 Welcome to the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2022 here in Bucharest, Romania where I've got the great pleasure of being joined in the studio today by Tsukou Kouda who is the regional director for the ITU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. Tsukou, welcome to the studio. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Let's talk a little bit about PP22. How do you think it's gone? I mean, you've been here several weeks now. You've been involved in a lot of conversations here, I'm sure, and seen a lot of the member states. What has been your feeling? Has it gone well? Have the member states felt that they've got a lot out of it? I believe that the PP is an excellent platform for countries to express their challenges and opportunities, because more. And I'm particularly pleased to note that we have several Pacific delegations who are with us for this conference, and they have been participating, following and expressing their views in the conference. So I believe that it's a very important aspect of a plenipotentiary conference. How would you describe digital transformation in Asia and the Pacific right now? I believe that this conference in particular accentuated the growing digital divide. For example, in Asia and the Pacific, there are several advanced economies, which are moving very fast with 5G and other emerging technologies, such as AI, IoT and blockchain, for example. These are becoming part of our reality, but for the rest of the countries in the region, they are still struggling with connecting the unconnected. So I believe that the conversations we are having now at the conference really reveals the growing digital divide that we are seeing in Asia and the Pacific. And what are the digital transformation trends that you're currently seeing in the region? I can see two trends, the major ones, I think. I believe that the COVID really made us realise that digital technology is really a big, big part of our future, as well as in the current lifestyle. And at the same time, there are still many people who are unconnected and underconnected. So I think we are in the process of realising that inclusion equates connectivity. That without connectivity, we cannot include people in economic development, social development or environmental aspects of STG. So this is one, clearly there is a massive effort going on to connect the unconnected or underconnected. But at the same time, we are seeing a very rapid advancement of technologies. I came up with a simple formula that the intelligence multiplied by speed. And that is really pushing the envelope on a daily basis, that AI, data analytics, as I said, have been becoming our daily life. And that speed of development is really fascinating. So how to reconcile these two aspects of inclusion and advancing the rapid development of technology I think is our major challenge moving forward in Asia and the Pacific. What about ITU's initiatives? How is ITU helping to move this forward, connecting the unconnected? So one of the major initiatives we are implementing to reconcile these two aspects is the Smart Village Smart Island, which is gaining recognition and traction in the Pacific as well as other countries in Asia and the Pacific. This initiative aims to not only provide connectivity to unconnected communities but also encourage the community engagement, focusing on vulnerable groups of women, people with disabilities, youth and older generation. And at the same time, we are promoting the whole of government approach so that it's not only the ICT sector's initiative but involving education, health, agriculture, commerce and the whole business community to come on board so that this community connectivity will be sustained and expanded by the community as well as businesses. And I hope that this initiative will also provide a platform for the UN so that different UN agencies can come and join, implement their initiatives as well as the platform for partners who will come and join and utilise the connectivity that ITU provides. And I believe that this initiative can really show the value of ITU as the core convener of this whole partnership initiative. And finally, I'd like to ask you, in terms of the key takeaways of these three weeks that we've been living here in Bucharest under these walls here at the Palace of the Parliament what do you think will be the key takeaways for member states in the Asia-Pacific region and perhaps around the globe as well? I think this confidence really emphasised the importance of communication, collaboration and coordination on different topics. We see some of the different topics of different views where a member country may or may not agree on all points but perhaps we can find common ground within the region and perhaps that can be translated into action and partnership although that may be different from region to region but I think that could be a good way forward to really localise and have this communication conversation within the region where the predicaments and environments are quite similar and perhaps they can agree on the common ground. And I hope that the regional office in Asia-Pacific can be involved and can support such regional dialogue. So Koko, thank you very much for joining us in the studio and we look forward to hearing a lot more of some great forward thinking plans and actions in your region. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you.