The opportunity for ITU to shape the future, and to bring the enormous social and economic benefits of ICTs to all the world’s people. to remote destinations by GPS systems? That we would exchange over six trillion SMS messages this year? That parcels in transit and tin cans on supermarket shelves would be able to let people know where they were? Over the next three weeks we will, of course, define the future shape of the Union. Some of the most unlikely imaginings of science fic-tion have become reality. And I invite you all to do that in the spirit of ITU tradi-tion; a tradition of consensus and transparency built And they have become reality in no small part because of ITU’s work. over a proud history going back over 145 years. We will put in place the strategic, financial and opera-tional Without the efforts made by our Membership, the ra-dio plans that ensure the successful functioning of frequency spectrum and satellite slots that make our organization over the next four years. most of today’s communications possible would not have been made available – and we would not be living in an always-on, always-on-the-move, digital world. But let us also take the time to dream, to imagine, to innovate, and – yes – to create a bright, long-term fu-ture for the ICT sector. The globally-agreed interoperable standards that make technological convergence possible would not have been created. A future that will make our children and our grandchil-dren proud of the work we did here in Guadalajara in October 2010! And the world would not have seen such spectacular and satisfying ICT development. Together, ITU’s membership must take any neces-sary steps to re-engineer and remodel our great or-ganization so that it can defend itself and meet any Excellencies, future challenges as successfully as it has met past challenges. Ladies and gentlemen, The ICT Sector has demonstrated extraordinary resilience and has shown an ability to withstand external shocks in a way that even the financial sector failed to do. Let us be proud of the accomplishments that have been achieved. But more importantly, let us be proud of the work we do here in Guadalajara, and the future accomplish-ments Not only that, the ICT sector has reliably churned out new technologies that leave one wondering whether some day our scientists will run out of ideas. which will be achieved on the basis of the work we do over the next three weeks. When terrestrial networks are knocked down by dis-asters, We have the most extraordinary opportunity. Perhaps a greater opportunity than has ever been offered to such a Conference. satellite communications take over and ensure continuity of service. Following the birth of Wi-Fi and WiMAX, came LTE with its Pico-cells, and now cloud computing reigns supreme! 8