FINISHED COPY

ITU PLENIPOTENTIARY CONFERENCE 2018DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

1 NOVEMBER 2018

0930ROOM A

MORNING PLENARY

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>> CHAIR: Good morning, everybody. Please take your seats and we'll start in 15 seconds.

Thank you. >> CHAIR: Good morning. I would like to thank -- dear

interpreters. I would like to check the channels.Channel No. 1p.>> Good morning, Chair.>> CHAIR: I don't hear anything. >> Good morning, Chairman. Good morning, Chair, English. >> CHAIR: I'm not hearing anything.China, are you taking the floor.Channel No. 3.I cannot hear anything.Audio.Channel No. 4? >> It is working.>> CHAIR: Channel No. 5? I don't hear anything. >> 5 is working.>> CHAIR: Okay.Channel No. 6.

Can you hear anything? >> It works. It works.>> CHAIR: How come I can't hear anything? I can only hear

my voice? Now I can hear. Yes.>> You change the channel -->> CHAIR: No. (Audio issues being worked on).If I can't hear, nothing can happen. Everything will stop.I would like to thank the countries that hosted the

receptions yesterday. Those are Zimbabwe, the Russian Federation, Nigeria, Kuwait, and Mexico. Thank you very much.

Our agenda for today can be found in ADM/18. I'm submitting it for your approval.

Okay. Approved.Before I go through it, I would like to make an

announcement.As we have decided at the first document, we have

information document number 7 this morning, the contributions as we discussed in the first Plenary, if you want to take note of that.

Now we move to the second item in our Agenda, that is election of Secretary-General and the Deputy Secretary-General. Kindly listen carefully.

We'll now proceed to the election for the post of Secretary-General and Deputy Secretary-General of ITU. The room has been divided into five blocks numbered from 1, 2, 3, 4, and the one in the middle, 5. Each block has a voting station.

Document 75 lists all Member States having the right to vote within each block. Please look at the floor plan on the screen to find your voting station. Also, in document ADM/4 you will find instructions on how to fill out the ballot.

I strongly recommend that you carefully read these instructions in order not to have your vote declared invalid.

Finally, you must bring your badge to the voting station for verification and scanning.

I will now give the floor to the Chairman of Committee 2, Ms. Sameera Belal Momen, to inform us of any transfer of powers or proxy.

Chairwoman, the floor is yours.>> COMMITTEE 2 CHAIR: We have noted that a transfer of

powers has been given by Marshall Islands to the United States, and from Qatar to Oman. I refer you all to the Document 78 and 86 of the conference.

Thank you, Chair. >> CHAIR: Thank you.The Member States who have a transfer of powers and who will

therefore cast two ballots for each election are invited to cast

each ballot at the voting station of the respective Member State.The 5 tellers who will oversee this election are already in

place.The teller representing Region A is at ballot box 1,Region B at 2,Region C at 3 further back,Region D at 4, andRegion E at 5, that's in the middle.The secretariat is now handing out two separate ballot

papers, one for each election, together with a pen, to all delegations having the right to vote and present in the room. Ballot instructions are available in document ADM/4. Delegations having received a Transfer of powers from another Delegation will

receive four ballot papers, two for each election, plus a pen. The ballot paper for the Secretary-General is blue and the one for Deputy Secretary General is yellow.

Each delegation is requested to complete the two ballot papers at the same time so that the two ballot papers may be put in the ballot box one after the other.

I repeat:Each delegation is requested to complete the two ballot

papers at the same time so that the two ballot papers may be put in the ballot box one after the other.

In accordance with No. 131 of the General Rules, once the voting has begun, it cannot be interrupted, unless a point of order has been raised in connection with the way in which the vote is being taken. I'm referring to this. I'm sorry. The election will begin as soon as

I announce its beginning and will end when I announce the results of the vote.

The doors of this meeting room will remain closed throughout the voting process, and will be opened again once the casting of ballots has been completed and the ballot boxes are moved to the green room for counting. You may leave the room but you will not be allowed to come back in.

The ballot papers have a computer-generated identification box in the lower right hand corner which permits the papers to be identified as being used in a specific round for a specific election. The box is identical on all ballot papers in the specific round. It is not possible to use the box to identify who has completed any specific ballot paper.

If a delegate makes a mistake when completing a ballot paper once the vote has started, the delegate should raise the point of order paddle. Just raise it.

The secretariat will collect and destroy the ballot paper in question and provide a new one.

The Secretary of the meeting will call out the French short names of the Member States having the right to vote within each block by groups of 15.

The Secretary will call all Member States having the right to vote once, and then a second call for those who have not yet voted. Following this last call,.

Which is the second one,I will declare the voting process closed.Are there any questions.I have got Jordan on my list. Jordan.>> JORDAN: Good morning, everyone.Since I'm speaking for the first time in the Plenary

session, I would like to congratulate you on your election as the Chair of this conference, I wish you every success.

Mr. Chair, I asked for the floor at the beginning of the meeting under Agenda item 1 but I wasn't given the floor unfortunately. I would like for the Agenda to be put up on the screen prior to adoption, but since it has been adopted, I have a request for clarification.

Committee 2, which -- which has presented its report to the Plenary session following the consideration of the documents, since this Committee only meets once, and you know that the countries that did not have the credentials or not full credentials have to be -- have to present their credentials, we need to have a list of countries whose host credentials have just been fulfilled or not fulfilled and this needs to be done prior to the vote so that we know how many votes are planned.

>> CHAIR: As for your question, I will refer it to the legal adviser to respond.

