Friday, 22 October very heavy work schedule for the Radiocommunication Bureau, which will also be finalizing the implementa-tion As part of the GCA, we also launched the Child Online Protection initiative, which was endorsed by Council in 2008 and which was the focus of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day in 2009. 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 general and radio technologies in particular – for envi-ronment Before looking ahead to the next four years, I would also like to mention that we have listened carefully to Members’ requests to make our own internal organi-zation monitoring and combating climate change; emergency radiocommunication, including prediction, detection and mitigation of negative effects of natu-ral more efficient and transparent, and to that end and man-made disasters; and achieving equitable we have had annual management retreats since 2008; we have made ITU increasingly a paperless organiza-tion; communication for everyone everywhere, using wire-less technologies for broadband access. we have introduced more financial transparency and better fiscal management; and we have made much more use of the six official languages. 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 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 for-ward 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 leading me through all these years. Valery Timofeev, I very much appreciate what you have done for us. 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. Ladies and gentlemen, As just recognition for the work done by Mr Timofeev, I had decided to award him the ITU silver medal dur-ing this conference 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 informing you that Valery, you have been more than a colleague for me, you are for me a big brother and I appreciate it. We have also looked carefully at how the ITU TELECOM event can be transformed and we look forward to hear-ing 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 hold-ing At the end of 2012 the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly, WTSA-12, will be held con- WRC-12, which of course will require a great deal of preparatory work. This comes on top of what is already a 223