Ladies and gentlemen, As just recognition for the work done by Mr Timofeev, I had decided to award him the ITU silver medal during this con-ference have had annual management retreats since 2008; we have made ITU increasingly a paperless organization; we have introduced more financial transparency and better fiscal management; and we have made much more use of the six official languages. Ladies and gentlemen, As you know, we have a very full agenda over the next three weeks, but I am confident that we will achieve the best possible outcomes from this Plenipotentiary Conference, and that Membership will set the Secretariat and the three Sectors on the right path forward for the future. Concerning the ongoing work of the Union, the three Sectors have already started work on their major events, and in particular the four-yearly events for each of the three Sectors. We have also looked carefully at how the ITU TELECOM event can be transformed and we look forward to hearing feedback on this process from Membership, ahead of the 40th anniversary edition of ITU TELECOM, which will take place in Geneva this time next year. At the beginning of the following year we will be hol-ding here in a ceremony to be done later on this week, along with the outgoing members of the Radio Regulations Board, but since Mr Timofeev has already received a silver medal, so the silver will turn into gold. So I am already infor-ming you that Valery, you have been more than a colleague for me, you are for me a big brother and I appreciate it. At the end of 2012 the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly, WTSA-12, will be held con-currently with the World Conference on International Telecommunications, WCIT. As well as planning and preparing for this major event – or pair of events, I should say – the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau will be looking towards major standards achievements in the areas of home networ-king; smart grids; cloud computing; and ICTs and climate change. In this area, the methodology for estimating the impact of ICTs on climate change has seen excellent su-pport, and looks set to be adopted as the global standard. TSB will also continue in its work to ‘Bridge the Standardization Gap’ by strengthening standard-ma-king WRC-12, which of course will require a great deal of preparatory work. This comes on top of what is already a very heavy work schedule for the Radiocommunication Bureau, which will also be finalizing the implementation of the WRC-07 outcomes. BR will also continue to actively participate in the main ITU activities related to promoting of the use of ICTs in gene-ral capabilities and assisting developing countries. A fund has been set up to support these activities and has seen support from Cisco, Microsoft, NSN and the Korea Communications Commission. The Telecommunication Development Bureau also has a very busy four years ahead of it – starting with the an-nual and radio technologies in particular – for environment Global Symposium for Regulators / Global Industry monitoring and combating climate change; emergency radiocommunication, including prediction, detection and mitigation of negative effects of natural and man-made disasters; and achieving equitable communication for everyone everywhere, using wireless technologies for broadband access. Dear colleagues This is an opportunity for me to express my gratitude to Valery Timofeev, our colleague, the Director of the Radiocommunication Bureau. This is his last plenipoten-tiary Leaders Forum, which will be taking place in Senegal al-most immediately after this Conference ends. November will also see the World Telecommunication ICT Indicators’ Meeting being held in Geneva. Most of the next four years will be spent implementing the resolutions and action plans which came out of the WTDC in Hyderabad, India, earlier this year – and the cycle will then end with another WTDC before we hold the next Plenipotentiary Conference in 2014. Ladies and gentlemen, After looking at the programmes of the Sectors, I would like to again emphasize the following. ITU is nothing wi-thout conference as Director of the Bureau, and I would like to express my gratitude to him personally for the good cooperation and for mentoring me, advising me, and lea-ding its three Sectors and the work being done in these me through all these years. Valery Timofeev, I very Sectors, and as Secretary-General I have been taking cre-dit much appreciate what you have done for us. from you, I heard so many good words about ITU, and credit has been given to me but truly this credit should go 18