>> LEGAL ADVISER: Thank you very much, Chair, Delegates. Good morning.To respond to the question raised by the Delegate of Jordan,

I would like to remind you that during the first Plenary meeting it was decided that the credential Committee, Committee 2, will submit its final report to the Plenary session on Thursday, 8th of November. That's next Thursday. While waiting for this report, this is namely while awaiting decisions on the Plenary session on the final report from the credentials Committee, all Delegations can participate in the work, and I would like to underscore -- to exercise the right to vote of that country. In other words, all Delegations who are at the conference and who have the right to vote, if they're not in arrears of their payments or if they're not ratified to the Constitution Delegation, all of these Delegations have the right to vote. Therefore it is on this basis that the elections will take place.

Thank you very much, Chairman.

>> CHAIR: Thank you.I have got Federation of Russia.Russia, please.>> RUSSIA FEDERATION: Thank you, Mr. Chair.We would like to ask for clarification:You mentioned the distribution between groups depending on

their regional divisions of the Union. We see a different division in the Document 75. As far as we can see this is based on the alphabet. Do we understand that the country distribution is based on Document 75? Do we understand this correctly?

>> SECRETARIAT: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.To clarify, Document 75 presents the list of Member States

per voting station.>> CHAIR: I hope that answers the question or the query.Now we'll proceed.Before starting the vote, all Delegations having the right

to vote should have two ballot papers, one blue and one yellow. If not, please identify yourselves.

I can see from up here that the ballots are being distributed. I will ask before we start again. Hopefully you will get them all.

Is that New Zealand.New Zealand?>> NEW ZEALAND: Thank you, Chair. I think we have to wait

until we get there in the alphabet but we haven't gotten there yet.

Thank you.>> CHAIR: Thank you.I will wait a minute. Did everybody get the papers.>> SECRETARIAT: Please, if you can look at the end of the

room, ushers, the number of countries that are requesting for ballot papers. Please raise your yellow card if you have not received -- please -- go in the back. Go there. .

Switzerland would like to take the floor.Gambia.I would kindly ask you to be careful. You might step on the

button or the speaker without knowing.>> HOULIN ZHAO: Find your staff to distribute papers to the

last row, please. Quickly. >> CHAIR: Again, I would like to ask, does every country

have the ballot papers? Okay.I believe all Delegations having the right to vote now have

two ballot papers each.U.S.A. and Oman should have four -- Gambia? Ushers? Gambia

on the right, far right row column. .

I would like to ask Oman and U.S.A., do you have four ballot papers?

>> OMAN: Yes.>> CHAIR: Thank you.>> UNITED STATES of AMERICA: Yes, Chairman. We do.>> CHAIR: Thank you very much. Now I'll dress the security, could you pleaseclose the doors to the Plenary room?I now declare that the voting has begun and give the floor

to the Secretary.>> SECRETARIAT: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I shall now call out the list of Member States having the

right to vote in the French alphabetical order within each voting block by group of 15.

Colombia is requesting for the floor.As each Member State with the right tovote is invited to go to their voting station with the two

ballot papers and his or her badge. In addition to the ballotpapers, you may wish to refer to the document containing the

designation of Member States by voting station, document 75. Please look carefully as well at the voting instructions that have been published in Document ADM/4.

Let me remind delegates to please use the pens supplied by the secretariat to mark their ballot. I would also request that you keep these pens for the following elections. If any delegation does not have a pen, I would ask them to please identify themselves..

You all have a pen? Okay.

Please note as well that the voting procedure requires that delegates mark their ballot with an "X" -- and only an "X" -- in the appropriate box to indicate their choice. I request all delegates to

regain their seats when they have cast their votes. The doors of the Plenary Hall will remain closed during the voting.

So that delegations can see where the five voting stations are located, I will ask the staff at those stations to hold the ballot boxes in the air in consecutive order from 1 to 5.

The ballot boxes are transparent so that you can see that they are empty. Please,

Box 1.Box 2.Box 3.Box 4.Box 5, in the middle.I will now start calling Member States for voting station

number 1.

Can I continue?>> CHAIR: Hold on..Gabon.>> GABON: I wanted to say that we can't see the list -- I

can't see our country list in the voting station number 4. We do have the right to vote.

>> CHAIR: Gambia. >> GAMBIA: Gabon, station number 1, on the right-hand side. >> I don't see our name there, and we have the right to

vote.>> SECRETARIAT: I would like to clarify that you only see on

the screen the Member States that will be called for the first -- the first batch for each voting station. So your name, if you have the right to vote, you will be called later. I have allowed three batches per voting station. I will call all Member States having the right to vote.

Please be patient.>> CHAIR: If you remember, I have mentioned that the

countries will be called out in groups of 15. Everyone will be called out.

Can you can clear the list.Are you requesting the floor? >> GUINEA-BISSAU: I would like some clarification. In

terms of Guinea, we have two Guineas -- I think there are three Guineas here, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Papua New Guinea -- and I think we need to be a bit more specific here, if not at the end we may run into some problems.

Thank you. >> CHAIR: Thank you.>> SECRETARIAT: We will use the list, the official list of

Member States. We have taken note of the request from Guinea-Bissau.

I will proceed with the call for station number 1.[Refer to slide] >> SECRETARIAT: I'll call the first 15 countries for station

2. [Refer to slide] I will now read the first 15 countries for station number 3.[Refer to slide]Voting station 4, I will call the 15 first countries.[Refer to slide]Now we're going to start to come back to voting station

number 1, and I'm now going to call 15 additional Member States.[Refer to slide]We'll go to voting station number 2, and I'm now going to

call 15 additional Member States.[Refer to slide]

I'm now going to continue with voting station number 3, and start with batch number 2.

