 Welcome to ITU Telecom World 2017 here in Busan in the Republic of Korea. I'm very pleased to be in the studio today with Ben Chitonga, who is Financial Director of MACRA, the Communications Regulatory Authority of Malawi. Ben, thank you very much indeed for being with us today. Nice meeting you today. Thank you. Now, I'd like to start off by asking you about smart digital transformation. It's the theme here at ITU Telecom World. I wanted to find out what does it mean to you? To us in Malawi, this is also a new phenomenon. We are indeed moving towards the same direction. We are looking at IT, ICT providing better and reliable solution to our citizenry. So to us, we believe it's a very nice topic, which is indeed tiring with what we are doing back there in Malawi. What are the smart opportunities that you see in the next five years and the key challenges as a regulator? There are a number of key opportunities which are there. As we say, there are issues of big data. We are looking at issues of biometric, but also the opening up of spectrum. With more talk on 5G spectrum, we believe that there will be more services introduced in the sector. But also we are looking at smart cities because it's also one of the issues which we are pursuing in Malawi. I would want to designate one of our city, Blanta, to be a smart city. So we are looking at that to dominate our activities for the next five years. But also we are looking at the converges between telecommunication and financial services, digital finances. It's also another new topic which is coming and to us as a regulator, I think it's important that we should be able to move ahead with technology because as a regulator you are supposed to be there as trying to create a conducive environment for various players on the market. So we believe that it is important that as a regulator we need also to sharpen our skills, make sure that we have got the necessary legislation in place to meet these new technologies as they come through. We know the biggest challenge you have had is that sometime to enact a law it takes time. But you see technologies moving at a faster pace on daily basis and sometime it's difficult to keep up with that particular pace. So we believe it's another exciting five-year period coming and we hope we'll be able to save better our operators as well as our consumers. And what innovative projects or solutions are you exhibiting here and what's the role of SMEs in driving digital economy in Malawi? In Malawi what we have done with these showcasing at ITU, Telecom World, we have always now involved SMEs. Previously what we used to do was to come with our big operators to this showcase but we changed the focus. Now the focus is to bring the upcoming SMEs and what we normally do is we do run competition in our country. We ask people to bring their innovations and we do it and once we are satisfied with an SME then we select them for exhibition here at ITU. So this time around we have brought an SME, a small startup company, it's called EMOSIS. What we are showcasing, we are showcasing on a smart irrigation. We are using a JSM phone, you're able to control irrigations very far from the farm. So you're able to, you're able to advise, you advise, it's like connectivity with the system where you tell it to start irrigating but also once the soil has gotten enough water then you tell stop, then it will stop. So we believe it's a new technology looking at our country which is more agro-based. We believe this will take us to the next generation in terms of farming. But also we have brought technology in terms of eHeath. On the eHeath what we have done is one of the biggest diseases which affect our country is tuberculosis. With tuberculosis the biggest challenge is that for most patients to follow through the treatment is a challenge because it's a lengthy treatment, maybe a month, sometimes two months and you find that there are a lot of people who start the medication but maybe midway through they would desate. So we have had such particular challenges and with this what we are trying to do now is that whenever a patient has been diagnosed then we should be able to send irregular SMSs reminding them only the time for next medication and the like. So that's what we are showcasing. But also the third one which we are showcasing is only water management. This has been deployed at one of our water boards in the capital city, it's called the Lillongu Water Board. So it's a remote monitoring where we are trying to check water levels into their main tanks. Whenever there are any drop in the water tanks then the system should be able to send SMSs to say maybe it's at a critical level. So we believe these are some of the innovations which are good but also would do indeed if we scale up nationally I think it will improve ICTAP check in our country. That's fabulous, that was great. Well we look forward to catching up with you on that. With regards to this event, ITU Telecom World, what's the value of attending this event and finally have you got a key message for our participants here? For us we are excited to attend this event because it's like an international showcase where we are able to show to the world what we are doing but also it's a learning process because through these particular meetings we are able to learn from others especially most of our countries. We know our friends are very much ahead so it's a good learning process for us to learn on what others are doing and definitely to people out there we know that not all countries are showcasing here, there are a lot of countries which are not able to showcase but it's important to participate in this event because you learn a lot and you move forward as a nation. What we have done as Malawi because sometimes the major problem to most countries is maybe budgetary constraints and what we resolved in Malawi is to attend the vision by annual basis so that we attend this year then we miss the other year then we attend but at least to keep up with that particular attendance that's what you have been doing. So we also want to encourage other countries who feel they are small, they can make impact, you need to move at your own pace, we cannot move at the pace of other developed countries so to us I believe it's important that even as small nations let us showcase what we are doing but also at the same process we should be able to learn from those developed countries in that way then we'll be able to at least bridge the digital gap which is there so that's the message I would send to the people out there. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you very much for the interview. Good to have you here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.