 Welcome to the ITU Plenty Potentiary Conference 2018 here in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, where I'm very pleased to be joining the studio today by Nagwa El-Shanawi, who is the Under Secretary for Information for the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology for Egypt. El-Shanawi, thank you very much for joining us in the studio today. Thank you for you, it's a pleasure for me. Now I'd like to start off by talking a little bit about the fact that there's currently considerable attention being placed on harnessing the power of information and communication technologies on ICTs as an enabler for good for the development of a benefit of people, families, communities and nations. I wanted to ask you what is your personal perspective on this? ICT really is a key enabler and key driver for the development of any nation all over the world and this is what already happened in our country. And this is backing really to more than 30 years when the government introduced the ICT in Egypt. And this also was supported by the first plan, a strategic plan for really for building the infrastructure and develop the required regulation for the ICT in our country. And this was followed after this by another very important plan was the transformation to the information society and introducing the e-applications in all our life. And then the third phase was the plan for exporting Egypt ICT services. Egypt became one of the important location, attractive location for exporting as for being outsourcing country among the region and worldwide as well. And finally by the last transformation and the last phase we already started right now, which is the phase of transformation the country into digital society. The information technology is really a part of our life, it is integrated in all our life, whether it is professional life or whether it's personal life. WhatsApp, Facebook, Egypt is the first country among the user of Facebook and Twitter and the social media within the Arab regions. It's becoming really, it's very important for communication, for benefiting from each other, for sharing our ideas, our really, for taking sometimes advice, for communicating with our friends, for also for really executing some of our work through all of this. So it's really, it affects our life positively as I see right now. This plenipotentiary conference is the first since the world agreed on the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. Perhaps you could provide us with some examples of how ICTs are helping to drive sustainable development in your country. ICT is playing a great role in helping in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goal. And this is through the Ministry of Communication Information Technology, which is already working closely with the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Justice. We have a huge programme and strategy for example for the education to integrate the ICT in the schools, connecting our schools with broadband. We have a pilot project now, right now, which will be, which is already launched and we'll see our results very soon. So we believe that it will help to improve the education process in our country. As well as we have another also programme with the Ministry of Health in order really to improve the health care provided to all the citizens in our country to reach to have electronic health record for every citizen in our country. Right now as well we had started a programme with the Ministry of Justice in order to improve the services like for example issuing an ID or renewing a licence or driving licence for the people. So all of these are right now are included. So developing the services and making these services better and better to our citizens, so really we help it in this. In addition to this, I also, one of the important sustainable development goal is for empowering the women. ICT really empowered our women. The Ministry of Communication for Mission Technology launched a promising initiative for empowering women using ICT. We had a platform now, it is the first in its kind among the region and among I guess many developing countries. We tried to provide different services to reach the woman to help her to be educated to be trained using ICT to start her small business. As well as to see a successful and role model of other ladies and other young female who already use the ICT in order to really to have a better life and to generate money for her. And as well as to help her in having a better and successful career. So really we already have this programme. We started to see the outcome of this programme to our country. I guess the ICT is helping a lot in achieving the sustainable development goal. That's great news. I just wanted to ask you about half the world's people are connected to the internet. The other half is not. What is your country doing to get everyone connected? The Ministry continue in its plan to already to helping our people and our citizen to be connected to the ICT. Right now based on the latest statistics we have around 50% of the individual are connected to the internet. So the Ministry continue in its plan to connecting the other people especially the remote area. And this is through developing the infrastructure, through also disseminating the fibre optics in order to have better quality and also speed internet services provided to every people. In addition to this we know that some of the places maybe will face still more problems in the connection but also the Ministry try with all the stakeholders to find other solution to deploy adequate technology in order to reach people and to increase the penetration in our country and accessibility as well as the usage. Also the program for the innovation because really ICT is driving the innovation in our country. We have our use now benefit in the universities. We have now a clusters of innovation in the university using ICT. So the Ministry is continuing to develop more and more programs through its different plans and follow the implementation in order to benefit the country and to benefit every people and to connect the rest of the population in our country. Finally I'd like to offer you the opportunity to pass a message on here, not just of the participants at the ICT who played a potential but also to our wider audience as well. For me it's my first experience in the planning potential. So it was really I found that it's a great experience for me. I participated through the Arab region and in cooperation with the other region existing in the ICT in the planning potential. I was responsible on some of the resolution. It was really I found it very great experience and new experience for me. I learned a lot and I helped to reach as well as the benefit for my region as well as for the benefit of the other region and the benefit of the ICT itself in our future plans, strategic plans, future resolutions as well to be enhanced and to be implemented in a way which really all of us we are proud and we are happy and satisfied about it in the next coming four years. Negrosia, now we are under secretary for information for the Ministry of Communication Information Technology Egypt. Thank you for joining us in the studio today. Thank you so much. Thank you.