[Refer to slide]Voting station 4, and continue with batch number 2.[Refer to slide] .I will now move to voting station number 5, and call for

second group of countries. I will start. [Refer to slide]I'll come back to voting station number 1 and continue with

batch number 3. [Refer to slide]Please kindly change the screen on -- the slide on the

screen, please, with batch number 3. Okay.[Refer to slide]Let's move now to voting station number 2 and I'll call the

third batch.[Refer to slide] I will now move to voting station 3 with batch number 3.[Refer to slide]let's now move to voting station 4 for the batch number 3.[Refer to slide] I now move to voting station 5 with batch for number 3.[Refer to slide]>> CHAIR: I would like to ask Delegations, did we miss any

Member State who has the right to vote? If yes, please request the floor. I see none. Thank you.

Shortly we'll proceed with the second announcement, and that's going to be the last one.

Thank you.>> SECRETARIAT: Mr. Chairman, I proceed to the last call for

Member States having the right to vote which have not yet voted.>> CHAIR: Go ahead.>> SECRETARIAT: Voting station number 3.[Refer to slide]Voting station number 4.[Refer to slide] .Voting station number 5. [Refer to slide] Mr. Chairman, I have now concluded my list.

I pass you the floor back. >> SECRETARIAT: Thank you, Secretariat of the Plenary.I now declare that the casting of ballots is closed. Now, the Tellers and ITU staff, please proceed to the Green

Room with the ballot boxes.Please make space. Thank you. Please note that under the

supervision of the tellers, in the Green Room, the ballot boxes will now be opened and the ballot papers counted. The results will be announced as soon as they are available.

Security, you may open the doors now.While the tellers are counting the votes, I propose that we

continue policy statements. I would kindly request the speakers to come to the front seats, please.

I would ask if His Excellency Dr. Amr Talaat, Minister of Communications, responsible for Posts and Telecommunications, Djibouti, the floor is yours.

>> DJIBOUTI: Mr. Chairman -->> CHAIR: Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats. I

would like the room to be quiet. We're going to start the policy statements.

Thank you.>> DJIBOUTI: Dear colleagues, Secretary-General of the

Union, ladies and gentlemen:On behalf of the Delegation, I have the honor to lead and on

my own behalf I would like to thank the government and people of the United Arab Emirates, as well as the telecommunication administration and the Management Team of the ITU, I would like to thank all those contributing to the success of this meeting which we expect to deal with the future of the ICT sector for the next four years.

Your Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, ladies and gentlemen, today digital sovereignty means mastering state-of-the-art technology in the area of cybersecurity and sharing information with our partners.

Information constitutes the main driver of growth. In Djibouti we're experiencing a rise in awareness about the contribution of ICTs to social and economic development. The ITU vision to connect the world by 2020 is fully in line with the vision of our President with his 2035 Djibouti Vision to turn Djibouti into regional hub in the area of ICTs.

Since the reform of the telecommunications sector undertaken at the end of the '90s the Republic of Djibouti has established a legal framework for the development of telecommunication services and infrastructures. Because of its privileged geographic position, Djibouti is an important hub for international transit of submarine cables at the center of the Arab world and at the crossroads of East and Western Africa and Asia. For this reason, we believe it is our obligation to fully ensure that our communication networks and standards are up to the international level.

Our strategic plan for the development of the ICT sector is mainly based on the following: On strengthening our ICT infrastructure, high speed broadband, it is a reality in Djibouti with fiber to the whole eGovernment and for schools and hospital pace, they're linked through broadband network and networks jointly installed with the assistance of the ITU establishing a

visionary Digital Djibouti Project which seeks to make Djibouti a model of ICTs in this subregion.

The submarine regional cable project which has recently been launched.

To conclude, I express the wish that the new era of peace established in the Horn of Africa may be a sign to the development of ICTs in order to support economic growth and to serve as a source of new jobs through increased governance, mainly through harmonious and digital governance.

Your Excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, my Delegation has a great -- has great hopes with regard to our work which will determine the future of our region for the next four years. I would like to assure you that the Djibouti administration will give special attention to the principles adopted at the end of this Plenipotentiary Conference of the ITU.

To conclude, I would like to thank the International Telecommunication Union for the collaboration and multifaceted technical assistance provided to our country in the area of ICTs. I remain convinced that the work of the Plenipotentiary Conference will be crowned with success.

Thank you for your kind attention.>> CHAIR: Thank you, Djibouti.Ladies and gentlemen, I still hear noise.>> Comoros: Your Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies

and gentlemen.>> CHAIR: His Excellency, Abdallah Said Sarouma, Minister of

Posts and Telecommunications, Comoros.The floor is yours.>> Comoros: Excellencies, distinguished guests,

Distinguished Delegates, ladies and gentlemen:In the name of God, the merciful and the compassion, on

behalf of the Delegation of the Union of Comoros I would like to join the previous speakers in expressing my gratitude to the United Arab Emirates authorities for the warm welcome extended to us and for their generous hospitality accorded to us since our arrival in Dubai.

It is with great at faction and profound joy that I use this opportunity to present to this distinguished audience the main principles of our policies in the ICT sector, and the activities undertaken and inspired from the Resolution 2020 Connect taken by our organization during the previous conference in Busan in 2014.

I'm pleased to express from this podium our vision with regard to the challenges and prospects of a world which is changing under the influence of technical innovations. The President of the Union of Comoros has in his vision and policy in the emergence of the country by 2030 put the ICT sector at the center of this vision given its cross-cutting nature and

implementing this policy on emergence of the country and the various goals of the 2020 resolution we have understood that the growth expected from the ICT sector and the improvement of access cannot be ensured within the framework of a monopolistic market.

