Hon. Prof Geoffrey Lungwangwa, (PhD), MP Minister of Communication and Transport On behalf of the Government of the Republic of Zambia, my delegation and indeed on my own be-half, I wish to express our profound gratitude to the Government and people of Mexico for the warm wel-come and hospitality extended to us from the time of our arrival. Please also allow me to extend fraternal greetings to all of you, Honourable Ministers, Your Excellencies Ambassadors and Heads of Delegations, Special appreciation and gratitude goes to Dr. Toure and his management at ITU for excellent leadership. I also wish to congratulate you Mr. Chairman on your election. I would like to join previous speakers in congratulating Timor-Leste, the 192nd Member of the Union. Mr. Chairman The Zambian Government has embraced ICT as an en-abler of development. My government launched the National Information and Communication Technology Policy on 28th March 2007 to guide its developmental agenda. In order to stimulate growth and recogniz-ing the evolution of Information and Communication Technologies the Zambian Government has put in place necessary legislation to facilitate growth of the sector. Arising from the stated interventions we man-aged to increase Mobile penetration in the magnitude of 100% within two years. However, it is worthwhile mentioning that this growth has been skewed to ur-ban The Chairperson; Honourable Ministers; Your Excellencies Ambassadors and Heads of Delegations; Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen; areas. This skewed level of ICT penetration has limited the pace of development interventions. In order to promote the widespread availability and us-age of electronic communications services throughout Zambia, and to bridge the digital divide between ur- 186