Thank you Mr. Chairman.

Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, it is a great honor for me to make a speech at this Conference here in the beautiful city of Dubai.

On behalf of the Government of Japan, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the efforts by the ITU Secretary-General Mr. Houlin Zhao and the ITU Secretariat for their preparations as well as the Government of the United Arab Emirates who helped to make this Conference possible.

I would also like to express my sincere congratulations to His Excellency Mr. Majed Sultan ALMESMAR on his election as the Chair of this Conference.

Additionally, I would like to congratulate for successful launching of the first UAE locally made satellite. It is our great honor and pleasure that Japan has cooperated with UAE in the field of ICT.

As you know, all Member States should tackle the challenges for achieving the SDGs, which is a global common target. The SDGs are a major part of national strategies to create a future Japan with a sustainable growing society. We re-affirm the importance of ICTs in development, and in contributing to the implementation of SDGs.

Inclusive growth is essential to achieve the SDGs by maximizing the benefits of digitalization, which brings affordable the price of information for everyone from children to the elderly.

For these goals, we must take action to not only bridge the digital divide by promoting universal and affordable broadband access but also to encourage economic growth and innovation by promoting the free flow of information, so that we can achieve sustainable economic growth.

Japan faces such issues as population decrease and an aging society, and recently, responses to several natural disasters.

Development of resilient ICT infrastructure is an essential and valuable strategy to solve these issues and achieve the SDGs which will create a society in which all people, all citizens share affluence and fortune. As a host country of the G20 Summit and Ministerial meetings next June,

Japan sends the message of our SDGs’ promotion and leads the future of the world through promoting the SDGs.

Japan frequently suffers from natural disasters, earthquakes, typhoons and torrential rain which have struck repeatedly this year. Disasters have claimed precious lives and have caused economic damage.

Once again, we appreciate all the assistance and messages of sympathy received from the member countries in the wake of these disasters.

Furthermore we recognize the importance and the powers of ICT as measures to rescue and clear worries of disaster victims and to get the required information for early recovery.

We can contribute to establishing a disaster-resilient network infrastructure and a global scale disaster-prevention network, through sharing our experiences and know-how of ICT usage against natural disasters with countries all over the world.

Due to the growth of the Internet, ICT has advanced to the essential infrastructure of a whole economic society, so that the discussion of ICT issues are not simply closed within the ITU.

Practical and valuable issues of how to effectively use ICT are being discussed in several organizations.

However, the ITU, as a family of United Nations, has been playing an important role to implement the SDGs in management of radio spectrum, establishment of global standards, and development of telecommunication infrastructure and services. We believe that it is vital for the ITU to continue making these steady efforts with close coordination of each organization.

In order to support the ITU in fulfilling its mandate and its further development, Japan would like to continue to commit ourselves to the extension of our financial support of 30 units as one of the largest contributors.

We would also like to contribute to the ITU through active participation in its activities and in this regard, we seek your support for our candidacy for the Council seat. In addition, we have a highly knowledgeable and experienced candidate, Dr. Akira Hashimoto, for the RRB member candidacy and would like to ask for your kind support for him as well.

By the way, the host country of Expo 2025 will be chosen at the General Assembly of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) this November.

Japan announced its candidacy for hosting the World Expo 2025 in Osaka, for which the theme is “Designing the Future Society for Our Lives”.

At the World Expo 2025 in Osaka, we would like to present our future socio-economic vision to all of you, where health care and sports industries and new businesses that apply cutting-edge technologies of the 21st century, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR), will all gather in exciting ways on site.

I would like you to support the World Expo 2025 in Osaka as a golden opportunity to look at and understand Japan’s approach to achieving the SDGs.

Finally, I would like to express my sincere wish for constructive and fruitful discussions in this Conference.

Thank you for your attention.