Since 2015 we have liberalized the sector both with the arrival of a second mobile operator and the establishment of an operator in charge of managing submarine infrastructure. These two measures have enabled us to ensure telephone density of 71% at a rate of national coverage of 92% A bit more than 6,000 inhabitants of the 815,000 living in the Union of Comoros now have access to mobile telephone and potentially also Internet access. All subscribers are also connected to 4G or 4.5G networks of the two operators. We are seeing a significant reduction in telecommunication tariffs and an increased number of products and services being offered.

With regard to connectivity, the Union of Comoros has today international submarine optic links with the capacity exceeding 50 gigabits per second through undersea cables and island networks. At the end of 2019, another submarine cable financed by the IDA fund through the RCIP4 project has secured and extended this capacity, but already now efforts are being made to ensure access to Internet network and provide broadband access to all, and this with the installation of terrestrial -- of terrestrial backbone infrastructure on each of the three islands since the year 2016.

Comoros is trying to ensure through this infrastructure general access to the Internet and ensure lower costs for the population, the goal of Connect 2020. The government is part of this sectorial policy and Digital Comoros Strategy plans to ensure the provision of digital services over the territory in order to install fiber optics and other technologies, broadband technologies bringing it to the homes of users and ensure that most households have access to Internet by 2023.

We take this opportunity to invite any investors that would be interested by this activity to approach our Delegation and to express their interest. The geographic position of the Union of Comoros together with the infrastructures and business environment, it attracts a young population that's trained and qualified in a number of areas and is also multi-lingual are some of the advantages for developing offshore activities, call centers, translation sectors and other out sourcing businesses. We invite you to adopt these new organizational forms and to come outsource your businesses here.

In implementing goals 3 and 4, the Union of Comoros through the University of Comoros is participating in the projects Indian Ocean cybersecurity, an initiative that seeks to develop training actions and support actions to promote research in the area of

cybersecurity on the islands and the southeast eastern and South Western islands of the Indian Ocean. It has also signed partnership and cooperation agreements with Madagascar, Morocco and Senegal.

Distinguished audience, ladies and gentlemen, the Union of Comoros, like other nations that are present here, has joined every four years this important meeting in order to support the ambitious projects and the forward-looking vision of the ITU with a sole aim of making ICTs the backbone of development at the global level.

The contribution of each nation is vital in terms of providing diversity and talents. We need to build an interconnected, inclusive world which is confident in the use of ICTs. With the support and the advice of our partners, in particular, the International Telecommunication Union and the World Bank, we have come a long way but we still need to go a long way.

Distinguished audience, as a Minister in charge of telecommunications and despite my numerous political responsibilities, acting to promote and develop the ICT sector remains the motive of my actions. I urge the players of the sector and all the stakeholders to promote the strategic principles defined by the ITU because we must create conditions where each of us can have the possibility to create, obtain, use and share information, knowledge in record times and at low cost.

Long live the international community, long live the ITU.Thank you.>> CHAIR: Thank you, Comoros.Excuse me, those that are standing in the back either you

sit or please leave the room. It is noisy. Out of courtesy for our distinguished speakers, I think we have to offer some sort of respect. We can't start policy statements with a noisy room.

Thank you.I would like to invite Blanca Noemi Coto Estrada, General

Superintendency of Electricity and Telecommunications, SIGET.>> EL SALVADOR: His Excellency Majed Almesmar, be Secretary

of The conference, Mr. Secretary-General, Houlin Zhao, elected officials of the ITU, ladies and gentlemen, good morning to all of you. Firstly, allow me to thank God who has given us life and who allowed us to be here together this morning.

The Republic of El Salvador would like to express its gratitude and congratulate to the host country for the successful and excellent organization of this Plenipotentiary Conference which is taking place in this majestic City of Dubai. Congratulations, Chairman.

El Salvador which is in the center of the Central America has moved towards technological development of our country in the

last four years. We have strengthened our relationship with the ITU and achieved important steps in terms of telecommunications which have given huge benefits to the population of El Salvador.

Our country through strategic pillars of the digital Agenda which is called good well-being for El Salvador has included the goals of growth, innovation and innovation in the strategic plan of ITU for the ITU strategic plan for 2020-2023. As we have done, we're driving forward digital connectivity, new Mobility and access to broadband in order to increase penetration of ICTs throughout the country and reducing the digital divide and developing social inclusion in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals, the SDGs.

From digital government, we're also offering the people of our country an easy and fast and direct access to institutions and services of the state, contributing to the development of the social democratic part of the country. We have a number of social programs which include the strengthening and the constructing of ICT capacity building to put in place training courses to ensure the success of the technological advance of the country leading to optimizing of human resources, and therefore moving forward on innovation.

Furthermore, we have strengthened the public service sector, we have made special endeavors to improve technological skills of the young people of our country from young ages through to adolescents. In schools we have put Internet and connectivity in place and also putting in place computer teams with a public-private partnership with the Government of the Republic and different entities from the private sector and non-government organizations working in El Salvador. We'll always have the regulatory environment which enables SMEs working to migrate from the Internet of the consumer to protection Internet in order to drive forward GDP and distributions of the wealth throughout the country. Moving from the larger companies and reaching all the production sectors of the economy of our country, and above all, to guarantee, and to work and achieve the development of people. We have updated our legal frameworks in order to have a digital governance based on the Information Society. This has a special emphasis on the themes of prevention for security of digital information.

