 Good morning to you all, distinguished commissioners, Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, let me offer you a very warm welcome to Dublin. It is a real pleasure and a great honor to have so many of you here today with us in this beautiful city. I would like to thank our friend Denis O'Brien in particular for his kind invitation and for hosting this ninth meeting of the Broadband Commission. Your generous Irish hospitality this weekend has been absolutely tremendous. We have been welcomed with open arms, and I have been reminded time and time again in the past days of the truth behind the local saying, there is no strangers in Ireland, only friends you haven't yet met. And indeed, this is how we felt, Denis. Here, a wonderful conference we had in Mexico City under the chairmanship of Carlos Liv. He's not with us today, but we have another Carlos. Before we move ahead, let me also thank President Kagami for his unwavering support of this commission and also for the hosting of the Transform Africa Summit in Rwanda last October, which was held to take stock of the progress to date and to set the agenda for the coming years in Africa in terms of broadband access. The summit was attended by seven African heads of state, as well as 46 ministers and over 2,000 participants. It focused on the theme, the future delivered today and encapsulating the tremendous spirit of optimism and confidence which we see right across Africa now and which will help drive forward broadband development and rapid social and economic progress, such as we have never seen before. The principal outcome which was adopted by the summit was a smart Africa manifesto, any implementation framework, the Smart Africa Alliance, both of which were subsequently endorsed by the African heads of state at the subsequent African Union Assembly in Addis Ababa in January. Mr. President, thank you for the leadership you've shown in this, and indeed we feel privileged that we have a leader like you. The summit noted the extraordinary progress which has already been made in large parts due to solid and continued infrastructure investment. It was also therefore very pleased to see that we were able to have the first physical meeting of the broadband commission's working group on finance and investment here in Dublin yesterday afternoon, and indeed we came with some very solid recommendations. At this juncture, I would like also to thank Azerbaijan for having hosted our broadband commission meeting last January in Davos. As you know, the World Economic Forum has requested that the commission meets there in Davos, highlighting the important role of this commission over the years, and Azerbaijan has kindly accepted to continue to host such annual event. And the next of this, there is a little brochure that highlights the key results of that broadband commission meeting in Davos, and indeed I would like to invite you all to take a look at it, and invite you also for the next meeting, which will be January 22nd, I believe, in Davos again, so all commissioners are invited. Ladies and gentlemen, as usual we have a full agenda, so I will be as brief as possible, and I very much want to make sure that we have plenty of time for open discussions. We start this morning with a session on broadband and the MDGs, looking at where we stand today and the shape of the sustainable development agenda moving forward. As the Millennium Development Goal progress process comes to a close, we are already well advanced in shaping the successful framework to the MDGs. Let me therefore strongly encourage each and every one of you to make your voices heard louder and clearer than ever to ensure that broadband is properly recognized as a crucial element of the development process. In the second morning session, we'll be looking at the changing role of telecom operators and content providers, and I'm confident that there will be a challenging and stimulating discussion on this topic, as we have representatives from all stakeholders here in this room. After lunch, our third substantive session will look at challenges and solutions for rural broadband, a subject which is close to my own heart and close to the hearts of many of you here today. We will then have time for an open and interactive dialogue between commissioners on the conclusions from the three main sessions today, as well as looking at key priorities for the work of a commission going forward. I would like to hear your suggestions for the future activities of the commission, and of course, we will need to have a discussion on the resources needed to implement these activities. Distinguished commissioners, let me remind ourselves that the goal of the commission is to accelerate the MDGs. We have six months before our September meeting in New York. Over these next six months, let us intensify our efforts in making sure that broadband continues to drive real progress toward meeting the millennial development goals, and is fully recognized as an integral part of the future sustainable development framework. We must amplify the volume of our messaging and speak out at every available opportunity. We have done a great job, but there is still so much more that we can do together. So let me conclude here by encouraging everyone to keep up the momentum, raise the volume and shape the broadband future.