're therefore also working at the forefront of this ever more complex struggle, conducting research and publishing guidelines on how to counter online hate speech and prevent online radicalization of young people. Because in technology we have found incredible opportunity to progress, but it's also critical that we respond to the new challenges it can bring about, like the preservation of cultural diversity in the online world or the opportunities of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing our world from education to cultural health or defense, but there are all those opportunities have to be developed in respect of principle of humanism and sustainable development. We need to have a global conversation on those ethical principles that we want to guide us in this new world and UNESCO as a universal forum where each one as a voice wants to be part in this conversation. I would like to take the opportunity of this session to invite you all to participate in an international conference on artificial intelligence focusing on the ethical issues as well that we're organizing in Paris at the beginning of next year in January, precisely the 17th of January. We will be bringing together experts, businesses and civil society to raise awareness among member states and international community on these critical issues for the future humanity. Excellencies, commissioners, ladies and gentlemen, this commission was created eight years ago as a global intellectual alliance to harness the benefits of information and communication technology for human development. We need now to reach those currently excluded and work on relevant skills, content and ethical principles so that technology is used for the better and the common good. Thank you very much for your intention.