How we have achieved this? Firstly, we have renovated 100% of our telephone mobile operators and the broadband which is used throughout the country in order to fully make use of the radio spectrum sane we're offering a transparent administration process guaranteeing legal certainty and to strengthen investment in the telecommunication and ICT sector. Recently we have implemented modern standards in order to improve the quality of telecommunications and ICTs, in particular in telephony public

services and transmission of data services which ensures that the services of the people receive is based on international ITU standards and which increases customer satisfaction. I would also like to share with you some very good news at the end of this year we will put in place 140 additional megahertz on the radio spectrum in order to guarantee that people can have better and improved services, not only within 1900 megahertz, but another important band in the 700 megahertz band and also I would like to share with you that this year we aim to have migration to digital television from analogue.

To develop our Agenda, we also have a presidential -- a high-level Presidential Committee which, as you know, will need multiple stakeholders from different areas of the government and society in order to make the most of ICTs and to change telecommunications and ICTs into a state policy because they have a high impact on social development of our people. The progress we have made in the last few years has had the support of the ITU. I would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to the Secretary-General of the ITU, Mr. Houlin Zhao, and to the directors of the bureau for having supported our region, and also and in particular the support given to El Salvador and to have given us the technical assistance that was required and to share the valuable experiences with us.

The member countries of CITEL and El Salvador, we're a part of this, we're supporting the Inter-American proposals related to broadband connectivity measuring ICTs to build informed, inclusive cities, accessibility in ICTs for those people from different areas of society and those living with different disabilities, and also having a gender's perspective in ITU and to empower women for the development of women through ICTs using telecommunications to prevent and manage emergencies, in particular in the case of million natural disasters using early warning systems as an efficient mechanism to guarantee lives and to reduce the disastrous affects leading to a national coordinated relief response. Children online protection is also essential as well as the empowering of young people, giving them the necessary tools for their full enjoyment of telecommunications and ICTs in a safe manner.

El Salvador, like other countries here today, we have an aim which is to achieve a technological development and innovation. We're here with you today with this desire to work together as part of an important region, the center of the Americas region, from Central America and we would like to offer our commitment to work together, a commitment and our hearts even to guarantee that through telecommunications the citizens of the world can improve their poverty of life. Likewise, to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, therefore from the ITU Council, El Salvador

would like to urge that we still create a future between us all here together. We're very privileged and we have a really important role to play in our countries and throughout the world to continue to create futures and may God bless us all.

Thank you very much. >> CHAIR: Thank you, El Salvador.I would like to invite His Excellency Nicholas Harry Dausi,

Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority.

>> MALAWI: Your Honor, Chair of PP-18, Secretary-General, your team, Your Excellency, colleagues, Ministers, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the Government of the people of the Republic of Malawi allow me to bring greetings from the warm heart of Africa.

Mr. Chairman, on this occasion of the 2018 Plenipotentiary Conference, PP-18, let me start by congratulating the Chairman for your able leadership and tutelage. I thank the host, the Government and the people of the United Arab Emirates for the warm and excellence hospitality accorded to us since our arrival in this beautiful emirate of Dubai. Let me also thank the ITU Secretary General, Mr. Houlin Zhao, and his team for the excellent stewardship of our organization and all member states present here for the commitment shown so far in this conference.

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, Malawi as a country recognizes ICT as a key pillar for economic development as evidenced by its inclusion in the Malawi Growth and Development Strategies and the enactment of a National ICT Policy to guide the development of the sector.

In view of the ITU developmental goals, Malawi has embraced all aspects of The ITU Connect 2020 vision and targets including growth, inclusiveness, sustainability, innovation and partnership. The following steps have thus been undertaken;

Malawi reviewed the Communications Act 2016, E-Transaction and Cybersecurity Act of 2016 which will improve ICT utilization and access as well as facilitating easier access to the Universal Service Fund as a sustainable financing source;

The country is encouraging competition by among others implementing a converged licensing framework and introducing walk-in-application, previously, we used to invite application, for almost all the licenses in the sector;

We are establishing the fiber backbone to connect to the submarine cables through the Regional Communications Infrastructure Project Malawi, RCIP-MW, and the national fiber backbone project;

We are implementing the Multipurpose Community Telecentres Project as well as the piloting of Television White Spaces, TVWS, project for rural broadband internet access as a

way of providing ICT access to rural areas;In order to address the supply and demand gaps in the

country's broadband network, Malawi has formulated a national Broadband strategy and the Cybersecurity strategy to guide the process;

The country is implementing the digital migration project in line with regional and global deadlines and the harmonization of the digital dividend in order to facilitate socioeconomic development of our country; and

Finally, and certainly not the least, we are championing financial inclusion through mobile money platforms.

Mr. Chairman, these are just a few among the many strategies which Malawi as a nation is pursuing to promote ICT development. It is therefore our considered view that the efforts being done by our country will facilitate bridging of the digital divide in line with ITU "Connect 2020" vision, goals and targets.

In conclusion, let me take this opportunity to thank ITU leadership for the support which it has been rendering to my country. The ITU Experts assisted us in the development of E-Waste Management strategy and we are expecting experts in the month of November to conduct a cybersecurity training and assist in the establishment of our national CERT.

On behalf of my delegation I wish to express my gratitude to you for the able manner you are handling this conference and I have no doubt that this will be a highly successful Plenipotentiary conference and I wish you well for the rest of the conference.

I thank you.>> CHAIR: Thank you, Malawi.Now we'll break for a short coffee break, 15 minutes, and

we'll reconvene back at 11:35.Thank you. [Break]>> CHAIR: Ladies and gentlemen, would you like to hear the

results or would you like to continue talking? I want to see how noisy you're going to be.>> HOULIN ZHAO: Thank you. Dear colleagues, I hope you enjoyed the coffee break and we

discussed with the Chairman, it would be better to have a coffee break so that Delegates can go there and to be satisfied with their efforts to use the coffee break to lobby for their positions, could it be done. So we went there. This is also first time I refuse to make speeches here. They say they want me to make a speech after the Minister speech, I say no, no, I have to go back to the podium. I rush back. Some others, quite a number of delegates are still there. I think that the Minister

himself now is just -- has just made a speech, I think that a few minutes many of our delegates will come back to this room. Please be patient.

