Dr Hamadoun I. Touré ITU Secretary-General Mr President, Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates Ladies and gentlemen, Before moving onto other matters I would like to take a moment to commemorate two men who have been greatly influential in ITU’s history. Firstly, I am sure that you will have heard of the sad and untimely passing in February of former ITU Secretary- General Dr Pekka Tarjanne, who held office from the be-ginning of November 1989 to the end of January 1999. Dr Tarjanne was a passionate believer in the power of ICTs to change the world, and was a leading advocate of the ‘Right to Communicate’ as a fundamental hu-man Mr President, Excellencies, right. He was also a close personal friend of many Distinguished Delegates of us here today. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to open my remarks with thanks to Mexico as our hosts, and for the provision of these tremendous facilities here in Guadalajara. I would also like to thank the President of Mexico for being here today to open the Conference; we greatly appreciate your support. You may also have heard of the death of Sir Donald Maitland in August. Sir Donald chaired the Independent Commission for World-Wide Telecommunications Development, which was established in May 1983 fol-lowing the Nairobi Plenipotentiary Conference. The Commission’s report, which was published at the end of 1984, was officially entitled ‘The Missing Link’, but it has always been known as the ‘Maitland Report’. The Maitland Report effectively provided the blueprint for the creation of ITU-D and the Telecommunication Development Bureau. Thanks in no small part to Sir Donald’s work we have now largely achieved his dream of bringing most of the world’s people within reach of a telephone. I would also like to single out one of our Member States, Germany, to congratulate them on the 20th an-niversary of German re-unification. And let me give a special welcome to our newest Member State, Timor Leste, which becomes ITU’s 192nd Member, and brings us up to the same number of Member States as the United Nations, which makes me very proud and happy. Welcome, Timor Leste. So let us now take a moment of silence to remember these two men and their important contribution to the Union. ... 6