Friday, 8 October Uganda and postal operators in the region. These regional ini-tiatives implement a range of policies which promote an inte-grated aim at removing barriers to private investment ICT infrastructure for Uganda. by harmonizing our policies in ICT. Uganda also holds the position of Vice Chair to ITU Study Groups 13 and 17 and has over the years played host to a number of ITU meetings. We believe, at this point in time Uganda is ready again to contribute to the development of the sector through the ITU Council. I therefore wish to re-iterate Distinguished delegates, l wish to underscore the commitment of the government of Uganda to estab-lish priorities in the creation of a Ugandan Information Society in a globalized world where information and knowledge are utilized to empower all levels of soci-ety especially our people in rural so as to create a win-win situation. my Government’s request to your Excellencies to support our candidature for election to the ITU Council representing region D. Uganda pioneered in Africa the development of a policy on universal access to communications, lever-aged Your Excellencies, Uganda will on Saturday 9th October commemorate her 48th Independence anniversary. In addition to our invitations already delivered to your Excellencies, let me take this opportunity to make this reminder and say that we look forward to your joining us as we celebrate on Saturday at 6pm at the Intercontinental Hotel. through a rural communications development fund covering both telephony and ICT. I am delight-ed to inform you that since its launch in 2003, the Rural Communications Development Programme has largely been successful with a significant number of our people living in rural areas getting access to basic ICT services. I wish all delegates fruitful deliberations. We have also made significant progress in the tran-sition Thank you. towards digital TV broadcasting. We have covered significant phases of our road map and are confident that we shall meet our target of December 2012 for the switch over. Similarly, ever since Uganda got connected to the undersea cable in 2009, the gov-ernment has continued to roll out the national back bone infrastructure throughout the country in order to leaverage on the enormous opportunities present-ed by the broad band connectivity. I am therefore con-fident that our targets of meeting the MDGs through ICTs will be realized. At the global and regional scene, Uganda has con-tinued to play a critically active role in various ca-pacities. Uganda currently chairs the East African Communications Organization (EACO) which brings together regulators, telecommunication, broadcasting 209