Chairman is back.>> CHAIR: I was looking for you. Good morning again.Welcome to the second session of the morning.First I would like to thank Turkey for their coffee break,

coffee reception. Thank you.I'm now waiting for the tellers to deliver the results. It

will be shortly hopefully.I'll tell you what we're going to do now. I'll be

announcing the result of the Secretary-General, then he will have to say a few words, then his country would probably like to take the floor to say a few words. I will not open the floor to the rest of Delegation to congratulate the Secretary-General for the time being until we finish with the Deputy Secretary-General post. I would appreciate your understanding.

I'm pleased to announce that the tellers have completed their work.

I'll now read the results for the election of Secretary-General:

First round: Ballot papers deposited, 178; invalid ballot papers, 0; abstaining, 2; delegations present and voting, 176; the required majority, 89.

Mr. Houlin Zhao received 176 votes, and the result is his being reelected.

I would like to thank the tellers for their hard work.Now I would like to give the floor to His Excellency,

Mr. Zhao to say a few words.The floor is yours.>> HOULIN ZHAO: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.Mr. Chairman, Your Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates,

dear colleagues and friends, ladies and gentlemen:I'm very honored that you have unanimously reelected me as

the Secretary-General of the ITU for 2019 to 2022. I sincerely thank all of you for your confidence in me. At this happy moment, I especially want to express my gratitude, profound gratitude, to the Government of China for their nomination of my candidature. I thank the Ministry of Technology, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, and in particular vice Minister and the Chinese Delegation for their tireless and effective efforts to support and to promote my candidature. I would like to thank all delegates, experts and friends of ITU members, and ITU partners, and to thank the ITU staff for their invaluable trust and support shown to me.

Last but not least, I want to thank my dear wife --

[Applause]-- who has always supported me.Mr. Chairman, over the last two decades more than

telecommunication and the ICT and regulatory services have developed rapidly everywhere with remarkable results of having more than 7 billion mobile phone subscriptions and nearly 4 billion Internet connections at present. However, there's always a request for better service and a better technology. There are still many challenges and difficulties in connecting all human beings on the planet and ensuring equal benefit of services for every individuals. There are a lot of things to be done. ITU has contributed to the work of ICT development in the past and the world needs ITU to continue to work.

I will do my best to work closely with our members to further strengthen our cooperation with our partners and friends, to further improve our transparency and efficiency. To create a better environment for ITU staff to enjoy.

In short, I would like to strive for better and stronger ITU in delivering services to the global telecommunication and Information Society and deliver excellence.

I thank you very much.[Applause].>> CHAIR: Thank you, Mr. Zhao. Again, congratulations. Now I would like to give the floor to China if they would

like to say a few words.>> CHINA: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.Hereby, on behalf of the Chinese Delegation I wish to

congratulate warm congratulations to Mr. Houlin Zhao on his reelection of the Secretary-General of the ITU. At the same time, we wish to express our heartfelt appreciation to Member States for your trust and support to Mr. Zhao.

China will work with all other Member States to fully support the ITU in discharging its important role. For the next four years, China will continue to provide a donation of 2 million U.S. dollars to the ITU to bridge the digital divide and other work items.

[Applause]And improve the world of information in Developing

Countries. We hope that Mr. Zhao during his new term will continue to lead the ITU forward for new and greater accomplishments in promoting the development of the global ICT and digital transformation.

Thank you.>> CHAIR: Thank you, China. Thank you for your generosity.

And now we continue to the post of Deputy Secretary-General.

First round: Ballot papers deposited, 178; invalid ballot

papers, 0; abstaining, 0; delegation present and voting, 178; required majority, 90.

Mr. Brahima Sanou received 65 votes. Mr. Malcolm Johnson received 113 votes. With that, as you can see, Mr. Malcolm Johnson is reelected.

[Applause]I would like to give the floor to the reelected Deputy

Secretary-General Mr. Malcolm Johnson to say a few words.The floor is yours.>> MALCOLM JOHNSON: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.Excellencies, Honorable Delegates, colleagues, friends:I'm honored to have this opportunity to serve the ITU for a

second term as Deputy Secretary-General. I look forward to working with all of you, and continuing my excellent working relationship and friendship with Secretary-General Houlin Zhao for another four years.

[Applause]I'm sure we'll continue our success working with the new

Management Team.I would like to thank the U.K. government for its strong

support for my reelection as Deputy Secretary-General, especially Ministers Lord Ashton and Ahmed and the Ambassador and all of the U.K. team for the tremendous effort.

Vince Affleck has supported me in all five of my elections and will be retiring at the end of this year. So a special thanks to Vince.

I thank sincerely all the Member States that voted for me, for your trust in me and for your continuing support. I also thank Brahima Sanou for his great contribution to the ITU. Like me, he's a champion of the role of ICTs for Sustainable Development. I hope that our Union will continue to benefit from his commitment in the future.

I also thank Brahima for making my --[Applause]-- I would also like to thank Brahima for making my

reelection more exciting than it otherwise would have been.>> HOULIN ZHAO: Boring.>> MALCOLM JOHNSON: I would like to thank Francois Rancy for

his excellent collaboration not only during his last eight years as director of the BR but for over 25 years that we have worked together. It has always been a privilege and a pleasure to have worked with Francois.

Thank you, Francois.[Applause]I would like to thank Chaesub Lee for his collaboration in

the last four years as director of TSB and I look forward to continuing that for the next four years.

I thank the excellent ITU staff for their support and dedication to the Union.

Most of all, I thank my wonderful wife Katherine. I would not be here without her.

[Applause]I'm sorry to have put her through the stress of another

election, but hope you'll be able to relax with me this evening as I have booked dinner for just the two of us.

Forgive me if you don't see me at too many receptions this evening.

[Laughter] Thank you all, again, and I look forward with working with

all of you over the next four years. Thank you, Chairman. >> CHAIR: Thank you.Mr. Johnson, we'll make sure nobody bothers you tonight.Now I would like to give the floor to the United Kingdom to

say a few words.The floor is yours.>> UNITED KINGDOM: On behalf of the United Kingdom, I would

like to warmly welcome both the reelection of Secretary-General Houlin Zhao and Deputy Secretary-General Malcolm Johnson. We're very grateful to the countries who have put their trust in Malcolm to serve a second term as Deputy Secretary-General. We're confident our Union will have a successful future under the leadership of Secretary-General Houlin Zhao and Deputy Secretary-General Malcolm Johnson. We know they'll continue to build on the good work of the ITU to promote telecommunications and ICTs across the world through collaboration and international partnership.

I, too, would also like to recognize Brahima Sanou for his campaign, and for his service to the Development Sector for many years. I would also like to thank the ITU, and especially our hosts here in the United Arab Emirates for their organization of this event to allow for the smooth and efficient running of this election. We wish all delegates a successful conference, and look forward to working with you all in the coming weeks.

[Applause]>> CHAIR: Thank you, U.K. Now I would like to give the floor to Mr. Brahima Sanou to

say a few words.The floor is yours.>> BRAHIMA SANOU: Thank you very much, Chairman.First and foremost, I would like to express my heartfelt

gratitude to you, the Plenipotentiary delegates of the five regions for your votes during this election. Naturally, I would also like to pay my gratitude to the Chairman of Burkina Faso, His Excellency, who has placed such high-level of trust in me,

and the support given to me. This has served as a source of inspiration and motivation. In my future life, I would also like to express my gratitude to His Excellency, the Prime Minister of the government -- of all of the government here, represented by the Minister of the Digital Economy and Postal Economy and the African integration of Burkina Faso for Foreign Affairs. I would like to particular pay my gratitude to His Excellency, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and all of the Diplomatic Corps of Burkina Faso. Furthermore, I would like to pay my gratitude to my campaign team and all of those who have worked tirelessly beside me.

Moreover, I would like to express my gratitude to all of the African Union and all of the members of the Islamic countries that put their faith in me by endorsing my candidacy. Now I would like to say that I'm really proud, very proud of the love and devotion of my wife. If you can please raise your hand -- you're here in the room --and my three children.

I would like to congratulate Malcolm Johnson and wish him happiness in his second term and on his reelection. I would like to pay tribute to him personally and as friend to his wonderful wife Katherine. I would express my appreciation and respect to the administration of the United Kingdom and that of Burkina Faso for the elegance and courtesy which they have shown during the campaign. This clearly shows it is ITU who has won, and that Mr. Malcolm Johnson will also benefit from the support of the United Kingdom as well as the support from Burkina Faso throughout his mandate.

To Mr. Houlin Zhao, I would also like to express my heartfelt gratitude and congratulations for his reelection, and to all of my other directors of the bureau, Mr. Francois Rancy, Mr. Chaesub Lee with whom we have achieved a great deal. We have collaborated with them. I would say thank you for giving me the opportunity for having to work with you. To the ITU staff as well, in particular the staff of the BDT. I would like to acknowledge for the work undertaken every minute of every day, every month, every year.

Chairman of the conference, I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to you and the administration of the U.A.E. for the excellent organization of this conference. I stand convinced that the results of this conference will allow ITU to take a step forward in the different paths ahead in order that the digital divide becomes something of the past. I sincerely hope that this Plenipotentiary Conference is even more successful for all of the members of the ITU.

Long live ITU to the benefit of all and to all humanity.Thank you.>> CHAIR: Thank you, Mr. Brahima Sanou. I fully agree with

you, ITU has won. It is not an individual, but it is the organization that we all support.

Now I would like to give the floor to His Excellency, Houlin Zhao.

The floor is yours.>> HOULIN ZHAO: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.At this special moment, please allow me to express my

gratitude to the members of outgoing team of ITU management. Having enjoyed working with all elected officials over the last four years and I believe we share the same views, as me, that we have worked nicely as a team.

As we have heard the results of the Deputy Secretary-General, Mr. Malcolm Johnson is reelected. I wish to congratulate him for his reelection, and look forward to work with him over the next four years.

Mr. Brahima Sanou, as finishing his mandate as Director of Development Bureau by the end of this year, I would like to express my sincere congratulations for all he has done for ITU over the long period he has served ITU not only as Director of Development Bureau but also as Director of regional office in Africa and some other contributions as a delegate.

I'm sure all of us appreciate his achievement and his dedication to ITU. I wish him all the best in his future.

Mr. Chairman, dear colleagues, friends, once more again, I present my sincere thanks to you all, and I count on you all for the future of ITU, a harmonized information era.

Thank you very much.>> CHAIR: Thank you, Secretary-General. I would like to let you know what we're about to do after

this: There's a lunch being sponsored by Kenya in Zaabeel Hall 1, and then a Ghana lunch at 1:30 in Hall 2 for all participants.

I would like to submit to you by 2:30 we would like to reconvene and start the second -- the first round of election for the Directors of Bureau. I would appreciate if all of you here in the room by 2:30.

I'll allow -- the time is very critical. I would appreciate if heads of the regions could just say a word of congratulations if you like rather than the countries.

Arab Group.>> ARAB GROUP: On behalf of all of the Arab countries, we

wish you a warm welcome to the United Arab Emirates.At the outset, I would like to thank our friend,

Mr. Francois Rancy and to say that he played an important role in the sector. We all appreciate your work and your role in this sector.

We thank you very much.Our friend, Mr. Brahima Sanou, I have very friendly

relations with him, and also as mart of development in a number of projects that we have participated and also to mention the challenge of convergence and ICTs, we thank you for your role in this sector and, of course, we hope we can benefit from your experience in our area and in our country.

Mr. Malcolm Johnson, we congratulate you on your election as the Deputy Secretary-General and we wish you every success. We hope to be able to work in cooperation with you because for the Arab countries and for the entire world, ICTs are the most important area of development and we hope to continue our cooperation with you in the future.

Your Excellency, Mr. Houlin Zhao, we congratulate you on your reelection and of course we have every confidence in you and in your ability to tackle the challenges in the areas of ICTs in particular and in the area of cybersecurity, telecommunication.

We wish you every success and as Arab countries, we will support you always as well as the sector, we'll support you in the future as well.

Thank you.>> CHAIR: Thank you, Arab Group.Once again, I would like the head of regions to take the

floors so we can make it out for lunch.I have got CBT, and I give the floor to Romania.The floor is yours.>> CBT: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm speaking on behalf of

CBT and as European Vice-Chair of this conference.Honorable reelected Secretary-General and Deputy

Secretary-General, on behalf of Europe, I would like to express our sincere congratulations to Mr. Houlin Zhao and to Mr. Malcolm Johnson. We trust that we will continue to all work together for the benefits of the Union in continuous progress and effectiveness in the ITU family that we're all a part of.

We also would like to acknowledge the work of Mr. Brahima Sanou and to thank him for his involvement and dedication.

Thank you very much.>> CHAIR: Thank you.CITEL, I give the floor to Canada. >> CITEL: Mr. Chairman, thank you very much.On behalf of the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission

of Region A as a whole, I would like to express our sincere congratulations to Mr. Malcolm Johnson and to the Secretary-General for their reelections as Secretary-General and Deputy Secretary-General. We would also like to congratulate Mr. Brahima Sanou for the excellent work he undertook as director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau.

Mr. Chairman, we would like to reiterate the commitment of our region to continue working closely with the senior officials

in ensuring the success of the ITU.Thank you.>> CHAIR: Thank you, CITEL.RCC, I give the floor to Russia.>> RCC: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.On behalf of the RCC countries, we too would like to

congratulate the secretary general Mr. Houlin Zhao and the Deputy Secretary-General Mr. Malcolm Johnson on their reelection to the posts. We would also like to thank Mr. Brahima Sanou and Mr. Francois Rancy whose term is coming to an end. We thank them for their excellent work. We worked very closely with them and on behalf of our regional organization, we would like to assure you that we will work together both with the elected Secretary-General and Deputy Secretary-General and the newly reelected bureau directors and we'll make our contribution as in the past to the further development of the ITU which we consider as the most powerful organization in the U.N. family in the area of telecommunications and ICTs and we'll continue to promote this for the benefit of our nations.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.>> CHAIR: Thank you, RCC.I give the floor to Kenya.>> KENYA: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. On behalf of the African Telecommunications Union, I would

like to congratulate Mr. Houlin Zhao and Mr. Malcolm Johnson for their reelection and promise that we'll continue to work very closely with them as an African continent and we will continue to collaborate to ensure that we're changing and improving lives of all our people in the world.

We would also like to thank our son, Brahima Sanou, for the effort that he has made and the contribution he has made to the ITU. We look forward to seeing him have his involvement in our continent as we continue to work together, the ITU family.

Thank you very much.>> CHAIR: Thank you, ATU.Now APT. I had an observer. I have two countries on my list. I would really appreciate

not to open the floor for countries. If I open it, then I'll have to open it for everybody. I would kindly ask you to withdraw from the list.

I have got Belgium and Ghana. Kindly, could you -- are you pressing the button without knowing? Okay.

Belgium has withdrawn. Thank you.Ghana, could you please withdraw.APT, would you like to say something? If yes, can you take

the floor, please, or I'll just close the session and go for

lunch.Philippines.>> APT: Mr. President, Honorable members of this body, the

various delegates and Heads of Delegations, good morning.On behalf of the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity, on behalf of

Australia and New Zealand and the Isles, we extend our heartfelt congratulations to our brother friends, the President, Secretary-General of the ITU, newly elected and Mr. Malcolm Johnson for his reelection of the Deputy Secretary-General.

Like my brother friends, I would like to congratulate Mr. Brahima Sanou and welcome you with Malcolm Johnson as an elegant competition. You have brought us a lot, in the same way that Mr. Malcolm Johnson had helped us, our country, in the region. Also with the newly reelected Secretary-General.

To all of you, thank you for your kindness, your help to my region. To those reelected, my congratulations, and to Mr. Brahima Sanou, my brother friend, I hope to see you some day, again, not only at these times but times where we can help each other again. To various delegates in this assembly, good noon and hope to see you.

Thank you.>> CHAIR: Thank you, APT.Thank you, Ghana, for withdrawing.Again, just a reminder, Kenya lunch is at Zaabeel1 and the

Ghana lunch, it is at Zaabeel2 following.See you at 2:30, please.Thank you.

*** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. This text, document, or file is not to be distributed or used in any way that may violate copyright law.

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